Crafting The Beatles’ Signature Style: German Existentialism, Seedy Fairgrounds, and French Hair

If you’re going to be a world sensation, then it might help to be, well, worldly. And while they might have come from the once world-leading port city of Liverpool, The Beatles at their youngest and greenest weren’t exactly the image of sophistication. They were in their late teens and early twenties, more than a little rough around the edges, and, in a sense, cutting their teeth by cosplaying as American rock ‘n’ rollers, like Elvis Presley.

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From the blues-influenced rock music that they played to their high-rise, slicked-back pompadours, the version of The Beatles that played in Hamburg nightclubs in the early 1960s was a far different group than the one that “debuted” in the States on the Ed Sullivan Show. And for that style metamorphosis, we have a German photographer, a group of hip existentialists, seedy fairgrounds, and French fashion to thank.

Astrid Kirchherr Helped Fashion The Beatles’ Iconic Moptop Look

In a strange twist of fate, German photographer Astrid Kirchherr was introduced to The Beatles by her boyfriend, with whom she had been recently quarreling. Shortly after their spat, the boyfriend, Klaus Voormann, decided to blow off steam by listening to some live music. When he arrived at a nightclub to hear The Beatles playing, he went and found Astrid and returned with her and a small group of friends. Voormann, Kirchherr, and their friends quickly became fans, then friends, then colleagues of The Beatles.

“Astrid was so loving,” George Harrison recalled in Anthology. “She’d take us home and feed us. She helped us a lot, even just to let us have a bath. Astrid was twenty-two at that time, and I was seventeen. She seemed so much older than me and so grown up.” He continued, “It was really good for us to meet them. They were more cultured than the locals. We learnt more from them at that point than they learnt from us, including style.”

While The Beatles were still donning their usual Liverpudlian duds, Kirchherr and her friends (who called themselves Exis, short for Existentialists) were wearing high-quality German leather and short shag haircuts, popular in France. Stuart Sutcliffe, who was still a member of The Beatles at the time, was the first one from the band to ask Kirchherr to cut his hair into a distinct moptop style. Eventually, everyone in the group followed suit.

This iconic style, along with early photographs that Kirchherr took of the band, clad in leather atop grungy fairground equipment, turned into The Beatles’ signature look. Much like their Liverpool hometown, the young musicians received and adopted the culture of multiple countries and turned it into their own distinct aesthetic.

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images