Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee

The year-long cel­e­bra­tion of Elvis Presley’s 75th Birthday kicked into high gear on March 1 with the grand open­ing of “Elvis Presley: Fashion King,” at Graceland. The exhibit is the first of its kind at Elvis’ home in Memphis, and explores fash­ion trends ush­ered in by the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

“Elvis Presley: Fashion King” show­cases every­thing from the king’s hand­made shirts and casual suits to his flashy jew­elry and shoes, giv­ing vis­i­tors a first-hand look at how rock ‘n’ roll roy­alty dressed. Visitors will see the evo­lu­tion of Elvis’ out­fits, from an artist’s sketch to the final prod­uct, and how these cus­tom cre­ations were made. The exhibit pro­vides vis­i­tors with the feel­ing that they are peek­ing into Elvis’ per­sonal closet. There are casual suits, top coats, hats, scarves, more than 50 shirts and many acces­sories, includ­ing a cus­tom neck­lace fea­tur­ing more than 220 dia­monds and a 11.5-carat dia­mond soli­taire ring.

“Elvis Presley: Fashion King” will be open through March of 2012. It is one of three new exhibits to open at Graceland in 2010, allow­ing vis­i­tors to the National Historic Landmark the oppor­tu­nity to explore the var­i­ous sides of Elvis’ life, from his trend-setting style to his sim­ple upbringing.

A spe­cial exhibit opened on Elvis’ 75th birth­day on January 8, 2010, chron­i­cling key por­tions of Elvis’ life before he became an inter­na­tional singing sen­sa­tion. Starting with his birth in 1935, the exhibit “From Tupelo to Memphis,” fol­lows the future King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s path through high school grad­u­a­tion and his life as a deliv­ery truck dri­ver, prior to the launch of his music career. The exhibit gives fans a glimpse at rarely seen arti­facts, such as pho­tos of Elvis from his child­hood, report cards and one of Elvis’ first pay stubs as a deliv­ery truck dri­ver before mak­ing his first record­ing at Sun Studio on July 5, 1954.

Also open­ing as part of the year-long birth­day cel­e­bra­tion is a spe­cial exhibit fea­tur­ing Elvis’ iconic stage cos­tumes from 1969–1977. This exhibit charts the evo­lu­tion of the design of Elvis’ stage wear, pop­u­lar­ized dur­ing his Las Vegas engage­ments and con­cert tours. Inspired by Elvis’ great inter­est in karate, sim­ple wool gabar­dine suits were engi­neered with tunic-style tops and long, karate-style belts knot­ted to one side with the ends dan­gling from the hip. More than 20 of these cos­tumes, now con­sid­ered works of art, will be on dis­play through­out 2010 in this spe­cial exhibit, which is included as part of the tick­eted VIP Tour of Graceland.

In addi­tion to these new exhibits, vis­i­tors can tour the Graceland man­sion and 14-acre prop­erty, where they can fol­low in Elvis’ foot­steps as they enjoy an audio-guided tour fea­tur­ing com­men­tary and sto­ries by Elvis and his daugh­ter Lisa Marie. This is where Elvis lived, relaxed and spent time with his friends and fam­ily. The Graceland Mansion tour includes Elvis’ liv­ing room, music room, par­ents’ bed­room, din­ing room, kitchen, TV room, pool room and the famous Jungle Room.

Graceland is open for daily tours year round. During the spring and sum­mer sea­sons, hours of oper­a­tion are Monday — Saturday: 9:00 AM — 5:00 PM and Sunday: 10:00 AM — 4:00 PM. There are three ticket options to tour Elvis Presley’s Graceland with the VIP Tour, the Platinum Tour or Mansion Tour.

For more infor­ma­tion about mak­ing travel plans for Memphis & Graceland, visit Elvis.com or call to make reservations.

Photo by Pictophile

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