Believing that the value of the exposure that the popular artist would bring to his design would be immeasurable, he offered the suit to Wagoner for free.
In 1962, for singer Porter Wagoner, Cohn crafted a peach-colored suit bedazzled with rhinestones and stitched with a covered wagon on the back of the coat, and wagon wheels on the pants legs. Many of Cohn’s patrons would soon become identified by their “themed” Nudie suits, and you can bet that if an artist happened to be headlining the Grand Ole Opry, they were most likely doing it in one of Cohn’s custom creations. They soon fell in love and were married in 1934.Įarly movie & television cowboys (and cowgirls) were already well known for their flamboyant style of dress, and Nudie Cohn’s creations took the ostentation to unprecedented levels with his liberal use of rhinestones, sequins, appliques and bright images embroidered on his one-of-a-kind outfits. In 1928, Cohn set about hitchhiking back to New York, to visit his family.ĭuring a stopover at a boarding house in Mankato, Minnesota, Nudie met Helen Barbara Kruger, whose parents owned the establishment. Actress Gloria Swanson was one of his first customers. Not finding great success as a pugilist, he took bit parts in movies, and having acquired sewing skills from his bootmaker father, he produced made-to-order outfits.
Settling into New York City, where they had family, Julius was busy getting acquainted with girls, while Nudie passed his time watching Western films in theaters throughout the city.Īt age 16, after working as a shoe-shine boy, and trying his hand at other occupations, Nudie traveled to California to become a boxer, known briefly as “Battling Nudie”. At the age of 11, he was sent by his parents to the United States along with his older brother Julius, to escape the anti-Semitism and pogroms of Czarist Russia.Īrriving with his brother at Ellis Island, his difficult to pronounce Eastern European name was soon transformed into the moniker that would become his brand – Nudie Cohn.
Nuta Kotlyarenko was born in Kiev on December 15, 1902, to a Ukrainian Jewish family. “You don’t have to have cows to be a cowboy” – Nudie Cohn
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