If you haven’t watched the new Beatles documentary, Get Back, you’ve certainly heard about it by now. Clocking in at eight hours, Peter Jackson’s intimate love letter to John, Paul, George, and Ringo is culled from 60 hours of raw footage from 1969’s Let it Be sessions and is full of revelations for even the most obsessive scholars of the band. I’ve watched the whole thing twice now and each time I wished it wouldn’t end. Of course, that emotion is tied up in the film’s narrative subtext about what happens to a rock group—and obviously not just any rock group—when it approaches the end of its long and winding road.
For decades, the Let it Be sessions were regarded as a time of nasty infighting (George quits!), duelling egos (Paul thinks he’s daddy!), and the divisive presence of Yoko Ono at John’s side. What makes Jackson’s Get Back so great is that it mostly shatters these hardened myths and gives us a close-up glimpse of new information: yes, George walked off, but his bandmates recognised what drove him out and apologised; sure, Paul thinks he’s daddy, but this was a band that desperately needed someone to step up and make the trains run on time; you bet Yoko’s bound-at-the-hip act with John is distracting, but the other members are surprisingly cool about it. And then there’s the music—Get Back is the greatest film ever made about the act of artistic creation. Just watch the evolution from Paul strumming the first licks of the song “Get Back” and how is gradually evolves into the classic we now know.
And then there’s the clothes…Get Back is brimming with some of the nattiest, grooviest, most sartorially fly ensembles you’ll likely ever lay your eyes on. It’s like a candy-coloured eight-hour men’s runway show. Here are our 25 favourite looks….
1. George Gets Shaggy
Harrison was thoroughly on-point on Day 1 of the 1969 recording sessions at Twickenham Studios, arriving in a shaggy black Mongolian lamb fur coat over a dark denim shirt. Think of it as East meets West.
2. Paul Goes Purple
McCartney also arrived on the first day looking especially sharp, even if he wasn’t going for the same eye-catching results as George. Paul had let his beard grow since we’d last seen him and George remarks that it looks good on him. He’s prepared for the cold, damp environment of Twickenham with a navyish-purple mock turtleneck under a slightly fraying black vest no doubt nicked from one of his old suits.
3. Ringo…or Austin Powers?
On Day 4, Starr and Harrison arrive at the studio before the others and discuss a strange sci-fi movie that they’d seen on the BBC the previous night. George (in an autumnal-hued ascot) seems to have a better handle on the plot, but Ringo takes the style points in the scene thanks to his royal blue Carnaby jacket with a black Chesterfield collar.
4. Lennon’s Henleys
John seems to be the Beatles least interested in making a bold fashion statement throughout Get Back. Not that he doesn’t have his moments, but he’s clearly more interested in being comfortable than being a peacock. Over the course of the film, he’s usually wearing a long-sleeve Henley (the purple and green ones are our favourite) under a vest.
5-7. Glyn Johns: Fashion plate.
Johns was the mutton-chopped co-producer of the Let it Be sessions and he’s a constant presence in Jackson’s film, whether joking around with the band or behind the glass in the control room. And while he may not be a household name to some, the man could put together an outfit. His white lamb-fur coat is the abominable snowman yin to Harrison’s black version yang; his black patent-leather crocodile skin-patterned leather jacket is straight-up badass; and his rainbow-coloured ascots make Fred from Scooby Doo look like Mr. Drab.
8. Wishing George’s pink turtleneck was I, Me, Mine
Even if you aren’t a Beatles nut hanging on every second of Get Back, there’s a giddy element of suspense as Harrison arrives at the studio every day: What will he be wearing this time? On Day 2, George doesn’t disappoint with this cozy bubblegum pink turtleneck sweater (he later sports a similar one in a shade of yellow we’ll call “Mean Mr. Mustard”). Apparently, 1969 was all about turtlenecks.
9. Paul’s Overcoat at the Piano
On Day 6, McCartney arrives early (John usually seems to show up last) and uses the extra time to take a seat at the piano and try out different variations of “Another Day” and “The Long and Winding Road.” Even unfinished, the songs are gorgeous. So’s the man’s overcoat. Even with greasy, unshowered hair and his shaggy beard, McCartney is drop-dead in a camel coloured coat with a burgundy windowpane pattern over his black turtleneck. The next day, he’ll add a Harry Potter scarf to the ensemble while chatting about sheet music royalties with one of their label’s accountants.
10. Ringo loves red satin more than India
In Episode 2, Starr shows up at the Apple studio in a shiny red satin shirt buttoned to the top under a black blazer. That morning he also takes delivery of a bouquet of flowers sent by the Hare Krishnas (who Ringo calls “those people”). This prompts the man sitting next to Ringo to ask about his time with the Maharishi in Rishikesh the previous year: “Do you like India?” To which Ringo deadpans, “No, not really.”
11. Paul’s across-the-universe shirt
Moments after Ringo dunks on India, McCartney arrives with wife, Linda Eastman (who sports some outstanding cable-knitty togs herself, BTW). On this particular day, Paul sports a button-down black silk (or possibly more flammable polyester) shirt with pink swirls and microdots—a groovy proto-Disco era statement piece that would easily look at home on John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever eight years later.
12-13. Billy Preston brings some good vibes
After George quits the band and is talked back into returning, the Beatles are still tense and under the wire with their deadline to finish their still-uncertain album/movie/concert project. Then, like the sun breaking through an ominous sky of dark clouds, in walks Billy Preston, the pianist/organist they’d met years earlier when he was playing for Little Richard. Preston’s arrival is like a spark of joy that makes the band stop focusing on their problems and actually enjoy each other’s company and the process of making music (Preston’s funky organ fills on “Get Back” are just one example of what he brings to the Beatles). No slouch in the clothes department himself, Preston walks in the coolest black leather jacket of the ‘60s. Later, he also wears an amazing yellow-and-orange Tequila Sunrise striped shirt.
14. Lennon’s limo exit
On Day 10, John and Yoko pull up in front of the Apple offices in a white Rolls Royce. A pair of young female Beatles groupies are waiting outside as John steps out in a tabby-brown fur coat, black stovepipe pants, and beat-up white tennis sneakers. It’s a look.
15. Ladies and gentlemen, George Martin…
The Beatles’ longtime producer pops into the studio from time to time and presents the viewer with a counterweight to all of the paisleys and purples. His style is pure old-school Saville Row: tailored suits, starchy shirts, dark skinny ties, and parted-and-pomade-slicked hair. The man is dapper as hell.
16. Speaking of paisley...
My favourite Ringo look comes early in Episode 2, when he walks into the studio in a pink paisley-esque cowboy shirt, worn blue jeans, a black blazer, and stoplight-red socks. He looks ready for a hoe-down in an Octopus’ Garden.
17. The Rainbow Connection
Lennon may not have been the biggest clothes horse in the band during this period, but he does pull one gem of a shirt off the hanger in Episode 2—a baby blue oxford with rainbow stripes. The selection seems to match his mood since he wears it on what appears to be his happiest, jokiest, most light-hearted day of the sessions.
18. Mellow Yellow
Paul looks the coolest granddad of all time in this lemon-yellow shirt under a camel V-neck sweater vest.
19. Transcendental footwear
George was always the Beatle with the biggest interest in Eastern religion and mysticism. And that influence could be seen right down to his toes when, in Episode 3, he busts out these awesome Tibetan shearling boots.
20. More from George.
We told you Harrison was the Beau Brummel of the band. Just check out this rad pink pinstripe suit with rounded collars and dark-pink buttons with a purple ruffled shirt underneath. He looks like he’s heading to the most happening and mind-expanding prom of 1969.
21. Not to be outdone…
It turns out Ringo could play that game, too. On Day 19, as the rocky Let it Be recording sessions are finally nearing the finishing line, Starr attempts to one-up Harrison with this lime-green suit over a dark green ruffle shirt. Close, but no cigar, Ringo.
22-25. Come Together: The rooftop concert.
While the band has been cobbling together the songs that will become the Let it Be album, the filmmakers scramble to find a location to perform and shoot the climactic final scene—an indelible live concert where the Beatles will play the music we’ve just watched them write and rehearse and shape and reshape. Various locales are floated, including an ancient amphitheater in North Africa. In the end, they famously end up on the Apple rooftop for their last live performance ever. This is one of the greatest moments in pop culture history. And, as you would expect, the boys are all outfitted in their own idiosyncratic styles: John in his tabby-brown fur coat over a black zip-up sweater and those beat-to-shit sneakers; Paul in a black suit and a striped dress shirt open at the collar; George in lime green pants, his black Mongolian lambs’ fur coat, a bright red short, and black Chuck Taylors; and Ringo in a shiny red raincoat that hints at the storm that would lead to band’s end within the year.
