While you consider a Western, you’re doubtless to consider the Wild West: Perhaps the post-Civil Warfare days of the 1870s and the Battle of Little Bighorn, or the Eighties and the gunfight on the O.Ok. Corral.
“1923” then had a selected problem: To convey plenty of probably the most recognizable Western motifs — spurs, 10-gallon hats, chaps — however advanced 40 years past that the majority recognizable interval. The Nineteen Twenties had been a time when the Wild West of Montana, the house state of Taylor Sheridan‘s central Dutton household, straight collided with the trendy age.
Costume designer Janie Bryant had already held the identical position on Sheridan’s earlier collection “1883” and received an Emmy for costume-designing “Deadwood” (along with “Mad Males,” for which she obtained a number of nominations). Due to that earlier expertise with Westerns, she was very attuned to the refined variations wanted for “1923.” Stuff like how, in “1883,” no cowboys would have worn plaid. In “1923,” following the massive inflow of Scottish immigrants to Montana within the many years since — Montana presently would have been a patchwork of accents reflecting all of the completely different ethnicities that had solely not too long ago arrived there — plaid would have been extensively adopted. Bryant even provides one of many present’s villains, Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn), a plaid necktie to put on.
Authenticity was all the things for Bryant in designing and sourcing the garments all of the characters put on, and she or he’s been nominated for Excellent Interval Costumes on the 2025 Emmys for “1923.” As Michelle Randolph says within the video under, a lot of her attire on Season 2 of the present — stockings, hats, gloves — had been precise classic gadgets from the Nineteen Twenties that Bryant discovered and purchased for her to put on.
“The largest distinction from the Eighties to the Nineteen Twenties is de facto the tall, topped cowboy hats,” Bryant instructed IndieWire. “In the event you take a look at Jacob’s hat, Harrison Ford’s hat — I name his hat ‘The Jacob’ — and it’s a Montana peak crease,” a cowboy hat with a very tall middle, or crown, a lot taller than is commonly depicted for cowboys earlier than the Nineteen Twenties. However by the ’20s, this had develop into extra the type, partially due to the Hollywood actor and film cowboy Tom Combine, a serious display star within the 1910s and ’20s.
“He’s an exaggerated instance, however in case you take a look at the cowboy Tom Combine, he had a really, very tall topped hat,” Bryant stated. “That’s an enormous distinction in what the cowboys wore within the Eighties, very completely different type.” You evaluate the cowboy hats throughout “1923” to photographs of Combine, they usually’re very related. A celebrity in his day, Combine might not be identified even to many cinephiles at present, however he was on Bryant’s radar. And thru its plot, “1923” itself acknowledges the rising affect of Hollywood even at the moment, as a number of native cowboy characters within the story had been stated to have fled Montana to attempt their hand on the rising film enterprise. (This can be a time, thoughts you, when the precise Wyatt Earp of O.Ok. Corral fame actually was an advisor for Westerns on Hollywood film units.)
And on condition that Season 2 of “1923” has all of its Montana-set motion happen throughout a very brutal winter, capturing genuine winter attire for this very distinctive time and place was important as effectively. “They wore heaps and plenty of layers, like layers that the viewers didn’t even actually see, the thermals, sweaters, layers of similar to sweaters, shirts, all these parts,” Bryant stated. “They had been carrying many layers that you just actually couldn’t see below their jackets — scarves, gloves, hats — it was all layered on. And I imply, it was actually chilly.” It even hit a adverse 21-degree Fahrenheit wind chill at one level throughout taking pictures.
Then there’s the matter of winterizing the costumes to make them appear to be they’ve been within the chilly for a really very long time. For a lot of Season 2, the Yellowstone ranch is minimize off from the close by city of Bozeman due to how impassable the roads and trails are from the snow. And the garments should mirror fixed use in these harsh circumstances.
“I’ve an incredible distressing and growing older workforce,” Bryant stated. “I work with them on growing older and distressing the costumes as a result of that’s such an vital ingredient for ‘1923,’ that the costumes are aged, that they don’t seem model new. For [Randolph’s character] Elizabeth, she had many, many multiples of her costume. So she type of begins clear, after which at completely different occasions within the script, we’d make it soiled, soiled, soiled, soiled till she’s laid up on the couch. And I had many, many, many stockings for her that we bloodied. Relying on how lengthy the character is round, I would say, ‘She’s going to have seven multiples.’ So she would have seven of her complete costumes. After which these costumes could be separated by scenes and by grime, principally [to convey the progression of time]. I imply, let me simply say, it’s not actual grime; it’s pretend grime. Nobody’s in true soiled clothes [laughs].”
Bryant contributed to telling the story of “1923” — i.e., truly advancing the plot — in an enormous approach by means of her costumes. The garments determine completely different factions and clearly delineate a few of the battle strains. “In Bozeman, you see males carrying fits and well-dressed girls within the newest fashions,” Bryant stated. “That’s in distinction to what’s happening on the Duttons’ Yellowstone ranch, the place they’re somewhat extra old style they usually nonetheless use horses somewhat than vehicles and have a way more conventional cowboy aesthetic.”
Utilizing the garments to inform the story was significantly vital within the case of Julia Schlaepfer’s Alex, the British aristocrat who falls in love with Brandon Sklenar’s Spencer and journeys midway around the globe to be with him once more — enduring a lot within the course of.
“Alex actually went on a journey the place she misplaced all the things,” Bryant stated. “Mainly, in Season 1, due to her journey with Spencer, she simply stored shedding issues. And so I type of took that strategy with Season 2 as effectively. Actually, all she had left was her coat that she grabbed out of the lavatory stall from the person [at Grand Central Station] who attacked her, and she or he had the garments on her again, after which she was given this job to be a waitress on the prepare. And so these had been all very, essential parts of her being stripped away of her costumes principally.”
That turns into much more related given her ill-advised resolution to simply accept a automotive journey by means of the Dakotas and Montana winter from a well-meaning however considerably clueless Chicago couple, Paul and Hillary.
“Taylor had written that the women weren’t actually touring with gloves as a result of it was the tip of March, they usually had been pondering like, ‘Oh, it’s going to be heat,’” Bryant stated. “That was positively some extent within the story the place they weren’t well-prepared. I imply, that they had introduced some blankets and that type of factor, however they weren’t ready for the way chilly it was going to be.” Horrible penalties ensue — and all due to the important thing plot position that the garments play within the story.
Bryant designed costumes for 2 of probably the most acclaimed reveals of the twenty first century in “Deadwood” and “Mad Males,” reveals the place the garments contributed so on to the narrative. “1923” Season 2 is in each sense a continuation of what she did so effectively on these reveals: Domesticate a way of complete immersion the place you lose your self in one other world, and the story could be that rather more highly effective.