Ablaze with vibrant colors and sparkling with rhinestones, country music performers have been lighting up stages and turning heads in spectacular, custom-designed Western wear since the late 1940s. Recalling an earlier era of “dim lights, thick smoke, and loud, loud music,” when musicians in honky-tonks and nightclubs had to go the extra mile to command an audience’s attention, Buck Owens quipped…

Partly out of necessity, but mostly out of a desire to entertain, flashy, cowboy-inspired stage attire became, by the 1950s, the signature look for a multitude of pickers and singers.

Drawing from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s exhibit galleries and extensive collection of stage costumes and archival materials, photographs, and moving images, Suiting the Sound: The Rodeo Tailors Who Made Country Stars Shine Brighter examines the dazzling artistry of the Western-wear designers whose couture designs have helped to create an indelible image for country music—one that has inspired fashion far beyond the stages of barn dances and honky-tonks. The exhibit is also a story of immigrants, who carved a successful niche for themselves by embracing America’s fascination with cowboy culture and Western imagery.

Part One

Coming to America

Part One

Coming to America

The most influential of the pioneering rodeo tailors shared remarkably similar backgrounds.

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Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors designed this suit worn by western swing vocalist Tex Williams.

Part Two

Rodeo Ben:
The Expression of Perfection

Part Two

Rodeo Ben:
The Expression of Perfection

Bernard “Rodeo Ben” Lichtenstein was the first celebrity Western-wear designer.

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Rodeo Ben designed this shirt for Schuyler “Sky” Snow of Jerry & Sky.

Part Three

Nathan Turk:
Old World Meets New West

Part Three

Nathan Turk:
Old World Meets New West

Pioneering Western-wear designer Nathan Turk was born in a village near Minsk, Poland, in 1895.

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Nathan Turk designed this stage costume for Don Maddox of the Maddox Brothers & Rose.

Part Four

Nudie Cohn:
The Original Rhinestone Cowboy

Part Four

Nudie Cohn:
The Original Rhinestone Cowboy

The colorful individual behind the “Nudie suit”—a catchall phrase for the outrageously embellished stage costumes that became status symbols in country music circles in the 1950s and beyond—embodied the American Dream.

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Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors designed this religious-themed suit for singer Johnny Dollar.

Part Five

Manuel:
The Rhinestone Rembrandt

Part Five

Manuel:
The Rhinestone Rembrandt

For more than sixty years, master tailor Manuel Cuevas has been designing one-of-a-kind clothing to reflect the inner personality of the wearer.

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Grand Ole Opry singing star Jack Greene wore this jacket designed by Manuel.

Part Six

Jaime Castaneda:
Western Heir

Part Six

Jaime Castaneda:
Western Heir

Touted as “the last of the cowboy tailors” headquartered on North Hollywood’s Lankershim Boulevard, Jaime Castaneda is advancing the design innovations and techniques of his West Coast forerunners Manuel, Nudie, and Turk.

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Jaime Castaneda designed this “chandelier” shirt for musician Marty Stuart.

Part Seven

Western Style Roundup

Part Seven

Western Style Roundup

In post-World War II America, the popularity of all things Western created a demand for fancy cowboy garments that could only be partially appeased by rodeo tailors around the country, including former ranch hands Fay Ward in New York and Marge Riley in California.

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Rodeo tailor Fay Ward designed this cowgirl costume for singer Kay Arnold.

Part Eight

Rhinestone Resurrection

Part Eight

Rhinestone Resurrection

The rodeo tailors created a body of work that exerts a powerful pull for a new breed of bespoke Western-wear designers.

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Lil Nas X wore this costume designed by Union Western’s Jerry Lee Atwood.

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