rocky horror jacket no. 1

“Give yourself over to absolute pleasure. Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh. Erotic nightmares beyond any measure - and sensual daydreams to treasure forever.”

“Fanfare” by Richard O’Brien (1975)

I first saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show when I was a freshman in high school in 1998. I was 14. I think that’s a little older than I would have like to have seen it, given the choice, but that’s just the way things are. I was raised in a strict, religious and sheltered environment. So to say that it made an “impression” on me, seeing it for the first time, would be an understatement. It was strange, different, hilarious, and even uncomfortable at times. Since then, I’ve seen Rocky Horror countless times and yet it never gets old. Let’s get to know Rocky Horror a little bit and then I’ll get into how I got the idea for and how I went about making this beautiful - and heavy - piece.

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is a cult classic musical film released in 1975, directed by Jim Sharman and based on the 1973 stage musical of the same name by Richard O'Brien. The film's plot revolves around a young engaged couple, Brad Majors and Janet Weiss, portrayed by Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon, who stumble upon a strange castle after their car breaks down on a stormy night.

The castle is inhabited by an eccentric and sexually liberated group of characters led by Dr. Frank-N-Furter, played by Tim Curry, a mad scientist from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania. As the night unfolds, Brad and Janet find themselves caught up in a bizarre world of science fiction, cross-dressing, and seduction, leading to a series of wild and unpredictable events.

The film features a colorful cast of characters, including Riff Raff (Richard O'Brien), Magenta (Patricia Quinn), Columbia (Nell Campbell), and Rocky Horror (Peter Hinwood), each with their own unique quirks and characteristics.

The performances in the film are known for their campy and over-the-top style, with Tim Curry's portrayal of Dr. Frank-N-Furter standing out as an iconic and unforgettable performance.

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has achieved enduring cultural significance as a midnight movie phenomenon. It has become a staple of counterculture and LGBTQ+ communities, celebrated for its themes of sexual liberation, gender fluidity, and self-acceptance. Audience participation during screenings is a hallmark of the film's legacy, with fans dressing up as characters, shouting callbacks, and even using props during the showings.

The film's soundtrack, featuring songs like "Time Warp" and "Sweet Transvestite," has also become a beloved part of pop culture. Over the years, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has cemented its place as a beloved cult classic that continues to entertain and inspire audiences to embrace their inner eccentricities and celebrate diversity.

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The inspiration to put something on a leather jacket came from an artist on Instagram. I couldn’t tell you the name of the artist, because I didn’t follow his page. It was just one of those random recommendations I looked at. One of his art forms was painting leather and denim jackets in various colors and overall looks - writing phrases and such all over them as well. He also distressed them a bit to look aged and worn. I thought they were cool, but they weren’t exactly my thing. But from there, I took the idea of using a leather jacket as a medium to paint on - something that had never crossed my mind before. A while ago before that, I saw paintings being made from layered stencils on a video online. Combining those two together gave me the idea to make themed pieces to wear.

Although I didn’t have any of the actual processes worked out for the actual creation of them yet, I started a list of all the ideas and themes that came to mind. It’s a big list. Then it came time to pick one as “Number 1”. Since I create things that I myself want, I picked Rocky Horror first. I remembered the biker and leather themes in Rocky Horror and figured it would be a fitting (and maybe easy…lol) aesthetic for a first jacket to work with.

I first started by designing the jacket’s details on my computer. So I found a biker jacket pattern online that had a front and back to it and edited it in Phototoshop to look identical to the cuts of the actual jacket I’d be using. I worked at placing the main ideas and eventually got here.

I didn’t worry about getting every single detail on the mockup. I just wanted to have a general idea to work with and then iron out the details as I went.

The next thing to do was to decide on a main back design. Although I had seen Rocky Horror about a thousand times, it’s not like I already had an exact shot or composition picked out. So I first had to watch the movie…again - but watch it with a different purpose than before. This time, I was to specifically pay attention to the character blocking and image compositions. I alrerady knew Frank was going to be a part of the main design (how could he not?), so it was the scenes he was in that I watched first. When I found different parts I thought looked good as a single frame, I’d take a screenshot and save it as an option. Here are a few options that didn’t make the cut.

After much deliberating, I decided on a frame from the scene where Frank is talking about the moment he discovered the spark of life itself, flanked by Magenta and Columbia. After taking the screenshot, I imported it into photoshop and turned it into a simpler image. One that I could slice into layers. This was the starting image:

Since the goal was to make an image with layering stencils, the next thing I had to do was split it up into the actual layers. After the splitting of the layers in Photoshop, I was able to turn on and off each layer and save them as individual layer images. I numbered them according to layer, and it looked like this in the folder after it was finished.

These individual layers could then be imported into Cricut Design Space and cut into stencils with my Cricut Maker 3 - I bought one specifically for this project. Although it’s a little tough to see in the above picture, each one of the layers has lots and lots of little pieces to them. One thing that the pictures don’t show is the amount of time it took to make each layer “make sense” as a stencil. You see, when you make a layer from the edited/simplified image, you select a specific shade of grey and Photoshop selects it for you. Then you can do what you want after. Unfortunately, sometimes pixels and lines run into each other. When Cricut Design Space tries to pre-process the layer image before plotting, it shows errors in the design highlighting it in red. It’s nice because it saves you from wasting stencil film by acting as a final checker for you.

So after doing a few corrections in each layer, the next step was to load up the Cricut Maker 3 and get these stencils cut.

This was actually the my first time cutting anything from my Cricut - other than the test you run when you fire it up for the first time. Since I go in with a layer plan created through Photoshop and Cricut’s user interface is easy to use, this was not a hard task at all to get done. Also, I really liked the media I used on these stencils. I think I got these from Joann Crafts just to hold me over until my bigger order of plastic sheeting came in.

I usually like to take pictures of the things I do as I go, but there were a lot of stencils to create and I didn’t end up taking pictures of all the stencils as I cut them, but here are all the digital stencils that needed to be cut.

Finally, after all that was done, it was time to start painting.

The first thing I needed to do was prep the leather to receive paint. Since it had a glaze on it, I needed to remove it or the paint could fall off easily after it dried. I used 70% isopropyl alcohol and a washcloth. I just rubbed away until the whole jacket was matte. (Insider info: Since making this jacket, looking back, I could/should also have sanded it a bit with a light sandpaper - 250 grit more than likely.)

After getting the glaze off, I masked off all the hardware. I took a quick picture of that and then masked off where the paintings were going to be and then started flinging red paint.

In the film, Eddie (played by Meal Loaf) is killed in a “mercy killing” by Frank…with an axe. The splattering of the red paint as the first part of the jacket’s painting symbolizes the killing of Eddie and adds to the overall aesthetic of this jacket.

I wanted to get to painting so bad. BUT…I told myself I wouldn’t start putting paint to the jacket until I had finished all the stencils. So I hunkered down for hours and hours, extracting images, editing and separating them into layers, plotting, cutting and peeling stencils.

One thing I forgot to say before I started flinging paint is that in order to keep paint from getting all over everything, I create a makeshift paint booth/room using masking plastic first. I use the 3M plastic used for masking windows on houses. A little goes a long way. It’s cheap, ($20ish a roll), fast to set up, and faster to tear down and throw away. Much more convenient than using canvas drop cloths.

After I finished putting the red paint on, I left it to dry for the rest of the day. After drying, it was time to get the main designs on. I started with the back design. I used coins to weigh down different parts of the stencils, to keep the overspray down to a minimum.

Layer 2 (Layer 1 was just black).

I unfortunatley don’t have shots of applying layers 5 and 6. As I was painting this jacket, I was shooting with 3 different cams: my cell, a DSLR, and a digital point-and-shoot. The cell phone died a horrible death sortly after finishing the jacket and I lost a few of the creation pics. I’m just glad I take so many on everything.

Anyways, the spray paint I was using was pretty quick in drying and I only needed about 10 to 15 minutes between layers. Side note: each stencil also had additional masking around them to prevent any overspray from making its way around the jacket.

After layers 5 and 6 were dry, I added the lettering.

Magenta’s lips were the next item up for painting. At first, I had a hard time deciding where to put it. Although the left (wearer’s right) side of the jacket only had one zipper, the panel wasn’t as large, due to the asymmetrical cut of the main front zipper. I decided to put it on the right panel over one zipper. I thought maybe the zipper would be a distraction, but then decided I was just being silly. There was plenty of leather over the zipper. I was super happy how it looked after I finished it.

The next painting to tackle was Brad and Janet. The location of the painting was going to be challenging - since the stencil could not lay perfectly flat. I chose the front of the jacket at the bottom and split them by the zipper. The pocket was challenging but I used extra coins as weights and sprayed away. I found this to be a stressful bit and I remember not taking pictures during this time, except for the placement of the first stencil and didn’t take another photo until it was done - and I could breathe again.

After painting Brad and Janet, I packed it on for the night. I remember it getting pretty cold at this point. I brought the jacket in and hung it up. To me, now, it seems funny looking back at it without all the work finished.

Note: Here you can see I originally had the paintings for “Boss” and the “symbol of the Commander” (lighting bolt in a circle) plotted in reverse on the sleeves. I would never have forgiven myself if “Boss” would have ended up on the wrong side. I switched them.

The last thing I shot with spraypaint was the symbol of the Commander. It was a simple one-layer painting and was done with one shot of white. Unfortunately, that was also shot taken on the phone that didn’t make it. You can see the stencil for it above.

At last all the paintings were done. The next thing to do was protect the paint by sealing it all back in since I removed the protective layer/gloss earlier. I used Angelus High Gloss Acrylic Finisher to seal it all in. I layered on 3 coats, I believe. Once it was applied, it really shined, and smelled good, too.

So now that the “hard” part was over (lol), I had to mark and install lots of studs and spikes. When I was researching exactly how I was going to stud the jacket, I saw a video where people were using sharpened dinner forks with the middle prongs cut off. They were then bent to the spacing of the different sized studs - as the widths of the stud prongs vary based on the overall stud size. So I made 2.

The next thing to do was mark the first section I’d be working on. I chose the rear upper panel, above the lettering of the main design. I used a tailor’s/sewing tape measure to first mark the bottom row of dots. In order to uniformally stagger and expand the rows of studs, I made a small stencil to match the existing dots. All I had to do then was place the stencil, make the dots, and keep going until the whole panel was filled.

This is not the exact stencil I used for the panel I did first. That one got really worn out and had to get thrown out. This is the one that was used for the small round studs on the front torso panels, but this gives you an idea of what I used to space the hardware, accurately and quickly.

Here, the upper back panel is marked before the studs are applied. I used a white gel pen to make the marks. I liked it because the ink flows effortlessly from the pen without applying pressure. It was also very easily seen over the black. Lastly, it cleans off with a quick wipe from a damp washcloth with nearly zero effort. Truly a perfect tool, I think.

After marking the upper section, it was time to start piercing the leather with one of the forks I had modified.

Ah, very important to note, too: When I decided to make the jacket, I knew I had to make it so the studs don’t go through the inner liner. It would make the wearer feel the metal directly on the skin - unacceptable. In order to go through the leather and not the liner, I used a seam-ripper to cut open the rear lower seam at the waist. This gave full access to the inside of the jacket - all the way to the wrists in the sleeves, front and back.

Once time to start punching through leather, I took a small paperback novel (not a good one, really...it was terribly written and was easily sacrificed/repurposed), used it as a protective backstop, and stabbed away.

At this point, I put the camera down and got to work. The fork pierced through rather easily and I was able to work a small section at time. After poking the holes, I’d put the stud through and platten the prongs on the inside of the jacket with the tip of a butter knife. I worked until I finished the panel.

This section was my first attempt at studding, and I was really happy with it, but there was little time to celebrate - there was so much more to do. I got to work on the lower back section and using the same method and spacing and without as much time, I finished that section, as well.

It was nice having the back finished and it motivated me even more to push on.

The next thing I had to do was work on the small studs for the lapels. In order to plot the marks for them, I had to mock up the buttons and pins . This let me know where the buttons stop since the rear of the collar was to be studded as well. The right (to the wearer) lapel was also planned to have a larger Frank button on it surrounded by studs, so this needed to be marked for.

After the buttons and pins were placed, I started marking the first lapel (the left, to the wearer) and started punching through. This section was more difficult than the rear, by far. The density of the studs coupled with needing to punch through 2 layers of leather are what made this a bit more of a challenge. But after getting used to the doubled layers of leather, it went by rather smoothly. In order to achieve a tight density, I used 3 evenly spaced holes for each 2 studs, rather than 4. The “middle” hole was used for each of the adjacent studs and was secured normally, flattened with the butter knife. After the left side was done, I did the right. I marked the outer limits of the button and then marked and studded the rest, leaving the inside of the circle empty. After studding the right side, I replaced the Frank button to its spot.

After doing the lapels, I wanted to do a section that didn’t require as much concentration, so I decided to do the front torso next.

It didn’t take too long to get both sides of the front knocked out. Keep in mind, any time I sat down to work on this jacket, I always made sure to have a movie playing. Most times when I’m doing any project or editing on the computer, I have to have a movie playing. Nothing too serious. Usually, one of a dozen or so musicals I’ve seen a thousand times before. I just need the background noise and familiar music playing to break the silence while I work.

As you can see above, after I finished the torso, I got the entire left sleeved marked out and ready to start applying the spikes. This was going to be a little different than the studs, because each spike only required 1 hole rather than 2. I started at the top with the taller spikes, according to the original plans.

Since the spikes only required one hole, I initially used a pick tool to punch the holes. Although it was working just fine, I reverted back to using the razor blade. It was faster and less stressful on the hands.

One of the other nice things about the spikes is how they attach - simple threaded screw. That’s it. In 2 shpts above you can see I use a screwdriver bit to hold the screw. I bring it through the cut hole (I made an “x” for the spikes) through the inside and screw it by hand from the outside. In order to ensure the hand torque is more than enough to hold on, I made sure to add a drop of red Loctite to every screw. Ain’t none of ‘em coming off. Ever.

From here down for both sleeves, it was pretty easy - time consuming - but easy. Cut the “x”, guide the screw through the jacket to the “x”, push through, hold, drop of Loctite, hand scew until tight. Repeat. A lot. I did cut about 10 “x’s” at a time to try and be efficient, so maybe that helped.

Like any long, repetetive tasks, one bite at a time was all it took to get through both sleeves. Many movies were watched.

After the sleeves were done, I just had to knock out the rear of the collar, and the main body would be nearly finished.

Since I had already perfected my method for dense studding through 2 layers of leather, I was able to get through the collar without much stress. One at a time until it was also done.

One thing to note from this picture: I thought I was finished with the collar, which is why I snapped the shot. I ended up adding another layer of 4 studs on each side to better follow the contour of the neck .

At this point the main body was 95%. I hung it up and took some photos.

The last part to do on the main body were the tabs on the shoulders. Funny part is, I never actually had any sort of plan for these - one of those details to “iron out later” popping up. So I just did a single-double pattern across them until they were done. These didn’t take much time at all and I really liked the checkered look.

Finishing the shoulder tabs also marked the end of the main body. Although relieved that it was done, I knew I had the last hard studding task left - the belt.

This was another part of the jacket that didn’t have a pre-planned studding pattern. I wanI knew I wanted to use multiple styles, so I chose pyramids and small circles. I played around with the available space and decided on the pattern: Small circles across the perimiters with alternating pyaminds and circles in the middle.

After deciding on the pattern, I studded the big section of the belt before taking the first picture.

I contunued the pattern through the rest of the length, and used a row of pyramids for the smaller straps where it attaches to the jacket.

The last task for the jacket was to sew up the seam I ripped earlier to access the inside of the jacket. I used a backstitch for the length - it took me a bit.

But finally…DONE.

I took this photo as the first 100% done shot.

Since the very beginning of the project, I needed a place to put all of the stencils that were created - not just as a place to keep them before they got painted with, but a place to keep them after they were used. I intended to archive them. I used a large black sheet of thick presentation paper, folded it in half making it into a folder and labeled it “Rocky Horror #1” in silver paint marker. You can see the folder in the shot I took after I signed the jacket.

Since the completion of the jacket, 9 months ago, the archive folder remains a closely cherished collection of work on it’s own, and I love having it.

Here’s the folder today with all the goodies from the making of Rocky Horror #1.

In the end, as the last bit of paint, the last spike and the last studs found their place onto the jacket, I still marvel at the 300 hours it took to bring this creation to life. Each spike, each stud, each stencil tells a story—a tale of late nights, creative leaps, and the undeniable thrill of crafting something truly extraordinary.

This project wasn't just an artistic pursuit; it was a journey into the unknown, where the thrill of the unexpected mingled with the risk of imperfection. After all, it's often in those daring moments (yes, to be daring in art) that true masterpieces emerge, born from the willingness to take that leap, even if it means facing the prospect of a making an ugly mess of it all.

Much like the iconic characters of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, this jacket has its own flamboyant personality. It embodies the spirit of daring self-expression, a touch of rebellion, and a whole lot of glam. From the initial spark of inspiration to the final embellishment, it's not just a garment - it's a manifestation of artistic exploration.

Looking forward, my mind is already buzzing with ideas for future projects. The next jacket awaits, promising new themes, and new challenges, I’m sure.

Here's to the timeless magic of Rocky Horror and the universal truths it imparts—be bold, be yourself, and revel in the joy of creation.