It's still cool to be talking about Maverick right? I wanted to share some thoughts and research on the costumes used not just in Maverick but also the original Top Gun from 1986. I'll list some credits at the footer for further reading.

The most iconic piece of clothing from both films will always be the G-1 Jacket, festooned with badges on the back and front. It is not the same jacket however. Sometimes actors hold on to their clothes and they can make subtle appearances in subsequent films. This has gone all the way back to Sean Connery repurposing the suits from Woman of Straw for Goldfinger in the same year. (1964). Or Sly Stallone with his Rocky jackets and fedora hats. (Yo Adrian, it still fits). Perhaps more pointedly, Tom Cruise must have held on to his red, yellow and green leather cowboy boots from Top Gun as he wore something remarkably similar in Days of Thunder years later.

We know this because the original G-1 jacket was sold at auction for $50,000 US dollars. We can see subtle differences in the jacket also. It was famously pilloried for leaving out some of the badges that might have offended the Chinese. However, a report from Deadline says that in the trailer the badges were reinstated in recent trailers but I've not seen any images from the trailers that will confirm that report. (Believe me I've looked).

Perhaps we should start by breaking down the infamous jacket. The original Top Gun jacket was made by Split-S Aviation under B.U.N. order number "43-1776". I don't know who made the Maverick jacket but it’s very much in the same ilk. Made with synthetic fur such as Dynel pile. A comment thread from the video by Real Men Real Style is a very informative place to hang out and I would advise you to read those.

One YouTuber refers to the collar,

“The leather naval flying jacket with fur collar was issued during WW2. It was in 1947 following the war, that the USN gave the jacket the designation "G-1". The G-1 is still current issue both for naval aviators and enlisted flight crew and the current manufacturer is Pharr.”

If you're looking for places to shop frugal alternatives then Alpha Industries lead the way in this department. Allow me to refer you to an article by Nick Guzan form Bamf Style who has broken down the original Top Gun film in nauseating detail.

However, trying to emulate this look for everyday wear will not only fall foul of cosplay, but could be deemed disrespectful to those in the military. Military wear has inspired civilian fashion for a millennia. The jacket itself might not be deemed inappropriate but the assignment of mission badges is very much a step too far.

Ward Carroll YouTube channel. He's a retired F-14 pilot Ward Carroll comments on the badges on his channel as,

“The patches on the Top Gun jacket are just what happens when someone in the wardrobe department for a movie designs a military costume and just pieces things together that looks cool to them but has no experience in that field to get it right. The badges on the new Top Gun jacket are accurate this time around.”

For a very long time there was no standard to the placement of the patches with the jacket or flight suit so finally the Navy addressed that issue as well and issued formal uniform directives for the flight gear which is considered organisation clothing and not just regular uniform items. In 1988 the G-1 was reissued with goat skin and only given to those who had completed military tours.

In 2020 the Navy started issuing a new leather jacket (G-2) to Surface Warfare Officers. It looks very much like the G-1 except it's made of black cowhide instead of brown goatskin and it doesn't have the mouton fur collar. At first glance you might think it's a black A-2 but the buttons on the pockets and lack up epaulettes is a clear distinction between the two. For about two years, 1979-1981, the G-1 wasn't issued due to budgetary reasons and the CWU-45 and CWU-36 were issued instead. All those new pilots issued the Nomex version during this timeframe received the G-1 when the budgetary problem was fixed; this only affected about 2,000 new pilots.

JEANS

When Maverick is recalled under 'orders' to the Top Gun academy it is so as an instructor. For this appointment he wears a sage green CWU-45/P bomber Jacket made of flame retardant Nomex. It the perfect casual jacket for an ageing naval aviator. The bomber jacket features many patches including the U.S flag and a patch that identifies Maverick as a Top Gun instructor (the jacket was most likely a holdover from his last assignment as an instructor that was short lived). The jacket is made of Nomex synthetic material and features a blouson style hem and a short rounded shirt style collar. The bomber is also lightly padded for a little extra warmth.

He pairs this jacket with jeans that were custom made for Cruise by Vince, in a classic straight fit in a cotton/elastane blend for comfort in the DM-01 fit. The medium blue vintage wash recalls the medium stonewash Levi's 501 fit jeans that he wore in the original film. Information on this provided by Iconic Film Style.

SUNGLASSES

Maverick has also hung on to his 1980's Rayban aviator sunglasses that don't have the Ray Ban logo on the right lenses (Ray Ban only started doing this in the very early 1990's). The teardrop style (D-1) is similar to the style worn by James Stewart in The Spirit of St Louis in 1956. The Aviator style was launched in 1929 after General Macready of the U.S military commissioned a manufacturer to assist air force pilots that would reduce glare form the sun that were giving the pilots headaches. The D-1 style was released in 1935, Ray Ban was launched the following year and started selling them in 1936.

THE WATCH

The original film sees Maverick wear a Porsche Design Chronograph 1. This watch is valued at $10-12k but could go for more as it was also used in the sequel. What is interesting is that IWC are clearly paying for product placement in this film. There is a wonderful still frame moment where the pilots are timed with an IWC stopwatch. There is even an advert for IWC X Maverick before the film is shown in cinemas. More information can be found on Watch-ID.Com.