Long gone are the days of driving 400km to Sydney if you wanted to wear an Elvis jumpsuit at the Parkes Elvis Festival.
While online shopping has drastically changed this expedition, jumpsuits are now being handmade in town.
No travel or international shipping necessary except for perhaps a trip to the main street and into Sew and Go.
The handful of Parkes rugby players, who began the trend of the average festival goer dressing as Elvis for the full duration of the festival in the 90s and who made that annual trek to Sydney, would never have thought they’d see the day.
Thanks to new business owner Jo-Ann Lenord, it's now possible.
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Jo-Ann's been a seamstress most of her life and while taking on the business six months ago has its own set of challenges, she's admitted making jumpsuits are testing her skills.
She has five jumpsuits on order - four adults and one child, all of whom approached the business and asked if she would be willing to make them.
Jo-Ann's no stranger to the Elvis Festival, she's been attending since almost the beginning.
And she's certainly familiar with it takes to make a good jumpsuit and how much it means to its owner, since her brother is country music singer and Elvis tribute artist Royden Donohue.
Coincidentally in all the years her brother has been attending the festival and performing, she's never made his suits.
"No I have never made a jumpsuit," she said.
"I'm always up for a challenge, I'm enjoying the challenge, it's something new.
"It's nice to see the people ordering them and how they're so passionate about them."
The work involves many hours and late nights, especially with the festival fast approaching, and thousands of studs later.
"This collar for example took three hours, to give you an idea," Jo-Ann said.
"Most have been requesting what they'd like and telling me their ideas, I'm doing a phoenix on one which will be a challenge."
What's also been a challenge has been finding enough studs for the suits, with Jo-Ann having to search internationally.
Last year Jo-Ann was mainly altering dresses for the festival.
"I think it's the theme, the theme dictates what orders and enquiries we get," she said.
Jo-Ann lived in Newcastle for 20-odd years before 'retiring' to Parkes with hubby Tony who's originally from Dubbo.
When the local sewing store she was helping out in was looking likely to close, she decided to buy it.
"I didn't want to see it close, it has a lot of potential and I didn't want to see the town go without," she said.
With just 20 days to go until the start of the 2025 Parkes Elvis Festival on January 8, Jo-Ann isn't taking any more orders this year.
But if you're keen to have your very own Elvis jumpsuit made locally in Parkes for 2026, you can call Jo-Ann on (02) 6863 5481 or send her a message on Facebook at Sew & Go.
