the ’Zine

Making the Nudie Suit - Concept Art by Shawn Witt

October 15, 2008 by Matt Derby

Filed under: Sketchbook / Tags: shawn-witt, rock-band-art, jimmy-buffett, outfits / 14 comments

Of all the fashion genres covered in Rock Band, the hardest to pin down is also the most obvious: Rock. "It's not a really clearly defined genre," says artist Shawn Witt, who was in charge of creating the Ultimate Male Rock Outfit for Rock Band 2. "The scope is much broader than, say, punk, but that makes it more difficult to represent." Witt and some of the other artists at Harmonix decided that, given the open-endedness of the assignment, it might be interesting to design a 'Nudie Suit' – an extravagantly embroidered, Western-cut outfit that became emblematic of the 'Countrypolitan' movement in country music from the 1950s through the 1970s. The Nudie Suit was developed by Nudie Cohn, a flamboyant Ukrainian tailor who had a penchant for rhinestones, appliqués, and handguns.

He set up shop in Hollywood in 1950, where he designed eye-popping, hallucinogenic stage garments for an ever-widening circle of celebrities such as Tex Williams, John Wayne, Cher, Elvis Presley, and, yes, ZZ Top, who can be seen rocking Nudie style on the cover of their 1975 opus, Fandango.

Witt researched Nudie's creations so that he could get the look and feel of the outfit just right. He was drawn primarily to country rock legend Gram Parsons as the inspiration for the Nudie suit that would eventually make it into the game. "A lot of the designs I looked at were sort of comical," Witt says, "but that suit that Gram Parsons is wearing on the cover of Gilded Palace of Sin, it's just really well done."

Shawn Witt's Nudie hat & boot concepts

Witt happened to be working on the final concept painting of the Rock Band 2 Nudie suit on the day that Jimmy Buffett was visiting the Harmonix offices to prepare three of his most popular tracks for DLC. "He looked over my shoulder and said, 'Whoa, what's that?'" Witt says. "I showed him the painting and he said he used to wear a Nudie suit on stage occasionally. I think he shared our attitude about the suit being impressive and extravagant in a comical way."

Preliminary concept paintings

Final orthographic of the Nudie suit

Nudie Cohn passed away in 1984, leaving you with only two ways to experience his embroidered masterpieces: Shell out a small fortune for an original on eBay (and compete with George Jones, who is reportedly trying to buy back all of the suits Nudie created for him – or win the Impossible Guitar Challenge to unlock the Nudie suit in Rock Band 2. Just try not to spill anything on it, because we went through hell making those rhinestone thigh pistols.

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sablanor...

that's amazing!

Monday, May 25, 2009

WayPastCool17...

Already got it. Not my favorite outfit but certainly worth unlocking. Strikes curioisty into the topic of what the "Ultimate Rock Outfit" will be in Rock Band 3.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

bullmozer...

nice suit!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

cichington1996...

this crap is cool

Saturday, December 6, 2008

loveisdestructive...

my momma woulnd't let me wear that..

Monday, October 27, 2008

Jimmik...

Awesome. Gotta unlock that.

And you guys forgot a ) in the last paragraph..

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Tygr1074...

Nice!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Will Sonic...

the suits pants are just so cool! I have them on my faverote charecter,Roger- !-

Friday, October 24, 2008

Shillelagh Law...

The behind the scenes art stuff is great. Love the concept sketches.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

stickshady...

I feel like Elvis or wwf's Honkey tonk man when I wear it. I love this design

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Stahlbrand...

Seeing the Nudie Suit in game was a cool surprise -- I only learned what a Nudie was last year, and while its not my look per se, I love the idea of an over-the-top western-style suit with opium poppies, gambling cards, and pistols on it in embroidery and rhinestones - there is something inherrently rock about that, even if you don't wear the western look otherwise.

It was a bold choice, but I can't think of anything that would work better for rock that isn't already represented in your default rockshop wardrobe.

Love the bonus content, but can we get larger pictures next time?

Saturday, October 18, 2008

felix_amanex...

awesome.. what if I had some designs.. like Hairstyles or clothes or tattoo's .. maybe you can have it to where you can not only Human avatars.. but creature/demon ones :D of many eye shapes colors and tails.. scales to fur to spikes.. sharp teeth etc..

Friday, October 17, 2008

bassetlab...

This is so cool getting the inside scoop on how the team went about creating this outfit. I must admit when I won it and saw what it was I cracked up laughing. Oh and I am so wearing it!

Friday, October 17, 2008