The original belt, and the cape are in private hands. Elvis himself gave them to a young boy, dressed in a jumpsuit like Elvis', during the show on June 30th, 1973. He also wore it for the cover of his 1959 album 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong, which featured 16 images of Elvis in the suit on the cover. It will join other rare artefacts from Elvis Presley's estate, which include his 16 karat TCB Taking Care of Business ring, a Champagne bottle from Elvis's wedding to Priscilla that's signed by both the bride and groom and the gold phone that was beside his bed. Elvis was a style icon. He was effortlessly cool in his early days when he reportedly wore anything fancy and flashy that he could afford on stage, but would also dress down in blousons, pleated trousers, and two-tone shoes in his everyday attire.

Party Essential: Bring The King's spirit to your party by letting guests pose alongside the Elvis Gold Suit Cardboard Cutout. It's sure to become the centrepiece of attention. Polston said that when Elvis was preparing to make his return to live performing in Las Vegas in 1969 at the International Hotel, he asked Belew to create something unique that he could easily move around in like his karate gi. The outfit was so valuable that Elvis' notorious manager, Colonel Tom Parker, always had it specially transported in an armoured car under armed guard. Two almost identical versions were made of this suit, which were both worn during the 'Aloha shows'. Apparently, the suit Elvis wore during the rehearsal show was slightly bigger. It's also the version Elvis wore later on tour (and in Vegas) in 1973 and 1974.It didn’t take the designer long to come up with his idea for what Elvis should wear in the concert segment before a live audience. Elvis pushed gender boundaries throughout his career, famously making floral prints cool in the Sixties when he wore a red hibiscus shirt for the movie Blue Hawaii. Prada, Dior, and Saint Laurent have all since adapted the Aloha style. The cape that was worn with the "1973 American Eagle" was not the original one. The one that was originally designed for the suit, was way bigger, and way too heavy for Elvis to use on stage (pictures below). Nudie, a flamboyant country and western tailor, was famous for putting rhinestones on clothing for many country stars of the day. Colonel Parker, inspired by a gold costume that Liberace wore, told him: “I want you to make something for him [Elvis] that’s out-of-this-world spectacular.”

Despite being so iconic, Elvis only wore the full outfit three times as he found the gold trousers heavy to wear. Added Belew, who is said to have later helped remove the famous leather outfit from Presley’s sweat-soaked body: “He was a great person to dress. He had a terrific build at that point.”

THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF GRACELAND

When you compare the suit Elvis is wearing on all the known pictures, to the one that is on display at Graceland nowadays, there is a difference. The head of the bird is completely different... which would either mean that there were two slightly different versions of the suit, or the head of the bird was altered (ie. nail's added) when Elvis wore the suit for the last time(s) in 1973 (in Las Vegas August/September??) The Colonel decided that his golden boy needed a golden suit, and so he commissioned Nudie (at left with Elvis) to fashion a gold-leaf tuxedo for Elvis to wear on stage during his personal appearances in 1957. The material Nudie chose for the gold clothing was lamé, which involves wrapping thin ribbons of metallic material around a fabric yarn. In the fifties, the process was most commonly used for fancy eveningwear and theatrical costumes. The most common colors of such garments were gold and silver. An issue with lamé is that the yarn tends to slip and separate with frequent usage, a weakness that, in the end, would prove the undoing of the Presley ensemble. You could be daring as a designer and put anything on Elvis and he could make it work,” Belew said in a news release in 2007 when Graceland in Memphis launched a two-year special exhibit featuring 56 additional Presley stage costumes in its visitor center, which also has a permanent costume exhibit.

The actual suit is owned by EPE/Graceland, but as mentioned above, the original belt and cape are still in private hands. Belew, whose many TV credits as a costume designer included “The Flip Wilson Show,” “Mr. Belvedere” and “Santa Barbara,” received an Emmy nomination for the 1980 special “The Carpenters: Music, Music, Music.” Exhibition curator Angie Marchese says: "The reaction to the exhibition has been amazing and now we're thrilled to be including the stunning gold suit that belonged to Elvis. As the late designer Joe Casely-Hayford put it, “Elvis was at the forefront in defining a new anti-establishment visual language." He was the original rebel, but he made that status accessible. "Aside from good looks, he knew the appeal of being an outsider. Even today, a distilled version of his look has filtered down into the wardrobes of any self-respecting teenage rebel."

Elvis’ manager, Col. Tom Parker, commissioned famed tailor Nudie Cohn, to create a sparkling suit for Elvis to wear on stage. Nudie’s suits are famous for their intricate embroidery and rhinestones, and his client list included Hank Williams, Porter Wagoner, John Lennon, John Wayne, Cher and many more. Another popular costume was the Aloha Eagle Suit, which Presley wore on “Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii,” a 1973 global television concert broadcast via satellite. However, the trousers were restored and have been displayed with the full outfit at Graceland after the estate bought the gold suit from Colonel Parker following Elvis' death in 1977. I wanted the clothes to be easy and seductive,” he said in the 1999 interview. “And I never wanted anything to compromise his masculinity.”