I'm Bedazzled

The Graundian has an article on Nudie:

As punk had Westwood, so from the 1940s until his death in 1984, the world of country and western music had Nudie. On the walls of his Nudie's Rodeo Tailors shop on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, photographs of the man with his clients beamed down celebrity endorsement of the very heaviest kind. John Wayne. Roy Rogers. Elvis Presley, for whom he designed the notorious $10,000 gold lame suit.

Here's the official Nudie website, btw. It's my dream to own a piece of Nudie's work, though even if I could afford it, I'm not sure where I'd wear it.

An acquaintance relayed to me the story of being a young punk in 1984 Hollywood, standing across the street from Nudie's Rodeo Tailor Shop as they liquidated their stock. He and his flannel-and-combat-boot-garbed friend mocked the people who were coming out of the store with armloads of glitzy, ostentatious duds.

"Man, what idiots we were," he admitted, shaking his head sadly. "I guess I always thought I'd be wearing flannel and combat boots."