FRONTIERS OF FRINGE AUTRY MUSEUM EXHIBIT SPOTLIGHTS THE BIRTH OF COWBOY COUTURE.

Byline: Barbara De Witt Fashion Editor

There were cowboys. And then there were rhinestone cowboys.

Long before Elvis Presley's gold lame suit - western stars such as Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and Roy and Dale Evans dazzled on the screen and parade routes in rhinestone-and-fringe get-ups designed by a couple of San Fernando Valley tailors named Nathan Turk and Nutya ``Nudie'' Cohn.

While both men have since ridden into the sunset, their trademark fashions live on in old movies, TV reruns and the ``How the West Was Worn'' costume exhibit at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles.

The multimedia exhibit, which runs through Jan. 21, traces the evolution of western-style occupational clothing and show costumes, beginning with a beaver-trimmed and beaded leather coat worn in 1885 by the Wild West's first showman, Buffalo Bill Cody, and by his co-star John Sitting Bull. However, the exhibit of more than 150 costumes and accessories is primarily a tribute to the singing cowboy era of the '30s, '40s and '50s that dominated the Southern California culture and gave birth to squaw dresses, square dance skirts and marketing tools such as Roy Rogers lunch boxes and Annie Oakley paper dolls.

``You realize that the Wild West was always romanticized, even if styles varied to reflect current trends in everyday clothing ... and the exhibit has certainly sparked new interest in western wear, as well as reconnected fans to the history of the clothes they love,'' says assistant curator Estella Chung.

The colorful costumes of Turk and Nudie are the exhibit's scene stealers.

Turk, a Polish immigrant who used Eastern European icons such as hearts and flowers as his early design themes, arrived on the local scene first. After he transformed the Maddox Brothers and Rose singers into the most colorful hillbilly band in the world in 1945, others followed.

In Debby Bull's new book, ``Hillbilly Hollywood: The Origins of Country & Western Style'' (Rizzoli; $39.95), Rose Maddox said of Turk's work, ``People were just in awe of our clothes. They'd never seen anything like that. It was half of our show.''

Soon others flocked to Turk's English & Western Apparel Shop on Ventura Boulevard in Van Nuys, including Buck Owens, Dottie Ethridge, Tex Williams, Gail Davis and Jock Mahoney, Johnny Horton and Gene Autry. Turk's daughter Jean Simon, 80, of Studio City, says the first really fancy embroidered shirt by her father was for Roy Rogers for his first movie audition. ``Rogers got the film role and wrote his thanks on a photo that hung in the shop until it closed in 1977,'' she recalled.

While the soft-spoken Turk was known for using gentlemanly gabardine with fine tailoring that included ``smile'' pockets with hand-stitched arrows to reinforce the seams, contrasting piping and five pearl snaps on each sleeve, it was Nudie of Nudie's Rodeo Tailors in North Hollywood who gave us the electric cowboy ensemble known as ``The Nudie Suit'' that shimmered on stages and in rodeo arenas.

``Although many fans think Nudie got his name for the G-string costumes of his early days, the Russian-born Nudie actually got his moniker from an immigration officer who couldn't understand him when he said his name was Nutya,'' says Chung.

But the name suited Nudie just fine. He used a nude girl on his original labels (putting a bolero on her in the '60s), recalls his granddaughter Jamie Mendoza. Now 40, Mendoza grew up at Nudie's store helping customers such as Glen Campbell, Marty Robbins and Donny Osmond.

``It was a wonderful time,'' she recalls, ``when stars came in and stayed for Grandfather's lima bean soup that he cooked in the back of the store. He'd play the mandolin and people like Marty Robbins would join him. They became like family to us, but I think it was also the way he personalized their clothing, playing off their name or interests - such as the wagon wheels for Porter Wagoner - that made him so popular.''

``How the West Was Worn'' features numerous examples of Nudie's work from the family archives, including his beloved blue hat with golden eagles, which the museum purchased.

``I had no idea it would become the icon for the exhibit until I saw a picture of the hat on the back of a bus. It was so exciting, since I remember him wearing it with a special blue suit,'' says Mendoza, who attended the exhibit's opening-night celebration with Nudie's widow, Bobbie, 88.

Also on display are numerous shirts designed for Roy Rogers, whom Nudie lured away from Turk with his dramatic use of rhinestones. Visitors can see the fringed, lace-up shirt with appliques of Rogers' beloved German shepherd, Bullet, on it; get a close-up of Nudie's lavishly embroidered costumes for Hank Snow of the Grand Ole Opry; and see the fringed gold lame shirt he designed for Rex Allen, and the blue and white ensemble created for Elton John to meet the Queen of England in 1970.

While Turk and Nudie competed for customers, a man named Manuel Cuevas was busy cutting suits for both labels and learning the trade. And when it came time for Turk to retire, it was Manuel (like Nudie, he dropped his last name) who bought the business (with a check Turk never cashed) and launched his own label featuring objects and imagery of his native Mexico.

Now working in Nashville, Manuel has dressed numerous music stars, including Gene Autry, Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and Dwight Yoakam. Examples of Manuel's work, and that of other western wear designers, are also included in the exhibit.

``HOW THE WEST WAS WORN''

Where: Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Griffith Park, across from the L.A. Zoo in Los Angeles.

What: Costume exhibit with western wear from the late 1800s to the singing cowboy era of the 1930-'50s to contemporary clothing by Wrangler and Levi's. Also included are snippets of western films and TV shows with the stars in some of the costumes.

When: Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; closed Christmas Day. Through Jan. 21.

Tickets: $7.50 for adults; $5 for seniors and students and $3 for children. Call [phone] or visit the Web site at www.autry-museum.org.

CAPTION(S):

11 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Nudie Cohn's own hat sports golden eagles, reflecting his design and showmanship skills.

(2) Cowboy tailor Nathan Turk at his Van Nuys store, where he designed for cowboys and cowboy stars.

(3) Nudie Cohn, center, flanked by clients, from left, Tex Williams, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Rex Allen at his North Hollywood store.

(4 -- color) Nathan Turk's colorful ensembles, such as this turquoise outfit with rhinestone-accented palm trees and cactus made in the 1950s for equestrian B.L. Lake, were often seen in the Rose Parade.

(5 -- color) For public appearances, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans wore matching ensembles that sparkled under the arena lights.

(6 -- color) Turk's western-wear career was launched when he dressed the Maddox Brothers and Rose in matching outfits using icons from his Eastern European roots.

(7 -- color) Mexican icons are the signature of Manuel, who learned the trade from Turk and Nudie before opening his own business in Nashville.

(8 -- color) Wagon wheels became the wardrobe signature of Grand Ole Opry star Porter Wagoner, thanks to Nudie.

(9 -- color) Turk designed this brilliant blue shirt and tooled-leather saddle-shaped purse for Susan Cox Stauffer, winner of the 1959 Miss Rodeo America title.

Photos courtesy of Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles.

(10 -- 11) Roy Rogers had Nudie design the star-spangled shirt, left, to celebrate the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976, and the gold leather-fringed shirt, right, for television appearances in the '60s.

Courtesy of the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum, Victorville