Nudie Cohn
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Nudie Cohn (December 15, 1902 – May 9, 1984) was a Ukrainian-American tailor, known for designing rhinestone-covered outfits to be worn by celebrities.
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[edit] Early life
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 City, where they opened their first store, Nudie's for the Ladies, which specialized in customized underwear for showgirls.
[edit] Opens own business
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 a billboard for Nudie's designs. Cohn eventually dubbed his business "Nudie's of Hollywood."
[edit] Publicity
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 customized 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. One can be found on display in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee.
[edit] Celebrities
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. Also the costumes of the Flemish Country and Folk entertainer Bobbejaan Schoepen were commissioned from Nudie's. Schoepen acquired for his amusement park Bobbejaanland in Belgium two peculiar white Pontiac cars, skilfully decorated with dollars and showweapens.
[edit] Misc
Nudie's enormous Van Nuys lot opened in 1963, and 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.
Nudie had a brief role in Albert Brooks's 1979 movie Real Life as the owner of a prized horse.
[edit] Influences
One of Nudie's protegés, Manuel Cuevas, now runs the similarly flamboyant Manuel Exclusive Clothier. Cuevas was responsible for designing Johnny Cash's black suits, The Beatles' uniforms for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the roses and skeletons insignia of the Grateful Dead, and an inflated lips pillow for Mick Jagger that designer John Pasche modified into the logo for The Rolling Stones.
