Michael Jackson jacket belongs to Ayr barber

Jul 10 2009 by Edwin Lawrence

IT’S an icon of an age. And Ayr barber Marco Zonfrillo has Michael Jackson’s famous Thriller jacket.

Marco’s jacket isn’t some cheap fake – but an exact replica made by the man who cut out the original.

And Marco, 43, had it sent from America 25 years ago, when he was just 17.

Marco says: “I was teenager blown away by the Thriller video.

“Then I read in Time magazine more about how it was made.

“And I phoned the journalist in New York, from my parents’ house, without telling them.

“The Time journalist told me to get in touch with a tailor called Marc Laurent in Los Angeles.”

After several calls, Marc agreed to make Marco an exact replica of the Thriller jacket.

Marco recalls: “It cost £550 – an absolute fortune for a trainee barber on £30-a-week.

“But the jacket duly arrived in Ayr, and my mum helped me pay for it.”

Marco is well aware that Deborah Landis – wife of John Landis, who directed Thriller – is the woman who actually designed the jacket.

Marco says: “Only two were made – one standard, and one for the zombie sequence.

“And Deborah Landis instructed Marc in exactly how she wanted it cut.”

Marco admits: “I never actually had the bottle to wear the jacket out with my pals.

“It was just something I had to have.

“I later put it in a polythene bag up in the attic – and that’s where it stayed until Michael died.

“That’s when I decided to look it out again, just for old times’ sake.”

Marco’s jacket is just like new – but unlike copies for sale on the internet his is hand stitched by the man who made Jacko’s.

Now a dad-of-three boys – Marco (6), Alessio (4), and Nico (1) – Marco worked in his late dad Leo’s famous Ayr barber’s, Levano’s, for 25 years.

Now Marco has launched his own barber’s shop, and ironically it’s in Lorne Arcade, just off Ayr High Street, where his dad started out.