Manuel is The Man

Manuel Arturo José Cuevas Martinez exudes an air of genial confidence. It's the confidence that comes with success, yes. But it's also the confidence of a man well-dressed in a custom-made suit -- black with a wide white pinstripe and discreet black appliqués running parallel to the lapels. The suit hangs perfectly on his compact frame and complements his sleek mane of silver hair. A white collarless shirt, black-and-white polka dot neckerchief, and black cowboy boots complete the ensemble.

The suit is by Manuel, the very same Manuel, famous for dressing stars and other big spenders in flashy embroidered and rhinestone creations.

Manuel wears nothing but Manuel.

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"From the time I was eight, I never bought anything but my Fruit of the Looms," he says. "I make everything. Clothes, boots, belts, jewelry."

Manuel was at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth for the opening Manuel: Star Spangled Couture, an exhibit of his glittering jackets saluting the 50 states. The exhibit also features a very small sample of his celebrity wear - specifically, the outfits worn by Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt on the cover of their album, Trio, and one of Johnny Cash's big black suits and tall black boots, borrowed for the show from one of Western wear's most avid collectors, country star Marty Stuart. (The original Manuel show, at Nashville's Frist Center of the Visual Arts included many more celebrity outfits but the Hall of Fame gallery was too small to accommodate them.)

Manuel has dressed everyone from Bob Dylan, who wore a Manuel suit to perform for Pope John Paul II in 1997, to Dwight Yoakam, Elton John to John Travolta in Urban Cowboy. He created Gram Parsons' infamous pills and pot leaves suit, which today causes him some discomfort. "We discussed that suit forever," Manuel says. "I wasn't afraid, but the message written all over the suit was about how he wanted to die. I felt like a fool when he died." (Parsons succumbed to a combination of morphine and tequila in 1973, at the age of 26.) Manuel did put his foot down when Parsons requested a burning cross on the suit. "With all that was going on with the KKK, it wasn't proper," he says. Instead, he stitched flames down the pants legs and a cross on the back of the jacket.

A Manuel outfit starts when the designer meets and interviews the client. "I do a lot of questioning. I'll ask, 'What make you proud, what makes you feel most secure? Skirt or pants? Do you want a multiple-use jacket?' " He says people are often surprised that he would suggest his distinctive garments for multiple uses. But despite the distinctiveness of Manuel's creations, people who own them tend to wear them for many years. Porter Waggoner boasts of still wearing Manuel suits he commissioned 40 years ago, says Katie Delmez Welborn, associate curator at the Frist and curator of the Manuel exhibit.

After taking the client's measurements, Manuel designs and cuts all the clothes, which are then embroidered by hand -- that is, a machine does the stitching under the skilled control of longtime employee Francisco Martinez. Austrian crystal rhinestones are set individually. Manuel does all the finishing on the garments and each is one-of-a-kind.

"Sometimes people will bring photos and say, 'Can you do this for me?'" Manuel says. "I'll say, 'Certainly not. I can make you a dress but a dress that you've never seen in your life. I'll do it and if you don't like it, you leave it.' But that's never, ever happened." He laughs happily. "That makes me love me."

Manuel learned to sew as a young boy in Coalcomán,, Michoacan, Mexico, where he was fifth of 11 children (12, if you count a half brother, he says).

"My brother put me to work one day when I had absolutely nothing to do. He was a pants maker. I fell in love with the darn sewing machine. In two hours, I learned how to cut and sew. I was a sponge when I was a kid. I wanted to learn everything"

Manuel learned to embroider from his mother and from the moment he discovered the joys of clothing and color, he threw off the somber black and white clothing that most of the people in his village wore and embraced a colorful style that ultimately made his fortune. "I was the oddest kid in town," he says.

Manuel studied psychology in college, all the while continuing to design, sew and create, eventually realizing that he was earning more with his creative labors than his friends in more traditional fields. Seeking a place where fashion held more sway than it did in Latin America, he decided to take his show to showbizland and moved to Hollywood. "If you want to chase the rainbow, you better start walking," he says. Manuel worked for several tailors - "some famous, some not" before landing a job with Nudie Cohn in 1960. Nudie's Rodeo Tailors was already well established for creating flamboyant clothing for everyone from Roy Rogers to Elvis.

"Working with Nudie was quite an experience," Manuel recalls. "He gave me everything on a silver platter. He gave me a free hand to design. He was a salesman. I made all his clothes and I made all his clients' clothes." But, Manuel says, the most important thing he learned was, "Never marry the boss' daughter. I divorced his daughter then I had to divorce Nudie." Manuel struck out on his own, taking clientele with him. ""I never called a client but they all followed," he says. Manuel opened his own Hollywood shop in the mid 1970s before moving to Nashville in 1989, where he continues to do business today.

Although Manuel is best known for dressing the stars he says 60 percent of his business is with the private sector. But if you want to look like a star, Manuel-style, plan to pay in the thousands of dollars, even for non-custom clothes. At the Hall of Fame shop, a pair of Manuel embroidered jeans are $2,000. Dusters and men's jackets are in the $4,000 range. Even souvenir Manuel-wear sold at the shop is dear, with black, gold and rhinestone tank tops going for $54 and t-shirts priced at $55.

The steep price tag is how Manuel makes sure his babies go to good homes. "Many times my pieces, I felt, were not going to the right person. I started to feel a little sorrow about that. I decided to make it impossible for those who just wanted to buy for luxury. To own one of these, they have to pay the price. Only one or two percent of my customers even ask how much something is going to cost them."

Of course, if you're Dolly Parton, you don't have to ask. Dolly, Manuel says, is fully enjoying her wealth after a childhood of poverty. "She plays dolly with herself," Manuel says. "She grew up poor and now with all her money, she enjoys dressing up her dolly."

And if you're Linda Ronstadt, you don't have to ask about money and you learn not to ask for much else from Manuel, either. "Linda Ronstadt always wants me to make some color I don't want to, so I make her what I want," Manuel says. "She gave up on me. She says, 'I just tell him I want clothes and whatever clothes he makes me are the clothes I wear.'"

When it comes to clothes, Manuel knows that Manuel knows best.