Moptop haircuts and white shirts worn with slim-fitting suits and ultra-skinny ties, but above all, elegant outfits with a traditional yet revolutionary feel. A style that continues to inspire dandies through the third millennium. We are talking about one - or rather, four - style icons and genuine protagonists of 1960s fashions with a charisma that has influenced menswear through every decade to follow: The Beatles.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr are the four names and faces that brought an extraordinary new wave into international music as well as into fashion, thanks to an unmistakable signature style that could be seen at every concert.
Whether they were wearing loafers, sneakers or the trademark black leather ankle boots - still known as “Beatles boots” - or even natural-coloured destructured, soft, chunky-knit sweaters, single-breasted suits with contrasting lapels, or even their brightly coloured suits with a clearly oriental feel - as they did for the official presentation of Hello Goodbye - the iconic Fab Four could juggle any outfit, thanks to their effortless class and poise.
But the outfits we mostly associate with the Fab Four are their formal looks, with made-to-measure shirts - almost always white - with narrow collars, paired with dark ties, waistcoats, blazers and high-waisted skinny trousers to slim down and enhance the figure. Or total black suits with satin lapels naturally, worn without a tie. Simple styles and formal looks are the two foundations of their good guy look.
Minimalist styles that go past the rhetoric. The unmistakable style that the Beatles made their own, setting a trend and inspiring the greatest designers all over the world, even more than fifty years on.
Even in their 1968 incarnation, with typical flower-power style - bell-bottoms, deliberately scruffy hair, striped shirts or long patterned tunics, they never took a step back from their elegant, chameleon-like stage dress.
Icons from another time or simply timeless icons? Simply, the Beatles.
