Rhinestone Cowboy: A Visit to Nashville's Flashiest Boutique

Park at the foot of Music Row. Step into the Nashville sun. Look left, look right. Squint. You miss it the first time, the place you’re trying to find, the stately storefront, the house of Manuel—such a subtle façade, an oyster shell clasped around a pearl.

Come on in. Glide across the dark hardwood floors, breathe in the atmosphere, the history. The vibe is old-school masculine like a steakhouse, a saloon, a bordello. “His clothes feel like sex and money,” Keith Urban once said of Manuel. Urban would know. Manuel dolled him up for a 2001 awards show in a cream-and-black suit with a drawstring fly.

Here he comes now, the man himself—Manuel. He was born Manuel Arturo José Cuevas Martinez, but now he is just one name, two syllables: Man. Well.   

His hair is swept back and white as swan feathers. He wears a black shirt tucked into black pants, with a black ascot tied rakishly around his throat. He resembles Brando, but shorter. Much shorter. Manuel is roughly the size of a garden gnome. And yet he moves regally, speaks mischievously. He seems amused by his own presence.

How could he not be? This son of Michoacán, Mexico, has spent his life outfitting country singers and other peacocks. He dressed the late Porter Wagoner in six different decades. Wagoner was a perfect model, an old-school baritone whose lanky frame allowed the clothes to drape, providing excellent acreage for Manuel’s signature shower of rhinestones.

Manuel’s flamboyant duds carry on a tacky-chic tradition. His mentor Nudie Cohn’s glammy “Nudie suits” were beloved by Gram Parsons in the late 1960s. And before Nudie, country music had Nathan Turk—he’s the one who put the Maddox Brothers in violet suits trimmed with gold and sage embroidery after they returned from World War II. Today, Manuel—a spry 70 years old—dresses like-minded dandies, to the tune of three grand per jacket.

He’ll let you try one on. He’d be delighted for you to slip into his handiwork. Try this one—a smoky number cut like a tux, with jade tendrils climbing the shoulders. Oh yes, this will do. It looks like something Keith Urban would wear to an awards show. It feels like sex and money.