In the video for his blockbuster debut single “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X sparkles in an eye-
popping multicolored cowboy suit, with macho side-kick Billy Ray Cyrus crushing it in
shocking- pink buckaroo style. Since then, Beyonce, Orville Peck, Brandi Carlile, and Post
Malone have also joined previous generations of artists going back to Hank Williams, George
Jones, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Janis Joplin, Elton John, and Jack White who’ve worn
custom-made embroidered and fringe-flying finery to personify their music and their image. The
original name for such attire? The Nudie Suit. Where did that name come from? How were such
stage clothes used to define an artist’s image, background, and song catalogue? And how did
such a distinctive sartorial style evolve from the look of white male singing cowboys and C&W
stars to adorn a diversity of today’s artists? Those are the topics of our proposed roundtable
discussion, “The Nudie Suit: Past, Present, and Future.”
We’ll start with Nutya Kotlyrenko (1902-1984), the son of a Jewish bootmaker who immigrated
from the Ukraine to New York in 1913 – renamed “Nudie” Cohn at Ellis Island. Nudie spent
decades hustling on show-biz margins (vaudevillian Eddie Cantor’s errand boy, featherweight
boxer, B-movie extra) and the garment business – opening Nudie’s for the Ladies, where Times
Square burlesque queens ordered their rhinestone G-strings. In 1949, Nudie established a North
Hollywood shop where singing cowboys and country & western stars congregated and ordered
custom finery. Nudie’s designs reflected the American melting pot, including elements from
Eastern European/Slavic, Mexican, North African, and Native American traditions, combined to
create unique folk-art masterpieces. One of three eastern European immigrants who helped shape
our notion of fancy western attire, Nudie took the trend for elaborately decorated western
garments to new heights, utilizing the rhinestones he first encountered in burlesque. From 1949
to 1983, Nudie designed hundreds of eye-catching suits, including Elvis Presley’s gold lamé
tuxedo with rhinestone-studded lapels. Embellished with figurative embroidery, gems, and
metallic threads, Nudie’s flamboyant costumes became de rigueur among Grand Ole Opry stars
and celluloid cowboys like Gene Autry. Nudie’s head designer in the late ‘50s, Manuel Cuevas,
was followed by fellow Mexican immigrant Jaime Castaneda. Behind the scenes, women such as
Rose Clements and Nudie’s wife Bobbie were also responsible for much of the imaginative
embroidery.
In effect, Nudie Suits were the precursor of the music video, with clever embroidery illustrating
a hit song - like Webb Pierce’s “In the Jailhouse Now” outfit, decorated with a buckaroo behind
bars - or a performer’s personal symbols - such as Opry star Porter Wagoner’s embroidered
wagon wheels - or Gram Parsons’ provocative sex, drugs & rock & roll imagery. Parsons’ “Sin
City” suit, embroidered with cannabis leaves and pharmaceuticals, as well as outfits made for
Elton John, the Byrds’ Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn, Janis Joplin, and members of the
Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, and Grateful Dead took the suits to a new audience. “A Nudie Suit was
a walking canvas,” says Chris Hillman. Janis wrote to a friend, “I’m getting a pants and vest
outfit. Purple w/flowers & scroll work, encrusted w/all sorts of colored rhinestones. Real flashy
colored rhinestones!” Though the suits fell out of fashion in Nashville, they were brought back in
the ‘80s by upstarts Marty Stuart, Dwight Yoakam, and Chris Hillman and his Desert Rose Band,
who began ordering custom gear from Manuel and Jaime. Yet another generation’s embrace was
hinted at in 2018, when Grammy-nominated Kesha wore a vintage Nudie suit on the Red Carpet
and in 2019 when Gillian Welch and David Rawlings performed at the Oscars in matching
vintage Nudies. Today artists like Beyonce, Post Malone and Orville Peck have embraced their
own Nudie suit style.
Our lively roundtable discussion will include appropriately attired experts on Nudie suits and
those who wear them. We’ll hear behind-the-scenes stories about the evolution of the Nudie suit
and how it’s been used to convey diverse messaging from performers. We will present dazzling
images of Nudie suits from the 1950s to today.
