Costume designer Johnetta Boone is all about accuracy. Her work on the hit TV show Yellowstone demonstrates a deep familiarity with the ins and outs of ranch life and an extensive knowledge of Western fashion. Having done horseback riding in Virginia and Maryland as a teen, the designer came onto the project already fluent in the visual language of the show—an advantage she says allowed her “a bit of freedom” in crafting the look of the series that creator Taylor Sheridan once called “The Godfather in Montana.” Her styling process involved working closely with local artisans, Indigenous tribes, and real-life cowboys to create a verisimilitude that can only be achieved through building relationships with the real communities that populate this fictional story. Boone credits the Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter, who styled the series’ first season, with “setting the fantastic groundwork” that allowed Boone to further expand the vast world of the Dutton family, from season two up through and including this week’s series finale. With an exacting eye for detail, tone, and nuance, Boone has not only managed to capture the West but also make it her own. Boone tells Texas Monthly that nothing you see on screen is by chance. Every color, tailoring choice, and speck of dust played an integral role in the telling of the Dutton family drama.
Texas Monthly: How does the technical work these characters are doing, not to mention the weather, dictate your wardrobe choices?
JB: Our cowboys were on horseback for twelve hours a day. Everyone is dressed before the sun comes up, so it’s cooler in the morning, gets warmer throughout the day, and then it gets cool at night, even in Texas. So you have to be able to shed those layers. I got a few questions from noncowboys who would say, ‘Don’t you think those guys are hot in long sleeves?’ And I said, ‘Well, they have to wear long sleeves to protect themselves from a couple of things. You’re going to protect yourself from dehydration, sunburn, and anything that you’re brushing up against that would otherwise break your skin.’
Also, regionally, things are worn differently. If you’re in the South, of course, you’re not going to wear the same sort of apparel that you’re going to wear in the North. So that presented its own layer of depth when I’m dealing with the cowboys in Texas versus Montana. The Montana Plains cowboys typically wear their hats a little further down, sort of choked on their head, because it’s much windier there. And because their work is integrated within forests, they’ve got trees that will knock their hats off. In Texas, their brims are pitched very high, and that’s to keep the water off of their head, and so they’re not getting sunburned.
TM: When working with an ensemble cast like this, how do you begin to carve out their aesthetics so that each character is distinct while still making them feel grounded within the same reality?
JB: We can have ten people in the same denim shirt, but everyone’s going to wear the denim shirt differently. I pay close attention to the background story of a character, and that will dictate how the character is wearing what they’re wearing. On any given day, I would have twelve cowboys on set, not even including the family members, so it was very important for me to make sure that their costumes were in keeping with their personalities. Even though all the cowboys seemingly wore a Yellowstone Dutton Ranch oilskin-wax jacket, I made sure that there was something that gave it their own individual spin. Same thing with the neck rags and their jeans, I had probably five cowboys that all wore the exact same style jean, but Walker, who’s played by Ryan Bingham, always wore braces with his jeans. Some of the guys would wear their jeans starched and very, very strongly pressed, and others would wear them more relaxed. Some would wear them a bit looser, and some would wear them more fitted. I put those kinds of elements in place to separate each person individually.
TM: I’m sure you have to really be on the same page with your tailor working on a project like this.
JB: We definitely have to be on the same page. For instance, John Dutton started wearing suits and his suits did not fit perfectly. It’s important for the tailor to understand that while it’s their job to make sure things fit perfectly, it’s my job to make sure that they’re in keeping with the character. Kevin [Costner] and I had a conversation where he said, ‘I don’t want this to fit perfectly because [John Dutton doesn’t] like wearing suits. I prefer to be in my ranch wear, and if I am in a suit, it should be a suit that I’ve had for maybe a whole decade.’ Your body type changes, so the suit wouldn’t be perfectly fit. The closest tailor is a hundred miles away. Even if the suit fit perfectly, [I think about] the things that we could do to give it that sort of charm.
TM: Something that I loved about your work on this show was that attention to believability, down to the level of wear and tear in the clothing, or lack thereof. How do you go about creating that and making sure things look not only appropriate for the character but also appropriately lived-in by them?
JB: Those are the things that I wanted to make sure I got right because if I didn’t get it right, the equine community would absolutely let me know. Especially with the dirt level, that’s so critical. I use the research, which is my surrounding community, residents, ranchers, students, retail vendors, right down to our cowboys who are actual cowboys that were turned actors, not actors turned cowboys. If I was hesitant or had any question at all, I would just ask them. And they would always say to me, ‘Ms. Johnetta, you can do whatever you want.’ And I would say to them, ‘I know I can do whatever I want, but I want to make sure it’s right. So I defer to you guys because I’m a professional in my world, you’re a professional in your world, and we go hand in hand.’
TM: Are there any other small choices you made in the costumes that you feel tell a bigger story?
JB: Well, we would go in and sand the elbows on shirts and the knees on jeans. We overdyed quite a few pieces to make them richer and to saturate the colors a bit so they weren’t as bright. The average viewer doesn’t even realize that a black with a navy undertone is much colder than a black with a brown undertone. They might not understand what created that emotion, but when they see the action, it feels cold and calculated versus warm and cozy.
TM: With the rise of yeehaw fashion this year, what do you think it is about Western style that resonates with so many people right now?
JB: I think people are connecting with the simplicity of the Western lifestyle. They’re connecting with the beauty of the land. They’re connecting with going back to what matters most, which is family and nature. I think people are really tired of the rat race.
TM: So much of our life now is on the computer. I think that adds to how foreign the world of Yellowstone can feel. People can’t even fathom that.
JB: They can’t fathom it. I couldn’t fathom it! Being in Montana, it’s a bit of a fantasy world for a lot of people, seeing that much land. When you go into remote land like that, you can absolutely appreciate being off the grid and reconnecting. Even just reconnecting with yourself, which is so important. When we’re on these ranches, there is no cell service. We spend the better part of twelve, fourteen hours a day without our phone. Initially, we were all terrified, and then we all welcomed it. And so many of the homes that we stayed in—because there are no hotels in that area that can house a crew our size—they didn’t have Wi-Fi. Some of them didn’t have TVs!
TM: Talk about romantic!
JB: Yes, pretechnology. One can only imagine.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
