Janet Jackson is such a slave to fashion that she had the program for her latest tour created to look like a glossy fashion magazine, complete with “ads” such as JJNY (Janet Jeans New York), and Janet's Secret. But for the more theatrical costume looks on her All for You tour, the performer worked with New York — based costume designer Frank Krenz.
“For the sort of dark section of the show, she had wanted these Oriental, porcelain masks,” Krenz says. “They have removable jaws that can be manipulated by the dancers and would also stay on their heads during rather violent rock-and-roll numbers. They're built on a substructure with pieces of the masks riveted to them — and then we made the rivets into decorative parts to add to the eeriness of them. Oddly enough, one of her inspirations was the Terry Gilliam movie The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen.”
Jackson's inspiration for the show's whimsical section, as she called it, came from Krenz's own portfolio. “There was this whole strange kabuki section [in the show] and then very opposite,” he explains. “She wanted a moonlit magical forest that turns into enchanted daytime for a medley of four of her songs: ‘Escapade,’ ‘Miss You Much,’ ‘When I Think of You,’ and ‘Runaway.’ We went through all of the fantastical outfits that I had done for 100 different shows, and she pointed out what she liked here and there and we created the costumes for her and the dancers from there. In a way, it was like shopping through my portfolio and putting looks together.”