https://thehustle.co/the-90-year-old-man-who-built-a-western-wear-empire/by Katherine Laidlaw
December 15, 2023
Manuel Cuevas has racked up a serious slate of nicknames in his 90 years. The king of cowboy couture. A cutting-edge cowboy consultant.
But he wants to be clear on one thing. Do not — I repeat — do not call him the Rhinestone Rembrandt. Vogue did once, decades ago, and he’s been trying to shake it off ever since.
“First of all, I am not the Rhinestone Rembrandt,” he says in a gravelly baritone. “I am not. Please. Am I the best tailor in the world? Nope. I am one of the better ones. But I’m not the best.”
Cuevas is known as simply Manuel, the Beyonce of western wear. He wears a signature scarf tied around his neck, giving him a look of perpetual debonair, with his white wavy hair combed back.
Working with his mentor, Nudie Cohn, he took a suit, known as the “Nudie Suit”, and turned it into a legend.
Instantly recognizable for their grandeur, Nudie Suits are worn on red carpets, in music videos, and on movie screens around the world. They sell for tens of thousands at auction and have influenced countless western wear designers across the country.
Over the years, Manuel has become a legend too, his unique brand of glammed-up country garb represented in museums and on red carpets, earning him accolades and proteges of his own. Eighty-three years in, he’s still sewing.
(excerpt)
