BILL BELEW "THE MAN WHO DRESSED ELVIS"

	An Interview With Bill Belew; "THE MAN WHO DRESSED ELVIS And Dolly And Glen And Ronnie And ..." By Rowland Harris From COUNTRY RHYTHMS (Oct. 1982)

For nine years costume designer Bill Belew was the creative force behind Elvis Presley's stage and personal wardrobe. As Elvis designer, Belew originated every outfit Elvis wore in all his nightclub, television and concert appearances from 1963 until his unexpected death in August of 1977. Belew, who also designs stage clothes for many other well-known entertainers, has received Emmy nominations in Costuming on three separate occasions for his work on The Carpenters, John Denver, and Flip Wilson television specials. He just finished a three-year stint as head of costuming for the recently cancelled late-night television series, Fridays, and is scheduled to handle costuming for a new television series starring Glen Campbell. As we relaxed in his San Fernando Valley home, I asked Bill about his relationship with Elvis, others, and how it all came about.

COUNTRY RHYTHMS: How did you first come in contact with Elvis?

BILL BELEW: The first time was when Steve Binder produced the '68 special. They were looking for somebody to do the wardrobe, and I had worked with Steve on a couple of other things. And when we did the show, the only request that came 'through from Elvis was that he wanted something different from what everybody else was wearing. A favorite thing that he liked at that particular time was Napoleonic suits. He said he'd never been able to find anybody who really could make it look right. And so, I designed some suits for him.

One thing I had said was that I had always felt that the people thought that Elvis had worn leather all along, and he never had, so when they said, "We're going to do a concert segment, and why don't you wear something different?" I said, 'Well, why not let's put him in leather? Everybody's always thought that he's worn it, he has that image, so let's do it." And we made a Levi-styled black leather suit, and that was the beginning.

And then the show aired, and then one day the phone rang and Joe Esposito was on the line and he said they were going to open in Vegas and Elvis and the Colonel would like to know if I would do the clothes for him. I said, ''Sure,'' and then I spoke to Elvis and again he said, "The only thing I ask is that I want something that's different. I don't want to go up there in a tuxedo, I don't want to wear a suit, I want to wear something different." So, the first thing we did was a jumpsuit, because I felt it would give him what he wanted at the time. And as we went through different periods, we experimented with a lot of things, but we always ended up going back to the jumpsuit. It was comfortable and he liked that. It just seemed to work. The public just sort of identified with it. We tried new stuff, but whenever he went back into Vegas, it never quite worked. The jumpsuit really did it. When he first went into Vegas we did a black, a white and a powder blue one. He was into karate and I had a friend who did macrame work and he made a lot of karate belts for him in macrame. In fact, there was one picture in Women's Wear Daily that showed the black jumpsuit. It had a white and black and gold belt. And then there was a white jumpsuit that had a white belt with it.

CR: You did all the outfits, beginning with the '68 special?

Elvis Adamant

BELEW: Right. Really, there was one thing he was adamant about during the first TV special and that was that there was to be nothing done about the golden suit. He hated that. So I said: "What if I do just a gold jacket with black lapels and black tuxedo pants, things like that, because it is a part of your career, and a big thing has been made about it." And he said, "Well, that's OK. Now it won't be very long, will it?" And I said, "No, by the time we get it on the screen it's going to be like a half a second."

CR: Did he ever come in and look at sketches and say, ''I like this,'' or ''I like that"? How did that work?

BELEW: What I did was a series of sketches and said, 'I think this is what you should wear." And he liked them. There was never any debate. A couple of things, he'd say, "I prefer this over that," or, "Will this still work for me?''

Some of the designs in the '68 special I had ties with, and he wanted something different. That was the first time we got into using the scarves. He had a diamond ring and we just slipped the scarves through it and put them underneath the collar. He was trying to find something that would be a throw-away. So, I said, 'Why don't we go back to the scarves?" And so, the easiest way for them to work for him was for him to just put them around his neck and tuck them into the jumpsuit, so then it would slide out fast. That was one of the things that came out of the '68 special.

CR: I know you've gone through different designs on the basic jumpsuit, like on the Hawaii special you used the American eagle.

BELEW: Right. Well, when he was going to do that concert he called and said, "Now we're going to do a concert in Hawaii and I want something that is very patriotic, something with the spirit of America." And also, I believe he had been to Washington and he was feeling very patriotic. And so I sketched it out and said ,"Now there's nothing that could say America any more than the American eagle."

CR: There were so many of those different designs. How did that work? Did he come up with the ideas and tell you what he wanted, or did you make sketches and suggest them?

BELEW: No, there was only one that he ever specifically asked for. And that, I think it's the one with the leopard. I think he had seen something somewhere that gave him the idea, and he wanted a leopard or lion, or something like that.

CR: Was that the leopard-striped belt?

BELEW: No, the leopard went all the way up the jumpsuit and the two heads would meet at the shoulder, That was very seldom worn. I never saw that one too much. He had particular favorites, outfits that he liked more than others, but he always wanted new and different ones. Whenever he went into Vegas he felt that the fans should get something new and different. So the first couple of days would be new wardrobe and then he'd bring in the old, depending on what he'd ordered.

CR: What were some of the favorite outfits that he liked?

"Shooting Stars"

BELEW: I know that he liked the blue one. There was an early-on blue one that had silver nailheads over it. We called it the Shooting Stars.

CR: How did the belts come about?

BELEW: He had bought a belt that he liked very much, and we just really duplicated that belt and kept embellishing it. There was a shop on Sunset that had a gold eagle belt that he liked, and we used that one on some of his suits. On some of the belts we used ten buckles to make a belt. They went around the belt. They would be sawed off flush on the back and mounted on the belt.

CR: How many Suits did you do, totally?

BELEW: The total count, I think we figured out, was something like a hundred to one hundred-fifty jumpsuits.

CR: Did you just turn them out on a regular basis, or was it only when he requested them?

BELEW: I would just get the call to come, and I'm sure you're aware that most of Elvis' dealings were at night. Of course, the first time I got this call at four o'clock in the morning, I thought my mother had passed away or my father had died. I was hysterical, I didn't know what was going on. And somebody was on the other end of the line saying Elvis wanted to talk to me. So, begot on and said whatever he had to say, and of course at the time I didn't have a writing pad near me, so I took a pencil and wrote on whatever I could, making notes to myself to remember the next morning when I got up.

After that I talked to Joe Esposito and he said, 'Well, you'd better get used to it, because when we're in Vegas, if he thinks of something he'll say, 'Call Billy, I want to talk to him,' or, 'Get Billy to start tomorrow on this jumpsuit, or whatever.'''

Of course, eventually it got to that point where I did do his personal clothes for him. And he would call, like when he was going to his bodyguard Sonny's wedding, he called and said he wanted a suit that was really different. He'd just gotten this new cape and a cane that he liked a lot, and he said, "Do a suit that has a cape. In Italy I had seen a photograph of some suit for a man that was done in fur, so, I did a black broad-tail fur suit.

CR: What was that-black what?

BELEW: It's a black fur. It's very sheer and flat, so it looks like crushed velvet, but when you get up close to it you can see that it's actually fur. And so, we did the cape and lined it in red. That suit actually led to the capes being incorporated into the jumpsuits. And occasionally, also, Priscilla would run across something she thought was interesting, and Elvis would call and say, "Could you come out to the house and take a look at it and see if you can do anything with it?" And so, I would look at these things to see if we could incorporate it into what we were doing to make it look different and new. CR: About when was it that you started making his personal clothes?

BELEW: About '71.

Had A Great Build

CR: I remember seeing a brown dress suit that he had that had the same shoulders and collar as the jumpsuits.

BELEW: Yeah, we did all those, he really liked that, and I said, "It's an identifying look for you, and I think we should carry it over into the offstage clothes as well "So he got to the point where. . be had a great build, but it was a very hard build to go out and buy a ready-made suit for, because he had a 42 shoulder and a 30 waist. So he just found that it was easier for him to have them made, I would design four or five Suits and put coordinate shirt fabrics with them, and take them to him and he'd say something like, "Yeah, I like that one, give me two in that," or "one in brown, two in blue," and so on.

CR: Do you remember how you felt when you heard about Elvis' death?

BELEW: I do distinctly remember. I was driving to work and it came across the radio and I really couldn't believe it. And as I kept going, I realized it was true. For some reason I thought that maybe it was just a bad joke, somebody trying to be funny. Then I just became very sad. I thought he was such a neat guy. I just didn't think that it would happen.

CR: Aside from Elvis, you've also been the designer for many other entertainers, TV shows, and Specials.

BELEW: Yes, the Rolling Stone Magazine TV Specia, Fridays, Dick Clark's live TV show that was on NBC, The Osmonds for four years, ending up in London. They came to me and wanted to change their image. They wanted something like Elvis. The John Denver Specials, I've been with The Carpenters for about five years, Mac Davis for about four years.

CR: For the different artists, do you do the nightclub outfits, as well as the television Specials?

BELEW: On the Carpenters, I do their road wardrobe, as well as their TV Specials. John Denver, all I eyed did were the Specials. John, whenever he appears, it's very laid back, so he generally wears jeans and a shirt. For Ronnie Milsap I did his Las Vegas shows. For Dolly Parton's opening in Atlantic City, we only had like, ten days to put her wardrobe together. We cut and put her clothes together here in Los Angeles and I took two, the cutter and his assistant, and we flew to Atlantic City. We fitted her there, finished the dresses overnight, and she opened. For Florence Henderson, I do her nightclub act as well as her stage show. She just toured again with Annie Get Your Gun, and I just re-did her clothes and sent them back to her. Now she's doing her nightclub act.

CR: Do you have any interesting anecdotes involving any of the people you design for?

BELEW: No, there really isn't, because it's strictly a working relationship, as far as, they order clothes, I put them in, and that's it. My biggest thing was really with Elvis. There are others that I have equally as close a rapport with, such as Florence Henderson, The Carpenters, and Lena Horne, those people. Most of the people I work with today are cut and dried. They want you to do the clothes, barn, barn, and that's it.

CR: Do you see any trends in cabaret costuming?

BELEW: No, it's pretty much standardized now.

CR: I know when you did the Elvis outfits, when he first went into Vegas, it was a big change.

BELEW: Yes, right, and it sort of stayed that way. Today it's basically a tuxedo that will become a jumpsuit with a jacket over it. The only thing is that performers are into a lot more beads than they used to be. A lot of tuxedos have beads on them and things like that, but not as ornate as Elvis'.

CR: What time of day do you find best for working?

BELEW: I work better at night, so gener- ally in the evenings I start sketching, and then I just re-do or re-think some things during the day. But most times I work at night.

"Bill Belew, the man who dressed the King"

The creator of the glorious "Burning Flame of Love" and other sartorial extravaganzas recalls what it was like to design costumes for the messiah of Memphis.
By Mike Thomas

"If the songs don't go over, we can do a medley of costumes." -- Elvis Presley, in concert at the International Hotel, Las Vegas, August 1970

Some months ago, Rick Lenzi, a California mechanic and part-time Elvis impersonator, was invited to flex his pork chops on "Your Big Break," a spiffed-up, non-lip sync version of the '80s variety show, "Puttin' On the Hits." The program's contestants, who mimic their favorite singers, are aided in their metamorphoses by a small staff of professional costume designers.

Upon arriving in Burbank, Calif., for taping, Lenzi learned that his transformation would be presided over by a man named Bill Belew. At first, the name had merely a familiar ring. Then it clicked. "You're not the Bill Belew, are you?" Lenzi asked incredulously, almost reverently, when the two met.

"Yes, I am," Belew said.

Lenzi's jaw dropped -- he knew, as any diehard Elvis maven would, that Belew wasn't just any costume designer. He was, in fact, Elvis Presley's costume designer and personal fashion guru for nearly a decade. "I was in awe," Lenzi recalls.

The Belew-Presley union began in 1968, when the producers of Presley's NBC "comeback" special, "Elvis," who'd worked previously with Belew on a Petula Clark production, invited the designer to create some hip threads for the now-legendary program that would herald the swivel-hipped one's second coming. When asked what "look" he envisioned for Elvis, Belew claims he knew almost immediately. "It always seemed like people assumed he wore black leather," he says, "but he never did. He may have worn a leather jacket, but that's about it. At that time, though, we were into denim, and I said, 'What if I just duplicate a denim outfit in black leather?' Elvis loved it." And so the cowhide was procured and fashioned and fitted, then later, after the second stand-up show, pried by Belew with much difficulty from Elvis' sweat-soaked body.

If clothes make the man, then Belew's clothes made The Man -- made him sultrier, flashier, manlier. Following the success of the NBC special, which reinvented Elvis not only musically, but physically, Belew realized what promise there was in this alliance. "He was a great person to dress," Belew says. "He had a terrific build at that point . . . [But] at the time we started in Vegas, everything was Liberace. And I would see these outlandish things with fur and feathers and think, 'That's not going to be Elvis. And if that's what he wants, he can get somebody else.' I wanted the clothes to be easy and seductive and that was it. And I never wanted anything to compromise his masculinity."

Of course, as Elvis' popularity grew, so did his fans' unconditional love. Consequently, Belew felt he had more freedom to produce increasingly intricate and outrageous designs. "I kept most of his things very simple in the early days," Belew says. "We just watched the reaction from the fans, and that's how we began to get more elaborate."

In August 1970, when Elvis stormed Sin City for a triumphant stand at the International Hotel, Belew hunkered amid the capacity crowd, gauging its response to the conch-shell-studded, macramé- adorned, karate-style jumpsuit that Elvis worked expertly as though it were a second skin. Needless to note, it, and Elvis, went over big. Proclaimed a friend of Belew's during the show, "He's like a panther stalking that stage, exuding sexuality."

Almost from the start there had been an unusual level of trust and familiarity between the two. To Elvis, Belew was never Bill, but Billy, and most of his designs were approved on sight, something that shocked and delighted Belew. In part, the fast fraternity stemmed from a shared sense of lineage, as both men were rearedin the south -- Elvis in Tupelo, Miss., and Memphis, Tenn.; Belew in Charlottesville, Va. -- by doting, plump ("big-boned," euphemizes Belew) matriarchs with a penchant for all things culinary.

In subsequent years, as Belew's loyalty and talent continued to impress his employer, he became Elvis' personal fashion designer(often spending upwards of $15,000 a month on custom clothing) and confidante. Elvis even bestowed upon him a coveted gold diamond-and-lightening-bolt-festooned "TCB" (Taking Care of Business in a Flash) necklace that was proffered to all the King's men, a small inner circle often dubbed the "Memphis mafia." Says Belew, "I thought, 'Oh, shit, I really have come into it now!'"

As the years passed and Elvis' career entered its high renaissance, Belew, though not under exclusive contract to Presley, was always on hand to conjure up eminently memorable stage outfits, including the fiery, Japanese-inspired "Red Dragon" jumpsuit, the "Burning Flame of Love" and the showy powder-blue number that Elvis wore during his 15-city U.S. tour in 1972.

But perhaps the most memorable get-up of all was the one Elvis sported for his fabled "Aloha from Hawaii" worldwide telecast in 1973. Not only was the outfit white, as they all would be subsequently (white was easier to light), and grandiose and profusely adorned with all sorts of fabulously gaudy trinkets, but its finishing touch was one that would be forever allied with Elvisian lore: The Cape.

There had been capes before this -- the very idea having been inspired a year or so prior by Priscilla Presley, who showed Belew a black and red number she'd bought for her husband on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills -- but never anything quite this ornate (it was adorned with a silver mirror-embroidered rendition of an American eagle) or cumbersome. In fact, says Belew of the latter quality, he purposely made two sizes for that reason alone: A hefty floor-length one for Elvis' grand entrance, and a more functional mid-length mantle that would allow the singer a greater range of motion while performing. "It was such a swashbuckling thing, and he just had a way with it," remembers Belew. "Immediately, he knew how he wanted to work it, what he wanted to do with it. And it just all came together."

But it almost didn't. "The night of the show, I got a call from [Elvis' friend and bodyguard] Joe Esposito, who said, 'You're not gonna believe what happened.'" Belew recounts. "And the only thing that came to my mind was, Oh, my God, he split the costume! Turns out he got a little wild during dress rehearsal and threw the short cape into the audience."

As if that wasn't enough, Esposito also informed Belew that when Elvis had tried on the long version, it was so heavy he literally couldn't stand, much less strut about the stage. "He told me Elvis was lying on the floor, roaring with laughter," Belew says. To compound matters even further, Elvis, generous to a fault, had given away his large white bejeweled belt, which bore the eagle motif in miniature, to a friend, the wife of "Hawaii Five-O" star Jack Lord.

It was, in short, sartorial pandemonium. So Belew, who'd remained in L.A. to invent frilly fashions for comic Flip Wilson's popular character, Geraldine, quickly gathered his wits, marshaled his troops and in less than a day, had a new ensemble ready to ship off to Hawaii. Initially, Esposito offered to send Presley's private jet to fetch costume and costumer and whisk them off to Oahu. But since Belew was busy dolling up Wilson, he sent a colleague to deliver the goods. "I was told that [Elvis' people] had two first-class tickets waiting for him," Belew recalls with a hint of envy. "One for him, and one for the belt and cape. Here I am dressing Flip as Geraldine, and he's flying to Hawaii to bask in the sun and have a great time. We joked about that for years."

Belew remained Presley's designer for another four years, occasionally, surreptitiously, adjusting garments to accommodate the King's burgeoning girth. But the Count of Monte Cristos never caught on. When Elvis died in August 1977, wakes were held at Graceland and throngs of grieving mourners filed past Elvis' coffin to pay their final respects. For his farewell performance, Presley was dressed in a simple white suit, a gift from his father. It was the first time in years he'd worn attire which had not been designed by Belew.

Now 71, Belew, semi-retired in Palm Springs, Calif., occasionally lends his talents to various productions. But he does so mostly to keep himself busy. A fixture among the music, film and theater set for nearly five decades, he has enjoyed an unusually long and fruitful career, during which he has dressed the likes of The Band, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Gladys Knight, Milton Berle and scores of others. But the pinnacle of his life, he says, was his years with Presley.

"He was one of the few people I've designed for who was able to carry it off," Belew says of Elvis' innate ability to animate the fashion extravaganzas the costumer created for him. "To this day, people say to me, 'So you're the one who put Elvis in rhinestones and all that.' And I just say, 'Yeah, I'm the one.'"

Salon.com | Dec. 18, 1999
Mike Thomas, a Chicago freelance writer, has written for Playboy and Esquire.

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