One of the most notorious 1960s celebrity boutiques was the Beatles' Apple Shop. Short-lived and financially disastrous, the Apple boutique was envisioned as "a beautiful place where you could buy beautiful things". It opened 5 December 1967 at 94 Baker Street in London, and became an instant tourist attraction due to its outrageous design, including a huge psychedelic three-storey mural. The boutique and its stock were designed by The Fool, a Dutch design collective who created exuberantly dramatic garments that were widely illustrated in the contemporary media.

The shirt has a large label depicting an apple against a starry sky. These full-colour woven silk labels were extremely expensive to produce. Many of the fabrics were also special commissions, which added to business expenses. This brocaded satin jacket and cotton shirt were given to the donor, along with a pair of turquoise velvet trousers (now lost) when he first visited the shop. Such casual generosity was typical. When the shop closed down on 30 July 1968, the Beatles ordered that the general public be allowed to take whatever they wanted for free.