The Jewish tailor who dressed Elvis
While you may not know the name Nutya Kotlyarenko, you'd certainly know his designs.
Before Elvis had his iconic gold lamé suit, there was Nudie Cohn, a Ukrainian-born Jewish immigrant who became one of the most influential costume designers in music history.
Born Nutya Kotlyarenko in Kyiv, Nudie came from a Jewish family and began apprenticing with a tailor at just eight years old. By 11, he and his brother Julius had been sent to America to escape the antisemitic pogroms sweeping through the Russian Empire. When an Ellis Island official misspelled his name on arrival, “Nudie” stuck, and, as Cohn later reflected, it was the greatest favour anyone had ever done for him.
His early years in America were varied and restless. He worked as a shoe-shiner, an errand boy for Jewish vaudeville star Eddie Cantor, a boxer and a Hollywood negative cutter. He eventually opened a New York atelier crafting embellished costumes for showgirls and burlesque dancers. After the birth of his daughter, the family relocated to Hollywood in 1940, where Nudie began sewing Western-inspired garments on a ping pong table in his garage.
It was the beginning of something remarkable.
His elaborately embroidered, rhinestone-covered “Nudie suits” became the defining look of country music, worn by legends including Porter Wagoner, Hank Snow and Jimmy C. Newman.
Each suit told a story. Crocodiles for “Alligator Man” wagon wheels for Wagoner, nautical motifs for a singer raised near the sea.
His reach eventually extended beyond country music. Keith Richards and Robert Redford wore his designs, as did Ronald Reagan, and Elton John’s iconic look for the cover of Rocket Man was a Nudie design.
His most celebrated creation, though, remains Elvis Presley’s 1957 14-karat gold lamé suit, reportedly containing over 10,000 hand-set rhinestones. Elvis famously disliked it, believing the suit was “wearing him” rather than the other way around, but the suit became one of the most iconic images in music history.
Cohn was as flamboyant in person as his designs. He was rarely seen without a bedazzled suit and, notably, a pair of mismatched boots. It was a habit that, according to his granddaughter Jamie Nudie, was entirely intentional. It was a quiet nod to his humble beginnings as a poor Jewish boy who couldn’t afford a matching pair.
Cohn died in 1984. However, his legacy endures, continuing to be revived today by artists such as Post Malone, Diplo and more. And Elvis’ suit remains one of the most unforgettable looks in music history – created by a Jew who once didn’t own a matching pair of shoes.
comments