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Black Herringbone
Las Vegas, Season 1 – 57 Shows – July 31st – August 28th 1969

Black Herringbone is, like all suits this first Las Vegas season, a two piece suit with a top and pants always in the same color. The inspiration to these suits was retrieved from karate outfits so Elvis could easily do his moves on stage. The black top is like a long sweater with a big acute chest opening, a zipper under the left arm and down make it possible to undress this tight suit. A herringbone pattern is sewed around the chest opening and the small collar, two inches wide. The pattern ends at the end of the chest opening and this is the only Herringbone suit made this way. This suit also has a small loop that keeps the bottom of the breast opening together. On each side of the sleeves, there is one black button. All the other Herringbone suits have two buttons on each side. The top part of the outfit has a smooth and pleasant silky fabric lining.

The pants are black and quite simple in design, with the same silky fabric lining. We can only imagine how hot it was for Elvis to perform in these dark outfits with quantities of spotlights pointing at him in the small showroom in the middle of the Nevada desert in August where air conditioning probably was a must.

The two inches wide black fabric belt inspired by a karate belt had the same herringbone pattern with approximately six inches long fringes at each end. The belt was tied around the top part of the outfit, always on the left side.

Legend: Sometimes Elvis also wore this outfit off stage, with the gold attendance belt, that the International Hotel offered him for having beaten all attendance records in their show room.

Elvis also used the matching black scarf with blue and white stripes to this suit. The scarf was always a part of the stage outfits this season, and Elvis usually wore them throughout the concert with a few exceptions where he threw the scarf to the audience.

This first version of Black Herringbone suit, Black Cossak suit or Black Karate Style suit, as it is also known, was used for the first time on July 31^st 1969 – the opening night. This was a special event for Elvis. And this suit became a cherished memory of his comeback as a live performer and can be seen on display at Graceland today.

Known Concert Dates wearing this suit:

Sources:

Elvis Presley, Fashion for a King, by Tommy Edwardsen and Atle S. Larsen (Follow That Dream)

Elvis, 69 – The Return, by Joseph A. Tunzi

Elvis – The Concert Years – 1969-1977, by Stein Erik Skar

Elvis Presley in Concert, TCB World websites and others.

Gallery - 31/07/1969:
 

Gallery - Other Shows:
 

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