Manuel Arturo José Cuevas Martínez Sr. (born April 23, 1933[1] in Coalcomán Michoacán) is a Mexican fashion designer best known for the garments he created for prominent rock and roll and country music acts.

"[3] After success in making prom dresses in Mexico, Cuevas moved to Los Angeles in 1951 and worked for several tailors.

Soon he was tailoring suits for elite members of the Los Angeles community including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Bob Hope, Don Rickles, and Joey Bishop.

While still working as the fitter at Sy Devore's, Cuevas bartered his sewing expertise with Grae, saying he would cut the shirts and pants for her in return for teaching him the craft of embroidery.

Cuevas worked all weekend tailoring the suits, and Monday morning delivered all the outfits to Murphy.

Cuevas designed and created many of the suits that Nudie's Rodeo Tailors became famous for in the late '50s, '60s, and early '70s.

It was at Nudie's Rodeo Tailors that Cuevas became known for his one-of-a-kind designs, making each piece unique.

[2][4] From 1975 till 1988, Manuel Couture became a go-to designer and image maker for up-and-coming musicians in Los Angeles.

"His customers seem to place a near-blind faith in Manuel putting their professional images in his hands, believing that what he whips up for them will be right.

"[7] Throughout his North Hollywood career, Cuevas worked with famed costumer Edith Head and made costumes for over 90 movies and 13 television shows, including the jeans James Dean wore in the movie Giant,[8] and the Lone Ranger's famous mask.

[9][10] After nearly 40 years in Los Angeles, Cuevas moved his business and family (second wife Susan, and three children Morelia, Manny Jr., and Jesse-Justin) to Nashville, Tennessee.

[12] In 2005, in an effort to design for the "average Joe", Cuevas worked with his son Manny Jr. to create a men's and women's luxury, ready-to-wear clothing line featured at New York Fashion Week in 2006.

The limited-piece collection was manufactured in Italy and was the first and only time that Cuevas produced any clothing outside of the United States.

Manuel American Designs opened its new 3,100-square-foot retail space located at the corner of 8th and Broadway, in September 2013.

[14] On January 24, 2014, Cuevas and Maria Salinas Del Carmen were married at the Davidson County Courthouse.

[15] Cuevas's client list includes Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings, Porter Wagoner, John Wayne, Clayton Moore (the Lone Ranger), Dwight Eisenhower, Little Jimmy Dickens, John Lennon, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Glen Campbell, Ernest Tubb, Gene Autry, the Osmonds, David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Roy Rogers, Neil Young, Elton John, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, George H. Bush, George W. Bush, the Bee Gees, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Catherine Bach (Daisy Duke), The Jackson Five, John Travolta (Urban Cowboy), Robert Redford (The Electric Horseman), Robert Taylor, Marlon Brando, Burt Reynolds, Raquel Welch, David Lee Roth, Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Mike Mills, Shooter Jennings, Kid Rock, The Killers, Jack White, Kenny Chesney, Randy Travis, Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Zac Brown Band, Miranda Lambert, Jon Pardi, Frankie Ballard, Ozzy Osbourne, Dalton Grap, and countless others.

"[19] Cuevas designed a shirt for famed artist Salvador Dalí while working with Viola Grae.

He then scribbled a drawing of the two of them as they stood in front of the mirror, and Dalí then gave the original piece of art to Cuevas as an impromptu gift.

[22] Cuevas and Dwight Yoakam collaborated for about 15 years to come up with his signature "Hillbilly Deluxe" look, featuring low-slung tight-fitting jeans and sparkling arrow-stitched embroidered jackets.

He has a great respect for his older peers, like Buck Owens, Hank Williams Sr., and Ernest Tubb, so this 'new style' of his is a blend of the retro and the new.

But then he put it on..."[16] For The Flying Burrito Brothers' 1969 The Gilded Palace of Sin album cover, Gram Parsons commissioned Nudie and Cuevas to create a suit.

The green leaves featured prominently in the design on the front of the jacket are a marijuana plant, and the red-petaled flowers above them are poppies, the natural source of morphine, opium, and heroin.

[24] Cuevas has been quoted as saying, "Gram and I discussed his suit in detail for several months before I committed it to fabric.