Janie Bryant Recreates The End Of The Wild West For Paramount’s “1923”

Following the success of Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone, prequels to the family odyssey were produced. First 1883, also costumed by Janie Bryant, and then 1923, which is now in its second season. The Dutton family and its precious land are center stage as we learn the history of a fictional family which has gripped audiences as the legacy reaches back across more than a century of American history.

I met with Bryant to talk about 1923, the many different families and cultures which intersect in the narrative, and how she kept thousands of costumes straight. Because there are so many characters in this story, obviously the Dutton family are the protagonists, but they have friends, enemies, neighbors and more. I asked Bryant how she managed to make the various groups and subgroups, especially when they are all male, look different enough to help the audience to know who was who.

“It was challenging to make all of these men seem different,” she told me. “Even though they’re all wearing practically the same pieces of clothing. It’s really done with tone, color, silhouette. At the beginning of 1923, that’s like when we’re first introduced to the sheepers and their silhouette was all about like overalls and denim and snap caps and sweaters and different, softer sheeper elements, if you will. So that I could really contrast the sheepers from the cowboys. The cowboys have a totally different look. They have their chaps and since we’re in the 1920s, I love to use buffalo plaids, plaids and checks, really incorporating those elements with the cowboys. Also, cowboy hats are very different from snap caps. So, you know, it’s all kinds of variations.”

But the way people wear clothing today is very different than we did a century ago, and Bryant explained that the differences affected the way the actors wore their costumes, how coaching was needed to make sure all the details stayed period accurate. “I always tell the guys, let’s create that long leg,” she said. “You know, it’s like men wear their pants so low these days. And one of the beautiful aspects of the 1920s is that men really wore their pants like right at their first rib. Oh my gosh, it’s so hard to get those guys to wear them at that height sometimes. I’m like, y’all got to pull your pants up, please.”

“Those jeans are cut very, very high waisted. They needed to be up to the rib on the waist. That was like a very iconic style of the 1920s, to really showcase that waist and the man’s physique. And for me, it creates such a manly masculine body, a masculine shape. It was very, very important for Spencer to have that silhouette. Even for his undershirt to be very tight on the biceps, with his sleeves rolled up, gripping to his biceps and all the sweat in the dirt. I just loved creating that masculine character. With Spencer’s jeans, like I designed those and we made those in my tailor shop. The Cowboys, they wear wool pants, woolens. They also wear, like a lot of the sheepers, they wore a lot of denim too and a lot of denim overalls.”

A quick pause for some historical background: denim pants, jeans as we think of them today, were born out of the American Gold Rush. German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss came to America in 1847 with his mother and sisters and opened a New York based dry goods business. The business was successful, expanded, and Strauss became an American citizen in 1853. He followed the demand for his goods west, eventually to California where there were endless prospectors in need of clothing, tents, mining tools and other products. Eventually Jacob W. Davis, a tailor, became one of Strauss’ customers and soon his business partner. In late May of 1873 they received U.S. Patent 139,121, for a method of using metal rivets to attach pieces of denim fabric, making the garments more durable and long-lasting than was possible with typical sewing. Levi Strauss & Co. became famous for their overalls and soon their denim work pants, which we would call ‘jeans’ today.

“Spencer, his character was never like a tie guy,” Bryant explained to me. “He has more of a cowboy and hunter aesthetic. In his wardrobe, he’s a little bit more casual than the other men. He definitely has a transformation from his safari wear into his new role. I loved the idea of him being in blue, shades of blue when we first see him, to really reference the sea and that lifestyle with his companion, Luca. I feel like those shades of blue are strong colors. And he’s the protector of Luca. So, having that costume for him was really important. I love having Spencer like contrasting from all the other characters that he meets up with on the road.”

The matriarch of the Dutton family, who writes letters to Spencer like diary entries, is the majestic Helen Mirren as Cara Dutton with a gruff Harrison Ford impeccably playing her loving husband, Jacob Dutton. I asked Bryant about the character, because Cara is the person who keeps everyone together when all seems lost. To call her strong wouldn’t fairly get my point across.

“I really designed her character as a farm wife, and that is how she approaches life,” the designer explained. “She, and what she wears, is very sturdy, very strong. I loved designing that character, especially the dark tones, a dark color palette, because she and Jacob really, they carry the burden of that ranch. Both of their color palettes are very dark in tone. I designed her clothing. It’s more reminiscent of mid 19th century, or the turn of the 20th century. She has more of an old fashioned silhouette. I felt like she would not be dressing in 1920s style, no binding, she’s like, I’m not gonna have any of that. I’m gonna be wearing my corset. You’ll notice that as the season goes on, she has so many beautiful pieces, in very dark, darker tone palettes, which I love.”

In addition to the Duttons, those they love and their enemies, there is a plot I feel certain will connect to the family by the end of this season, perhaps when Spencer finally makes it home to the ranch. At its heart, 1923, just like 1883 and Yellowstone, is a western and it would be impossible to tell a western story without Native American characters. Though historically, they have not been portrayed exactly fairly. 1923 is a show that does its best to avoid such mistakes.

The stories of indigenous Americans, like the Apsáalooke (Crow) we see in 1923, are often sanitized before they are presented on screen. That doesn’t happen in this series, which is something I believe to be both important and fair. We see some awful things, stuff that really happened, and it is important to acknowledge our history if we would like our culture to be better, now and in the future. The regalia we see worn (side note: please NEVER call the clothing of indigenous peoples’ costumes) is a blend of traditional garments and influences from the Americans who have taken over the land. Depicting all of this, making it feel real, was important to the showrunners and to Bryant. Obviously I had to ask her about the research, how she worked out who wore what and why.

“There was a story that I read, where between 1868 and 1881,” Bryant told me, “the government had decided to kill off the Comanches. They decided to go get all the armies together, and go kill all the buffalo. 31 million buffalo. When you see the mounds and mounds and mounds of buffalo killed, that was on purpose, they wanted to kill off Native Americans. That was pretty much their goal. But one of my favorite stories from 1923 is Teonna Rainwater’s story. I just love everything about that. It’s so heart wrenching, and it was probably worse than what the audience will see in the show. I don’t know if you could really show how evil it was, you know? It goes there, though.”

She is right, 1923 doesn’t flinch, it holds up a figurative light to historical atrocities, to crimes that were evil even if they were not illegal in the years when the show takes place. I suspect that this is where the show gets its resonance, its power. This series is undeniably compelling, and as always, the clothing the characters wear gives the audience important information that cannot be communicated with mere words.

In season one, we watch Teonna escape the prison slash re-education camp slash abusive Catholic “school,” where she does not want to be and where she and all the other teen and child Native Americans attending have literally been forcibly sent to, kidnapped is not too strong a word. When she escapes, it is a relief, at least until the Priest in charge of the “school” decides to go after her.

I, probably shocking no one, was immediately curious about the logistics of all the heavy the religious attire, and how on earth all of this was filmed, in summer presumably, when era-appropriate attire meant an awful lot of heavy, unbreathable fabrics. As you may remember, synthetic textiles wouldn’t be invented for more than a decade, nylon, the first synthetic fiber, did not appear until 1939.

“Let’s just say they were covered in very thick wool,” Bryant told me. She rented many of the nuns’ habits, a completely normal and very reasonable thing to do. If you do not already know, costume rental houses exist all over the world, and making all the costumes, even just clothing from scratch for the principal characters, is incredibly expensive. A designer like Bryant makes as much as she can, but she keeps a pragmatic eye on costs and doesn’t waste the time, energy and expense of making every single garment.

“We were shooting in August, or like July and August,” Bryant confirmed. “And it was so hot in Texas, it was just sweltering. So, part of the challenge was to make these garments lighter weight for the actors, because it was so unbearably hot. I wanted to make sure that the actors were comfortable enough that they could remember their lines, and not faint and fall off a horse. So we made a lot of the priests’ costumes.”

There are many antagonists in this show, and often religious leaders are in their number, but Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) is the one that scares me the most, though I won’t get into the details of what happens with Christy and Lindy (Cailyn Rice and Madison Elise Rogers).

“I mean, all of those scenes are really hard to watch,” Bryant said, and I absolutely agree, though that fact does not mean that we should turn away. “It said in the script that they were nude, and just thought, I’m going to add some jewelry, to kind of illustrate the experience they’re going through. The accessories to me are really important to their costume. Even though, you know, they really are, quote unquote, unclothed, you know? I think it tells the story of their lives.”

I believe that costumes are filled with information about characters, that they are tools for an actor, but also for the audience, helping all peer into the motivations and choices a character makes. Seeing how much information can come out of so few garments was particularly impressive. Even though I feel like hiding every time Christy and Lindy come on screen.

Before we left, I asked Bryant to talk to me about a day-on-her life, what it is like for a costume designer to work on set. What her biggest focus is, what she has to do to keep clothing for so many characters straight.

“I go to set, and I do what’s called establishing costumes,” Bryant explained. “I make sure that all the costumes are set exactly how I want them. And then I have a team of set costumers. Set costumers take care of the actors after I go back to my office and start new fittings and prepare for the next week of shooting. My job really is about planning before we go to camera. Also to have multiples is very important, especially in a Taylor Sheridan show where there’s, you know, lots of blood, lots of action, lots of scenes with fights. You have to multiply all of those costumes and it’s very important to have everything matching the hero costume, the version before all the action.”

Though they are few in number, there are occasions in 1923 that require formal dress. Because of the era, we get to see one of Bryant’s many strengths, creating exquisite period evening gowns.

“With a period show,” the designer explained, “there are three major aspects. I design for the principal cast and my tailor shop builds the pieces. We also do rentals from costume houses or we purchase items. A lot of times when we purchase items, then I’ll redesign them. It would probably take years of prep time to design everything, including for all of the extras, and then have everything built. It’s really cost prohibitive to do that. So, I love it that I get to design for the principal cast.”

1923 is building to something big, Sheridan is an expert at building tension. Spencer better get home soon, that is the closest I will get to a spoiler about anything.

You can watch the series for yourself, I highly recommend that you do. The third episode of the second series will be released on Paramount+ today and there will be ten episodes in the second season.

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