‘Hair Love’ co-director Matthew A. Cherry and Kim Kardashian are among the winning bidders.
Janet Jackson, who celebrated turning 55 on Sunday, partnered with Julien’s Auctions to sell more than 1,000 items directly from her personal archive. Big ticket items such as the ensemble she wore in the “Scream” music video and her Oscar jacket from the film Poetic Justice were among the items up for bid in a three-day auction.
The auction called “Iconic Treasures From the Legendary Career and Life of Janet Jackson” counted a host of items that marked the singer’s impact on music and pop culture. The outfit she wore alongside her brother, Michael Jackson, in the Mark Romanek-directed classic, sold for $125,000, while her original jacket from the 1990 Rhythm Nation Tour along with a black “1814” cap and attached accessories went for $81,250.
Other items such as Jackson’s silver-tone hoop earring suspending a key worn during her Rhythm Nation days fetched $43,750.
According to Variety, the pandemic was one of the main factors behind Jackson’s treasured items to go up for auction. “She was gonna be locked down, and she just started realizing she has all these things in storage, she never gets to enjoy them,” said Julien’s founder, Darren Julien. “And she wanted to do something good with the proceeds to benefit a charity she cares about. I think it’s been very cathartic for her.”
It’s possible the same could be said for Matthew A. Cherry and Kim Kardashian. The latter posted on her Instagram story that she won the two-piece number that Jackson wore in her Dominic Sena-directed video for “If.” She paid $25,000 for the outfit, writing, “For @janetjackson’s bday bc I’m such a fan I can’t believe I won this outfit.”
For Cherry, the creator of the upcoming series Young Love, his post showing that he’d won Jackson’s Oscar jacket from the 1993 film Poetic Justice was money well spent. “I had to do it,” he replied to another Twitter user after sharing that he’d won the item.
The auction was held live in Beverly Hills, California, with a portion of the proceeds going toward Compassion International, an organization that helps children escape from poverty.
