Porter Wagoner and the Splendid Dazzling Designs of Nudie Cohn

We interrupt our regularly scheduled highbrow discussion of high fashion to bring you some notes on this week’s passing of Country Western singing legend Porter Wagoner at the age of 80.

Mr. Wagoner will be remembered in part for the splendid sequin and rhinestone-studded suits he wore as a performer. These amazing works of wearable art were designed by the incredible Nudie Cohn, otherwise known as Nudie of Hollywood. With Mr. Wagoner’s passing, I find myself awash in fond, glittering memories of the most amazing jackets I’d ever seen with their sequined appliquéd cactuses and rhinestone-rimmed wagon wheels.

My parents were enthusiastic about all kinds of music, everything from pop to jazz to country to classical. In the pre-satellite days of only a mere handful of television channels, sooner or later most baby-boomers would see, as I did, Tennessee’s Grand Ole Opry come into the living room on the Porter Wagoner Show. I would later learn that Mr. Wagoner had a long performing association with Dolly Parton, helping launch her career.

Wagoner had a distinctive voice, poignant song material, and a trademark pompadour hairstyle, but what would stay with me were the outfits he wore onstage. All that glitter, all those literal pictorial decorations would burn themselves into my young mind, and form a part of my fashion taste that never quite went away.

And so... thank you, Mr. Cohn, for your unique sartorial gifts. And happy trails to you, Mr. Wagoner, on your final journey to the Green, Green Grass of Home.

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