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Pretenders don authentic Elvis threads at Butch & Kim’s

Elvis didn’t coin the phrase “the clothes make the man,” he just personified it.

Not Bing Crosby’s hat, Elton John’s glasses or Angus `AC/DC’ Young’s Union Jack knickers are more identifiable than an Elvis Presley jumpsuit.

The garments don’t even need explaining. This legacy of the original rock star is so widely recognized that the “enhanced” jumpsuit is the integral item in the repertoire of any Elvis impersonator, or tribute artist (ETA to those in the know).

And outside of making an arrangement with Graceland (and that’s not gonna happen), there’s only one place in the world any would-be ETA can get an authentic replica - B & K Enterprises, in Charlestown, Ind.

“We are the only ones in the world who have the original patterns that belonged to Elvis Presley and the only ones with permission from the original designers to reproduce the wardrobe,” said Butch Polston, the “B” of B & K.

And it’s widely held that most any Elvis who wants a little more respect on the circuit can don one of Polston’s beauties and instantly step up the ETA ladder.

“As soon as people see your suit, you’ll automatically get some respect,” said Irv Cass, 1999 Images of the King champion. Images is pretty much the Superbowl of Elvis impersonator contests, held during Elvis tribute week each August in Memphis.

“Looking good is important,” said Cass.

It should be noted that Cass is a B & K client, but then so are most of the major Elvi on the continent (especially the contest winners), including those in Hollywood.

Polston’s work has graced the silver screen in movies such as 3000 Miles to Graceland, Finding Graceland, Honeymoon in Vegas and Into the Night, as well as a list of documentaries.

“We generally do about 10 suits a month in the last three months,” Polston said, noting the pickup around tribute week.

For major manufacturing houses, 10 garments really isn’t anything, but Polston and his wife, Kim, revere the work and treat it accordingly, doing almost all the work by hand.

Polston estimates the Aloha Liberty Eagle suit takes nine hours to cut and sew. Studding the garment and cape is an additional 50-55 hours. Then nine to 10 more hours are needed to complete the belt, done among three people.

“And when it comes to embroidery, it could take up to 80 hours to do some suits,” he said, “like the Dragon, and probably another 10 to put all the stones on and then another 10 hours to do the sewing and another 10 to do the belt.

“That’s the reason why our costumes cost so much, and because we also use A-grade materials.”

The cost can be prohibitive for some, so start saving your royalties. Polston’s suits on average sell for $1,500, and can go to $4,200.

“But we sell a lot of the $800 (jumpsuits),” he said, like the ones you see in the documentary That’s the Way It Is, designed by Bill Belew, like the Fringe suit, Chain suit and the Concho.

But even $800 can be a fi-nancial burden to someone who just wants an Elvis jumpsuit, and Polston realizes his market is small, mainly working Elvises.

“I tell people they don’t have to buy garments from us, but we are the best in the industry,” he said. “These garments are a tool, like a screwdriver is for a mechanic.”

Polston’s confidence doesn’t just come from the fact he and Kim grew their basement operation into the elite company it is. Nor is it just because he has the respect of Graceland, Hollywood and costume makers who can tell the difference between a first-class reproduction and a painter’s coverall made up like a clown suit.

Polston may have begun in a basement, but he did it with some royal blessing.

Gene Doucette dreamed up, designed and crafted the most famous jumpsuits in the world. And he can’t say enough about Polston.

“I did the original patterns,” Doucette said, “of course that was many, many years ago. When Butch and Kim got me back into them, I could rattle off sizes of rhinestones, fabrics I used, colors of thread . . . just not when I did them. It was back in my other life.

“(But) Butch is a real historian. He knows exactly what year I did which suit and what I used to do it. He will call Europe just to find one specific stone that I used.

“I don’t see anybody else that could possibly get as close to the original as Butch and Kim do.”

That could be because Doucette works on some of their suits.

Doucette volunteered that the income he gets from B & K is nice and has helped make a few mortgage payments on his house in Los Angeles. But his career wouldn’t end without it.

After Elvis, Doucette’s talents were employed by the Ice Capades, Sonny and Cher, Bob Hope, the MGM Grand and Punky Brewster. More recently, he did beaded dresses for Charlie’s Angels, and, for comic book fans, a very modest Doucette admitted to helping out on Spider-Man (he worked out a bug in the Spidey’s web-shooting thing.)

But it’s hard to think he’ll be crafting reproductions of any Charlie’s Angels dress in 25 years.

So, you have to wonder, if B & K (with Doucette’s help) put together a suit fit for the king, just how close would it be to what Elvis sweated up onstage?

“It would be scary close,” Doucette says. “There are differences in the suits, in the sense that threads that were used then aren’t available now. If you had a favorite T-shirt 15 years ago and tried to reproduce it, you’d never find (the same fabrics) today. The rayons and rhinestones used then, because of lack of use now, there aren’t as many available.

“So you have to ad lib a little bit. But I get pretty close.”

“With Gene and Bill giving me the rights,” Polston said, “they asked me to keep the quality in the costumes.”

Polston’s ETA-like appreciation for Elvis probably has a great deal to do with keeping that quality.

“The only thing that I’d ask is to make sure (this story) is a positive thing,” Polston said. “Remind people that it’s not about Butch and Kim and Gene.

“It’s by the grace of God - and Elvis - that we’re doing this today.”