Nudie Cohn

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Nudie Cohn (December 15, 1902 – May 9, 1984) was a Ukrainian-American tailor, known for designing rhinestone-covered, and other elaborate outfits, to be worn by celebrities. [1]

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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 appliqué 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". In the 1960s he hired Manuel Cuevas as his head designer.

[edit] Publicity

Nudie Cohn relentlessly publicized himself.[1] 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 many vehicles for GM between 1950 and 1975 with typical Nudie icons, such as silver-dollar-studded dashboards, pistol door handles, and longhorn steer horns on the hood of the car. These were called "Nudie Mobiles", and have become valued collector's items. Most of them were white Pontiac Bonneville convertibles. A Bonneville convertible designed for country singer Webb Pierce 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.[1] And, the band ZZ Top wore them and can be seen on the cover of their 1975 album Fandango! Also the costumes of the Flemish Country and Folk entertainer Bobbejaan Schoepen were commissioned from Nudie's. Porter Wagoner was said to have had some 60 or so Nudie suits in his wardrobe, which he became famous for wearing in performance.

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[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c "A Rhinestone Cowboy Who Grabbed Cars by the Horns.", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-09-25. "Cohn made his mark by adorning Western-cut suits with galaxies of rhinestones, forests of fringe and symphonies of sparkling oversize G clefs. He fitted Elvis in gold lamé; created a shocking ensemble for Gram Parsons, the proto-country rocker, embellished with pills and marijuana leaves; designed hundreds of shirts for the singing cowboy, Roy Rogers; and parked a star-studded 10-gallon hat on Elton John."