Nudie Cohn

File:Gram parsons.jpg

Gram Parsons wearing a "Nudie Suit"

Nudie Cohn (1902 - 1984) was an American tailor, known for designing rhinestone-covered outfits to be worn by celebrities.

Cohn was born in Kiev as Nuta Kotlyarenko and moved to New York as a child. Initially moving to California to become a boxer, he instead worked as an extra and a costume designer. He moved to Minnesota for a while, marrying in 1934. Cohn and his wife Bobbie moved to New York, where they opened their first store, Nudie's for the Ladies, which specialized in customized underwear for showgirls.

Nudie returned to California in 1947, where he talked bandleader Tex Williams into auctioning off a horse to purchase him a sewing machine. Opening a store in North Hollywood, Nudie began designing western-wear notable for its ostentatiousness, including extensive use of rhinestones and themed-appliques. One of his early designs, for singer Porter Wagoner, was a peach-colored suit featuring rhinestones, a covered wagon applique on the back, and wagon wheel piping on the legs. Nudie offered the suit to Wagoner for free, suspecting that having his suit worn by a popular singer would act, in effect, as as a billboard for Nudie's designs. Cohn eventually dubbed his business "Nudie's of Hollywood."

Nudie Cohn relentlessly publicized himself. He is reported to have driven to poorer sections of town and distributed dollar bills with a sticker of his face over Washington's. "When you get sick of looking at me," he'd say, "just rip it off and spend it." Nudie also cusomized 18 Cadillac convertibles with typical Nudie icons, such a silver-dollar-studded dashboards, pistol door handles, and longhorn steer horns. These were called "Nudie Mobiles," and have become valued collector's items.

Many of Nudie Cohn's designs became signature suits for their wearers. Included among Nudie's most famous creations are Elvis Presley's $10,000 gold lamé suit, which the singer wore on the cover of his 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong album. Nudie also designed for Hank Williams' white cowboy suit featuring musical notation on the sleeves and Gram Parsons "Gilded Palace of Sin" suit, which featured pill bottles, pot leaves, naked women, and a huge cross. Many of Roy Rogers' film costumes were also commissioned from Nudie's of Hollywood.

Nudie's enormous Van Nuys lot, opened in 1963, remained open until 1994.

Nudie Cohn was also a well-regarded mandolin player, and released an album of country and popular standards on which he was backed up by such country greats as Dusty Rhodes and Tex Williams.

One of Nudie's protegees, Manuel Cuevas, now runs the similarly flamboyant Manuel Exclusive Clothier. Cuevas was responsible for designing Johnny Cash's black suits, the Beatle's uniforms for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the roses and skeletons insignia of the Grateful Dead, and designed an inflated lips pillow for Mick Jagger that designer John Pasche modified into the logo for the Rolling Stones.

External links

• Nudie's Rodeo Tailors official site
• A Rhinestone Cowboy Who Grabbed Cars by the Horns - NY Times