Working in Hard Rock’s central memorabilia warehouse, deep in the swamps of Florida, we’re surrounded by some of the most significant pop cultural treasures of the last 100 years. It’s exciting as hell, but every once in a while we redecorate one of our far-flung locations and bring back the memorabilia that’s been there for years. Those days are truly special. We get to rediscover pieces that we haven’t seen in ages.

Recently, we brought back the memorabilia from one of our Australian locations and uncovered what may be the single greatest piece of wardrobe in our collection – John Lennon’s suede jacket from the cover of Rubber Soul. Pieces like this really resonate with the soul of the artist. This jacket truly represents John’s transformation from “mop top” pop star to serious artist. Needless to say, we were all jaw-dropped over this simple brown jacket. It’s funny how something so innocuous can affect you so deeply.

When Russ Lease, founder of beatlesuits.com and an editor at Beatlology magazine, found out that the jacket was back in the States, he immediately contacted us about paying a little visit to spend some quality time with it. Russ is probably the foremost authority on Beatle wardrobe and we had a great time discussing minutiae, like Beatle nerds love to do. Look for his article soon. Here’s the Rubber Soul jacket in all its simple glory…