[SEWING MACHINE]
[ MUSIC PLAYING]
ADRI MURGUIA: Hey, this is Adri.
And we're here in Santa Clarita Valley to meet up with
Jamie Nudie, who is Nudie Cohn's granddaughter.
And she is carrying on his legacy.
Let's go find out what this is about.
Hi.
How are you?
JAMIE NUDIE: I'm great.
How are you?
ADRI MURGUIA: Good.
I'm Adri.
JAMIE NUDIE: Nice to meet you.
I'm Jamie.
Please come in.
My grandfather was Nudie.
He went by one name only.
He immigrated here from Kiev, Russia at age 11.
He settled in New York.
He first started making g-strings for all the
showgirls, and just had a flair for it.
And he traveled to Mankato, Minnesota, where he met my
grandmother.
They fell in love, and finally settled in Hollywood.
He loved old Western film.
And he'd sit there, and he thought, gosh, they sort of
were missing something on stage.
And he came up with the idea of putting
rhinestones on clothing.
He first approached Lefty Frizzell.
And he said, Lefty, if you've got the guts to wear a shirt
of mine, I'll make it for you, free of charge.
If it takes off, you'll start to pay me.
Lefty got up on stage, and it was a hit.
They got a storefront on Victory and Vineland in the
early '60s, and approached Roy and Dale when Roy was working
for Republic Studios.
And Roy had said to him, I've heard about you around town.
And sure I'll let you do some work for me.
But I want the kid in the nosebleed section to be able
to see me.
-It's the king of the cowboys, Roy Rogers.
And here he is.
JAMIE NUDIE: So my grandfather made shirts
for Roy with fringe.
And on every piece of fringe was a rhinestone.
And when Roy got up on stage, that kid in the nosebleed
section saw Roy.
The lights hit the fringe and the fringe danced.
And it would sway back and forth.
From there it just took off.
Everybody had heard of Nudie, and wanted to come into his
business, and have him make suits for him.
This is a vintage that was done for "Rodeo Queen." And
you can see, who's got a waist that small?
ADRI MURGUIA: Where did he get all the rhinestones?
JAMIE NUDIE: The rhinestones were actually
shipped in from New York.
ADRI MURGUIA: Really?
JAMIE NUDIE: Yeah.
This was done for an Elvis impersonator.
ADRI MURGUIA: This is like a replica?
JAMIE NUDIE: It's a replica, yes.
ADRI MURGUIA: This is so crazy.
JAMIE NUDIE: Love the gold lame.
ADRI MURGUIA: Where's the original?
JAMIE NUDIE: The original is in Graceland.
ADRI MURGUIA: Oh, right.
JAMIE NUDIE: Colonel gave it to the museum.
And that's where the original's at.
Here's a photograph.
This was probably in the early '50s, Oh, '57.
Here's Colonel here, and Elvis, and Nudie.
Nearly and Colonel Parker were great friends.
Colonel Parker had been manager for other artists, and
Colonel had come to Nudie and said, I'm
taking on this new act.
He said, I want you to make something for him that's out
of this world spectacular.
In 1957, the gold lame suit for Elvis was born.
And, as a matter fact, my mother was a young girl.
And Colonel and Nudie got together and surprised my
mother on her 18th birthday, having Elvis sing.
They went on a date.
The gold lame suit was a huge hit.
Here is Nudie on the cover of "Rolling Stone" in 1969, the
same year that John and Yoko are in bed again.
I mean, who makes the cover of "Rolling Stone"?
He was an immigrant from Kiev, Russia, and he makes the cover
of "Rolling Stone" in '69.
That's crazy.
ADRI MURGUIA: He looks so badass.
JAMIE NUDIE: Yeah.
Not only did Nudie make a lot of the clothes.
But through the 50 years of business, he made 18 cars.
He thought he needed a calling card.
ADRI MURGUIA: Oh my god.
I mean, it's like in perfect--
JAMIE NUDIE: It's in perfect condition.
It has under 30,000 miles on it.
ADRI MURGUIA: I have four guns right here.
Just here I have four guns.
And you take this out?
JAMIE NUDIE: Yeah.
He started with a 1950 Hudson, and went on to Pontiac
Bonnevilles.
And not too many people had white cars back in those days.
And so he was kind of like the first to set the market and
have a white car, but then put steerhorns and guns and silver
dollars on it.
And some cars had embroidered seats.
We called them the horny cars.
In the '70s and in the '80s, all the rock groups started
wearing them.
It wasn't just Western film.
It was Chicago, America, ZZ Top, Bootsy Collins, Teddy
Pendergrass, a lot of rock groups and stuff that he had
done it for.
It was something that was unique, one of a kind,
eccentric, very out of this world.
For example, in the '70s, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram
Parsons, him and Nudie were more like father son.
And he looked up to my
grandfather as a father figure.
Here's the Flying Burrito Brothers.
There's Gram Parsons with the famous pill, marijuana suit.
Here's a replica of Gram Parsons's.
ADRI MURGUIA: Oh my god, the pills.
JAMIE NUDIE: You can see the back.
ADRI MURGUIA: Love that.
Do you ever wear this?
JAMIE NUDIE: I do.
ADRI MURGUIA: Does it look cool?
JAMIE NUDIE: Now you have officially been Nudified.
ADRI MURGUIA: I've been Nudified.
Oh my god, so great.
This one is the best.
Do you thing you're going to bring it back, like
you're going to--
JAMIE NUDIE: Oh, I know I will.
ADRI MURGUIA: Yeah?
JAMIE NUDIE: Yeah.
ADRI MURGUIA: I really want one.
JAMIE NUDIE: Well, you can get a Nudie T-shirt.
I want to be able to educate our younger generation to know
that you can be anybody.
And you can do anything if you set your mind to it.
If you have the drive, and you have the
ambition, you can do that.
And that's what I feel as though I'm here for, to
further educate younger generations, let them know
that you can do something like this.
And have an idea, and let it sparkle.
Put a rhinestone on it.
[COUNTRY ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]