C&I Magazine: There’s no denying Yellowstone captured the imagination of viewers as an action-packed, epic family drama highlighting the Western way of life. But the characters’ style created side buzz as The Yellowstone Look introduced a broader audience to Western fashion. Johnetta Boone, Yellowstone's costume designer, is the mastermind behind each character’s wardrobe, ensuring every piece provides insight into the character and storyline.
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This article was awesome to read. I really love seeing POC representation backstage, they are almost always forgotten about. Their artistry is always undermined, and their wisdom is always taken for granted. It makes me sad because I see things like this too often. But I really appreciate this article for not asking condescending questions and actually asking questions about her work rather than using her as a “diversity” case.
Focusing on her, I really appreciate the sensitivity she has when clothing her characters, especially those of not her culture. She goes to research with the indigenous communities directly, and not just googling random stuff and calling it a day. It is really important for all designers to design around a culture that is not their own. I think that it is amazing how she is still able to bring herself and her own vision into these kinds of costumes. She somehow stays true to the characters she is making while also still giving herself the kind of creative freedom.
I really like the idea that characters give costumes their life. Boone’s quote “We can put each one in the same shirt and jeans, each one will have their own flavor that we will accentuate”. The idea that the same outfit will accentuate different aspects of each character is fascinating to me. Thinking about how adding to that outfit based on what is most significant part of the outfit on the character. Another thing I liked was the idea that pieces “choose” their designers. Sentiments like that make me roll my eyes a little bit because I think a huge part of some people losing their love for theatre is the “artist” attitude (passion motivated, everything is made so deep, all pieces must have an artistic meaning). Treating theatre like every piece must “save the world” or be a huge turning point on your career is a great way to burn out and lose all interest. Regardless, I like the idea of a piece choosing its creative team by virtue of the hiring managers being so intimate with the story. They are able to choose “the best” staff to create a the best people fit for the job.
I love that Boone talks about how much the personality of the characters influences the way in which she chooses to dress them. Because in real life our personalities influence the way that we get dressed everyday, that’s why real people have original senses of style, so why shouldn’t characters as well. In addition I think that sourcing of the looks is something often overlooked in the consideration of costumes. Because once the design and style is there you must get the materials. I really appreciate that some of the pieces were vintage, because clothes are a huge source of waste in this world and thrifting and vintage is an important way to remedy that. Also it is extremely important that for the styling of indigienous characters Boone went to the community and actually found looks made by local artisans. Also allowing the actor of those roles to use some of her own looks to portray the character likely helped her feel more at home in the role that is typically not portrayed in media.
Many would think that costuming a period piece would be harder than that of a modern one, and while logistically this is true as period pieces take much more research, labor, and money to reproduce. I find that costuming modern pieces are much harder to design, because it is incredibly easy to make a modern piece look more noticeably tacky and over the top. The American western style within this show is especially hard to pull of, because to a modern audience it is easier to know when something is absurdly styled, then when a period piece is poorly styled. This is because unless you’re well versed in the historical time period, even historically incorrect garments will still transport an audience. Poorly styled modern pieces on the other hand really need to be thought though, because otherwise it is clear that the designer is not in touch with the material culture of an area. In my opinion Johnetta Boone did an absolutely incredible job, because I truly have never seen a designer succeed so much in making cowboy hats look cool. Along with that she captured a color pallet throughout the film that only emphasizes the natural environment around the characters.
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