White Concha
suit is a one-colored rough, white suit with "concha" - a Mexican word for
metal rings. There are 85 big metal rings around the chest opening, around
the collar and on the back of the sleeves and also on the outside of the
legs. Strips of white fabric were threaded through those rings.
The belt is white macramé with 23 metal rings, and as usual
it was tied on Elvis' left side with fringes all the way down to the middle
of his leg. This outfit can also be seen on the cover of the LP That's
The Way It Is.
In the movie you can also see that the collar is about to go flat possibly
because of the pressure from the metal rings. Elvis wore the outfit for the
first time on August 11th 1970, at the dinner show. It is also used in the
dinner show the next day and several times later this season.
There are rumors that Elvis had two or three identical White
Concha suits and the fact that there are two known belts. One is located in
Hard Rock Café in Malta, which they bought on auction October 7th 1995. The
other is located on Hard Rock Café in Kuwait and this belt has only 11 metal
rings. Elvis probably wore the second version of this suit in Las Vegas
January/February 1971, sometimes with the belt Elvis was given by the hotel
in 1969 - The Gold Attendance belt. One of the suits has been on display at
Graceland and hopefully the other suit is in their archives as well.
Known Concert Dates
wearing this suit:
Date |
Venue |
Location |
Showtime |
Crowd |
Belt |
Musicians |
11/08/1970 |
International
Hotel |
Las Vegas, Nevada |
08:15 p.m. |
2.200 |
Original Belt |
|
12/08/1970 |
International
Hotel |
Las Vegas, Nevada |
08:15 p.m. |
2.200 |
Original Belt |
|
26/07/1971 |
Sahara
Hotel |
Lale Tahoe, Nevada |
00:00 a.m. |
|
Gold Attendance
Belt |
|
Sources:
Elvis Presley, Fashion
for a King, by Tommy Edwardsen and Atle S. Larsen (Follow That Dream)
Elvis – The Concert
Years – 1969-1977, by Stein Erik Skar
Elvis Presley in
Concert, TCB World websites and others.
Gallery:
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