PAUL ON THE RUN: The Sgt Pepper Suits

www.costumersguide.com
The Sgt Pepper Suits

The Sgt Pepper suits were designed by M. Berman Ltd.

Reference Images

Cover art:

Hello Goodbye video:

Real photos:

John's Sgt Pepper costume has been at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - but it is also known to be in Japan at the John Lennon Museum. It appears to have been lent both places by Yoko, so I don't know if the uniform is no longer in Cleveland if it was in Japan as of May of 2009. Could there be more than one uniform? I've sent an email to the RnR Hall of Fame to find out what I can. Any pics I've seen of this costume at Hard Rock - those ones are fakes - they don't even have 6 stripes across the front like John's did.

This pic is Christina Lautazi's from Japan. She said the costume was a flourescent green!

This pic was taken by manchai, also in Japan. She said I could use it! You can see the macrame'd tie hanging down from it really well. You can see the shoes there too!

Behind the Scenes

Photo Shoot

Beatles Rock Band

They did a really nice job with the Rock Band Pepper costumes, with the exception of the macrame'd lanyard thing which they have connecting to their backs. Not sure why as it only went from the front to the shoulder and we can see from pics that this isn't right. Otherwise though, they seemed to catch everything. It also gives you a nice view of George's painted box thing. I think the also caught Paul's obscure Pioneers badge and the hidden patch on John's right upper arm!

Costume Analysis

All four suits are satin - they have a high band collar which has a tapered front edge, shoulder epaulets, braided rope, from shoulder to front, stripes, buttons, medals and patches. John and George have accents of each other's colors, as do Ringo and Paul. The uniforms are highly individualized.

The backs have no center back seam. They have two side back seams that go from the arm down to near the center back. The sleeves are two-piece, that have a back seam that matches the back seam on the back of the jacket. The jackets have a waist seam. The jacket skirt does not split, but has two back seams with pleats that match the line of the back bodice seam. There is more fringe, and buttons.

There are deep pleats on either side of center back - they line up with the back bodice seams. From that pleat around to the front of the jacket, there don't appear to be any more seams on the jacket skirt. There is a 3" or so dart in the skirt that lines up with the seam seam. You can see it here:

The jackets open in center front with hook and eyes, and have placket underneath to cover gap. The sleeves lined in white, pants lined in white, with colored cuffs turned up, and the jacket lined in self-color.

You can see the length of John's, er, placket here, and you can see Paul's is on the opposite side, possibly because he's left-handed.

Paul and Ringo at least have contrasting color spats. You can't ever really get a good view of what George and John are wearing. Ringo has red shoes with blue spats. Paul has yellow shoes with pink spats. George looks like he has yellow shoes/red too, but I can't see a spat. Johns look yellowish too. Perhaps his are like Paul's, and George and Ringo's are similar? Paul has grey socks, George has black.

Paul wore his Pepper shoes while he recorded Blackbird. You can see them in the video of it:

In this photo from the John Lennon museum, you can see the shoes at the bottom of the pant legs . They look like an orange spat, over green? Considering everyone else's shoes are orange and yellow, these probabaly are too. It look like Ringo and George have matching shoes (orange base), so maybe John and Paul have the same? (Yellow base?)

I did find this postcard where you can see Paul and George's shoes. However, it's from the Hello Goodbye video - so I don't know if these are really his pair because John and Ringo aren't wearing the colorful shoes here and neither Paul or George are wearing spats. But at least you can sorta see them:

I do know of one person who made shoes like this by using colored pvc to cover a pair of shoes!

A good pattern is McCall 4745: http://www.mccallpattern.com/item/M4745.htm?tab=costumes&page=4

This is very close, just use the longer skirt, no center back seam, no center back skirt seam, no opening in back of skirt, no center front buttons, use hook and eyes, slope band collar in front.

I don't know if the buttons on all of the jackets are the same (other than John and Ringo's being gold-tone and Paul/George's being silver). Paul's are the only buttons we can see and they are confirmed to be London Fire Brigade buttons from 1948-1965. There are post 1966 buttons, but they look slightly different. For all I know, the other Beatles may use them, but Paul's are definitely these. You can compare them to the shot of Paul's jacket laid out. Thanks to Chris for pointing me in the right direction for the buttons and Roger for the picture.

For the knotted cord that goes from the epaulet to the buttons, I believe it's macrame cord done in a square knot.

Easy directions here: http://www.elainecraft.com/instructions/instruc.sq.html#squareknot

The result looks like this: http://www.elainecraft.com/instructions/var1.sq.html#squareknotsennit

which looks much like what's on the Beatles costume!

I used 7-8 mm and 3-4 mm Elefant Twist macrame cord. (Orange for John, Lime for George, Plum for Paul, Larkspur for Ringo) . I used the thick stuff was the two center strands - which will give it the right width - and used the thinner stuff to knot with. This gives it less bulk. I'm way happier. Then I used the thick stuff to make the extra loops that hang down. There are two loops and two loose ends with aglets (the cap things) on the shoulder, two knotted loose ends and aglets on the front - and there is one big double loop that goes from one end to the other. Ringo and John have their arms through this loop, which is why you can't see it - but Paul's is hanging in front. If you check out the pics, you'll see.

There are aglets or aiglets or "lacing tips" at the end of the cord. You'll need four. I found a ton of styles here:http://www.grannd.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=GS&Category_Code=cc-lacingtips (I bought the 2" Fancy Etched Gold Aguilettes) and there are a few here: http://www.oddsnsods.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=91.

Here is how I did the macrame. I started out making the knots:

After making the first knot, I laid the cord out as follows, and then I knotted the left end to keep everything in place:

And how I knotted it on the right. Once that is done, you can knot the 2nd end, and cut it off.

Here is what the finished thing looks like! I used the thin cord to macrame in the center using the square knot directions. I tied the cord around at the far right, and then when I finished on the left, I tied the ends together in a loop. I used this loop under the epaulet to hold it on at the shoulder.

Now for a rundown of each Beatle's costume:

John

John's suit is acid green colored - it appears bright green in some shots, but yellowish in real photos of it. Janine made some observations of it at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here they are.

There is shiny satin orange "bias tape" about 3/8" wide that runs along the opening of the jacket from top to bottom on jacket. The orange has faded towards pink. Above the waist seam there is orange grosgrain ribbon next to the bias tape. The same orange grosgrain ribbon is used for the 6 stripes across the jacket. The stripes look glued on. There is thin orange satin piping around the stripes (this is what makes them look appliqued on in photos). At the gold button end of each stripe, the piping twists into one small loop. This same piping is used on the back of the jacket to make that looped pattern along the back seams. The pattern is just like on Paul's jacket. It was impossible to see the whole back at the Hall of Fame, but we're guessing the back waist seam is like Paul's with a piece of fringe, and 2 buttons. There appears to be a stripe of orange trim going down the back of the skirt. We do have this new pic, courtesy of Kevin - you can for sure see the design is the same as Paul's, you can see the fringe, and even the stripe down the back of the skirt!

There is a long thin piece of braided cord hanging down from one of John's buttons. It is orange cord braided (probably macramed) around red cord. It matches the big macramed cord in color. The big one, which goes across the chest is hooked onto the front with a bar hook and eye.

For the piping, I used orange rat tail cord purchased from crafta.com in orange. The fringe I bought on ebay.

John wears 6 medals: a mini-MBE, 3 gold stars, and two silver heads.

I just found an article that says what John's medals are and that they were displayed in Liverpool at Beatles Story!

The first article says: "While Paul McCartney and George Harrison proudly sported their MBEs on the sleeve of 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', John Lennon refused to be pictured with the award he would later return to Buckingham Palace in protest at British involvement in Biafra.

Instead John was seen wearing six medals he borrowed from the family of original Beatle drummer, Pete Best. Lennon, a fan of military paraphernalia, remembered the medals from when the Beatles played at the Casbah Club which was run by Pete's mother Mona. Long after Best had been replaced as drummer by Ringo Starr, John called Best's mother Mona out of the blue to ask if he could borrow the medals for the cover shoot with artist Peter Blake.

The medals which are thought to have belonged to Pete's father John, all date from the Second World War." [The other article claims they belonged to Major Thomas Shaw, grandfather of, Pete Best, but that wouldn't be the right time period if the medals are WWII, which they do seem to be.]

The first article says that from l-r, the medals are:
-Badge of Members of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division)
-The 1939-45 Star (awarded for operational service between theses dates)
-The Burma Star (awarded for service in the Burma Campaign between 11 December 1941 and 2 September 1945)
-The France and Germany Star (awarded for operational service in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Germany from 6 June 1944 (D-Day) to 8 May 1945)
-The Defence Medal (awarded to UK personnel for non-operational service either in the UK or overseas (e.g: India or South Africa)
-The War Medal (awarded to those who had served in the Armed Forces and Merchant Marines full time between 1939 - 1945)

Here are what each of the medals described looks like, from left to right.

Sergey wrote in about the mini medals on John and Ringo's costumes - we have one report on what the medals are. Originally, before that report I think I had said I thought it was an Italy star, but beatlesstory.com said it was the France and Germany star. Anyway, he thinks that the Burma Star and the France and Germany Star are really the Africa Star and the Italy Star. So, no real confirmation one aorwy the other, but something to think about!

I bought my mini-mbe from ebay seller "gaz415". I bought the France and Germany star from ebay seller "militarytailor" (southern@cjmedals.co.uk">, However, I bought most of the mini-medals from R and M International surlamer86@prodigy.net. You might try them first, they may have everything, or nearly everything you need.

Marcia from Cellophane Flowers also found a great source for the medals .

Note that unlike George and Paul's real MBE's, which are civilian, John's mini-MBE has the middle stripe that the military ones have! (And as the article above notes.)

Ringo wears similar medals, they look identical to me - no idea if they were Pete Best's father's too.

The jacket is trimmed with orange fringe that has faded a bit to pink. There is fringe on the edges too. There is grosgrain ribbon above fringe at hem, but not on sleeves. Just on the fringe sleeves, the fringe had a small edge. Probably on the hem this is covered by the grosgrain ribbon. The stripe on the pants was also glued on grosgrain ribbon.

Grosgrain ribbon is that matte stuff with the ribbed texture.

John has white and yellow daisies on both shoulders (a play on "daisy rank" perhaps?)

John's red patch worn on the upper right arm, appears to have the British Coat of Arms on it (I made a lucky guess and found it on google, yay!) See: http://www.answers.com/topic/royal-coat-of-arms-of-the-united-kingdom

Besides them being British, it looks like they might have used this for this reason. (The motto was the inspiration for The Beatles' joke motto Duit on Mon Dei")

Specifically though, I think it is a Mess Dress Warrant Officer Class 1 Badge with the British Coat of Arms.

I find mine on ebay from the seller "battletools" - it took some finding, because they mostly seem to have black backgrounds. Sadly, my auction link is expired, or I would leave it up for reference. Actually, this seller doesn't seem to have them anymore either. Try "shiz999". They have a large stock of them. I'll leave this link up too if it will help. WO1 Badge, Warrant Officer, Army, Mess Dress, Red

On the lower left sleeve, is a very hard to see badge. It took forever to guess at what it was! I went through pages of WWI badges. After much searching, I came across a badge that had a wreath around the outside and a crown inside. And after squinting at these bad pics of the real thing, I really think I'm on the right track. I think that blob in the center is a crown. It's a Warrant Officer Class Two badge. (So he both a Warrant Officer Class One and Class Two badge on his uniform?). I got mine from ebay seller "mmarway". This seller doesn't have them anymore, but "shiz999" does, and in red.

Janine's verdict was that the upper right sleeve patch is correct, as per my guess. It is small. The lower left sleeve patch is also right, as per my guess, it's oval and the one I got was about the right size. It's puffy and bullion like the one I found.

Janine has super sharp eyes and just caught a patch I missed on John's Sgt Pepper jacket. It's hardly ever visible because that shoulder of John's is hidden in nearly every picture. Plus, this patch is not on the costume being exhibited. You can only see it on these outtakes of the album cover shoot. It looks like a coat of arms or warrant officer 1 badge only with a tan background I have to look at my Sgt Pepper calendar and see if I can get a better scan of this image. I found a few on ebay, mostly in the UK. I nearly bought a more expensive one that was listed as being located in Blackburn, Lancashire, just for the Beatle nerdiness of it. Try doing an ebay search for "tan warrant officer badge" or just "warrant officer badge" and see what turns up. Don't forget to try ebay.co.uk.

Here is my making of page for John's costume : http://www.costumersguide.com/maggie_costumes/pepper_makingof.html . Keep in mind I did this before I had Janine's observations, so I appliqued my stripes on instead of glueing on grosgrain ribbon, though I did later put loops of the orange rat tail at the ends of tehs tripes. I didn't do my jacket skirt exactly right either, with the dart. And NO, I don't sell costumes or do commissions. :-)

George

George's uniform is orange with a green stripe on pants, green lace at cuffs, and a green lace ascot. The jacket has5 white or silvery stripes that go across the jacket opening instead of being split by it. The buttons are silver. It has silver fringe on epaulets, green braided rope, a silver pattern on sleeves, and the hem is wavy. He has a matching orange hat with a green feather.

The back of his jacket has the same pattern as Paul's, only in silvery white, likely he has a silver down the back of his jacket skirt, though I hav no pic of it.

George has a wierd box thing on the front - I can't tell what it is though - and he wears his MBE.

Seller "shopbags" or "surlamer86" have repro MBEs, or "British Empire Order 4th class" as they advertise them for about $32. (real to the left, repro from ebay to the right) Chris pointed out that the Beatles had civilian medals, which have the stripes on either side. The ebay one I found has the stripe in the middle, which is apparently for military. But that's the only one I was able to find at the time. Ebay seller "gaz415" has the civilian MBEs but they are 30 pounds.

Marcia from Cellophane Flowers also found a great source for the medals .

I don't think that George has any patches. We can only guess that the back looks like Paul's.

Paul

Paul is in aqua with 5 silver stripes across the front, silver buttons, pink braided cord, pink stripe on pants, silver fringe on epaulet. Silver cording on back of jacket covering the seams. Silver fringe, buttons, and pompoms are in the very back center. He has a stripe on trim going down the center back of the skirt. His jacket has black pompoms hanging from the bottom edge. He has patches, and his MBE. He wears a beaded decoration off one of his buttons. Silver chevrons on his sleeve. Pink spats.

Thanks go to Chris for figuring out that the previously unidentifiable gold pin on the front of Paul's costume is a Grenadier Guards Badge! You can get them on ebay. You want to search for a grenadier badge, not a lapel pin. They are too small.

The OPP on Paul's arm patch means "Ontario Provincial Police". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Provincial_Police You can buy this patch here, near the bottom of the page: http://www.costumecostumecostume.com/patches.htm

On Paul's left side, is green/red patch with white stars. After ~~some~~ a lot of detective work online, I'm fairly sure this is a Southern Command Royal Pioneers badge . I found one online from someone in the UK. These badges are really hard to turn up. I did find out that I could get one custom done for me. The price quoted was £15.00 plus p&p. Contact: dawins@ntlworld.com

On lower center back, there is silver fringe that matches the epaulet fringe, and 3 black pompoms that match the hem trim.

Note the trim on covering the back seam.

He also wears his MBE:

Marcia from Cellophane Flowers also found a great source for the medals .

He has a beaded thing hanging off one of his buttons. I believe it's a beaded necklace. It's sort of folded in half when it's hanging off his button.

There have been a number of pictures of Paul wearing it around. I found some, Sergey found some, and a few are from one of my favorite blogs, http://meetthebeatlesforreal.blogspot.com/.

I don't know if the buttons on all of the jackets are the same (other than John and Ringo's being gold-tone and Paul/George's being silver. Paul's are the only buttons we can see and they are confirmed to be London Fire Brigade buttons from 1948-1965. There are post 1966 buttons, but they look slightly different. For all I know, the other Beatles may use them, but Paul's are definitely these. You can compare them to the shot of Paul's jacket laid out.

Ringo

Ringo is in pink with blue ascot, and blue trouser stripe, blue rope braid. 5 gold stripes across the chest, four gold stripes on lower arms (the lower two look like the trim is backed with something dark, chevrons on upper arm (perhaps WWII chevron?), 3 gold trim stripes at bottom of coat. Gold buttons, small medals like John's, gold fringe on epaulets, patch on lower left arm. Pink hat. And blue spats.

The back of his jacket has the same pattern as Paul's, only in gold, and he has a gold stripe down the back of his jacket skirt.

Here is a closeup of the chevrons on his arm. They kind of match John and Paul's colors!

Here are his medals - I think they are the same as John's. I can definitely make out a mini-MBE by the ribbon color. And then it does look like some stars and then two round ones.I really think they are exactly the same as John's if you compare. See Johns' section for more specifics on the medals.