Cowboy Couture with Costume Designer Johnetta Boone

Summary

The Yellowstone Official Podcast: Episode Summary

Title: Cowboy Couture with Costume Designer Johnetta Boone
Release Date: January 23, 2023
Hosts: Jefferson White ("Jimmy") and Jen Landon ("Teeter")
Guest: Janetta Boone, Costume Designer for Yellowstone
Produced by: iHeartPodcasts and Paramount Network

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Introduction

In this episode of The Yellowstone Official Podcast, hosts Jefferson White and Jen Landon delve into the intricate world of costume design on the hit series Yellowstone. Featuring a special interview with Janetta Boone, the esteemed costume designer behind the show's distinctive and trend-setting wardrobe, listeners are granted exclusive behind-the-scenes insights into how the characters' iconic looks are crafted.

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Behind the Scenes with Janetta Boone

Jefferson White opens the discussion by highlighting the pivotal role of costume design in shaping the visual narrative of Yellowstone. He states, “[Janetta Boone’s] vision has an impact well beyond the screen” (00:08), emphasizing how the show's style has cascaded into global fashion trends.

Janetta Boone expresses her enthusiasm, saying, “I love my job. I do. I'm so passionate about what it is that I do” (16:35). Her passion is evident as she meticulously discusses the creative process behind each costume.

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The Creative Process: From Script to Screen

The conversation delves into how costumes are conceptualized and brought to life based on the script. Jill Martin, a guest from the Today show, inquires about the initial stages of costume selection. Boone explains, “I start reading the scripts... and then I'll start to build or pull from the closets that already exist for the characters” (02:26).

She elaborates on how writer Taylor Sheridan often provides descriptive cues in the scripts, guiding the initial wardrobe choices. For instance, Sheridan might specify that John Dutton wears a suit, or Casey dons a sport coat, which Boone uses as a foundation to build each character’s unique style.

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Character-Specific Costumes

Beth Dutton’s Wedding Dress:
A significant focus is placed on Beth's wedding attire. Boone explains the careful selection of colors and materials:
“We wanted to do gold because it's opulent, it speaks. It's regal” (06:47). The choice of gold complements Beth’s golden hair, enhancing her regal presence. Additionally, the coat chosen for her character blends richness without being overly bright, aligning with her complex emotional journey.

Rip Wheeler’s Wardrobe:
Discussing Rip’s typically all-black attire, Boone reveals the nuanced variations in his clothing:
“He has six different black shirts, and I've dyed them all different colors of undertones” (10:36). This subtle differentiation adds depth to Rip’s character, reflecting his emotional states and relationships, particularly his warmth towards Beth, achieved through warmer black tones with brown or deep forest green undertones (10:52).

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Collaboration with Actors

The episode highlights the collaborative relationship between Boone and the actors, especially with Kevin Costner, who plays John Dutton. Boone shares, “Taylor has really provided me with an incredible license to do” (13:47), indicating the trust placed in her creative vision. She discusses presenting multiple options to Costner, who often selects the pieces that best represent his character’s evolution, such as opting for navy hats that complement JD’s attire.

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The Yellowstone Costume Closet

Boone provides an intriguing look into the vast and organized wardrobe inventory:
“The costume house for Yellowstone is actually two buildings now...everything is logged and cataloged per character” (15:30). This extensive collection ensures that every costume, including those for flashbacks, is preserved and readily available, maintaining continuity and authenticity across seasons.

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Community Engagement and Real-Life Inspiration

Beyond the set, Boone engages with the Montana community to ensure authenticity in her designs. She often consults with local sheriff departments and interacts with everyday Montanans, which not only aids in accurate uniform replication but also fosters a deeper connection between the series and its setting. This community involvement enriches the show's realism and Boone’s personal fulfillment:
“I want to invite them into our world...they're so welcoming and appreciative” (16:35).

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Impact and Legacy of Yellowstone’s Fashion

The episode underscores the global influence of Yellowstone’s wardrobe, noting how specific pieces, like Lindsey Thornburgh’s blue cloak, have become iconic and widely sought after. Boone recounts the spontaneous decision to use the cloak due to a temperature drop during filming, which later became a fan favorite:
“It's going to be one of those coats that everyone's going to want to wear because the color is fantastic” (08:30). This serendipitous choice exemplifies how practical on-set decisions can lead to significant fashion trends.

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Janetta Boone’s Passion and Dedication

Closing the conversation, Boone reflects on her dedication to her craft and the joy it brings her:
“My research is the people that I'm engaging with in the community...it just adds more to why I love my job so much” (16:35). Her commitment ensures that Yellowstone maintains its high standard of visual storytelling, contributing to the show’s enduring success.

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Conclusion

The episode wraps up with hosts Jefferson White and Jen Landon expressing their gratitude to Jill Martin and Janetta Boone for their invaluable contributions. Listeners are encouraged to subscribe to The Yellowstone Official Podcast on various platforms to stay updated with future episodes and behind-the-scenes content.

Notable Quotes:

• Jefferson White: “Janetta's vision has an impact well beyond the screen.” (00:08)
• Janetta Boone: “I love my job. I do. I'm so passionate about what it is that I do.” (16:35)
• Boone on Rip’s Wardrobe: “He has six different black shirts, and I've dyed them all different colors of undertones.” (10:36)
• Boone on Community Engagement: “I want to invite them into our world...they're so welcoming and appreciative.” (16:35)

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Timestamp Key:

• 00:08 – Introduction by Jefferson White
• 02:26 – Boone discusses the initial script reading
• 06:47 – Discussion on Beth’s wedding dress
• 08:30 – The story behind Lindsey Thornburgh’s blue cloak
• 10:36 – Rip Wheeler’s nuanced wardrobe
• 10:52 – Rip’s attire reflecting his relationship with Beth
• 13:47 – Collaboration with Kevin Costner
• 15:30 – The Yellowstone costume closet
• 16:35 – Boone’s passion and community engagement

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and creative processes shared during the podcast episode, offering both fan and new listeners a thorough understanding of the pivotal role costume design plays in the Yellowstone universe.

Transcript

[Jefferson White]

Hello, listeners, it's me, Jefferson White. Jimmy Hurdstrom on Yellowstone. While we are waiting with bated breath for Yellowstone to return, we want to share some special behind the scenes access to the show with you. Someone you don't see on screen, but who is crucial to the look of everything Yellowstone is our incredible costume designer, Janetta Boone. Janetta's vision has an impact well beyond the screen. I don't think that any of us anticipated that the Yellowstone style would become a worldwide fashion trend. So get ready for an incredible conversation about why the characters look exactly the way they do. If you're anything like me, you've been googling how to get various western style jackets for five seasons now. It turns out there's a lot of success significance to each piece of clothing. They're all chosen for a very specific reason and they're all a very important part of the creative process. You're going to hear more about that right after this break. So as promised, we are going to share a fascinating chat with Yellowstone costume designer Janetta Boone. She recently sat down with Today show lifestyle contributor Jill Martin.

[Janetta Boone]

Hey, everyone.

[Jill Martin]

I'm so excited to bring you this special conversation with Jeanette Boone, the costume designer on Yellowstone. But before we go there, I want to share some exciting news about a new initiative I've had the pleasure of working alongside Janetta on called Shop the Scenes. Shop the Scenes is the official way to shop for authentic items from across your favorite TV shows, movies and more. You can find everything ranging from Beth Dutton's dresses, coats, accessories, to Rip's wedding ring and yes, even John Dutton's signature cowboy hat. So I Hope you'll visit shopthescenes.com, see it, love it, buy it. And now, as promised, onto my fabulous conversation with Janetta.

[Janetta Boone]

Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much, Jill. What an honor.

[Jill Martin]

So, Janetta, one thing that's been really interesting to watch and you know, you talked about it, I mean, you pick things, but then sometimes some of the characters or the actors will say, I'm feeling jeans or I'm feeling a dress. So how does the process work? Like, where does it start with the script? Like, walk me through it.

[Janetta Boone]

So what generally happens is I'll start reading the scripts. Whether I get them in advance or it just we're all on pins and needles waiting for the scripts to land. So we're envisioning what could possibly be happening, which is really funny. Right? So we'll get the script, I'll read it once or twice, and then I'll start To really dive in and sort of dissect each scene. Because Taylor is so descriptive with his writing that he will write in what the environment is in terms of costumes and set and production design and everything.

[Jill Martin]

Oh, he does. I didn't realize that. So he'll say, what will it say? Beth should be in jeans and a cloak?

[Janetta Boone]

Or he may say, well, maybe not so much with Beth, but he may say John Dutton wearing a suit. Right. So since he's in his gubernatorial, visually stimulating look at his attire, he would say, JD's wearing a suit or Casey is wearing a sport coat because he's, you know, the livestock commissioner. So it just depends. It's not always the case. And when it is, it's great with Beth and where she's concerned, he may. He. He leaves it up to us, which is really a beautiful world. So once I read the whole script, then I'll start to build or pull from the closets that already exist for the characters. We all have closets in our own life. So I'll go to the closets and look and see what pieces are there and what pieces I've brought in and what pieces will come together beautifully to make up that particular look for that particular sequence, that scene. And I go back to real life a lot of times and pull on. If Rainwater is in the office with Mo and JD walks in, what would that look like? Where is he coming from? Where is he going? And so a lot of times what the audience doesn't realize is that they're not seeing the backstory. They don't know where Rainwater has come from previously, if it's not actually in the script or in the show. But we have to create a backstory around it that makes sense. So, for instance, I had one of the viewers send me, send Rainwater, send Gil a dm, and say, you know, when they were out looking, searching for the young missing women, indigenous women, why were you in a suit? Why weren't you in jeans? And I looked at him and I said, because you are the director. You're the Commissioner of Affairs of Native Affairs. You had business before. You didn't know that this is what you were going to be going to.

[Jill Martin]

So interesting. Right, right, right. So you have to. So you're like, okay, this person got called in an emergency, but he didn't know he was going to have an emergency.

[Janetta Boone]

Correct.

[Jill Martin]

Wow, that's very interesting. I wouldn't have ever thought of that.

[Janetta Boone]

So where Beth is concerned, she and I collaboratively look at things together, and it's Amazing, because she has such a great keen eye, of course, for what fits her and her body. And then together, Kelly and I look at what fits Beth the best and what will work for her in these particular environments. So, like her wedding dress, for instance, which was a huge spinoff of what we've ever seen her in, that was an incredible opportunity because before she got married, she was going to do a conjugal. A conjugal. What's it? Jail. Conjugal visit at the jail. Right. She was going to entice the guy looking like she's offering herself up for a sexual moment. And then when she leaves, she has this epiphany thought that she's going to get married because she doesn't know how long she's going to live after that moment. I don't know how many people really realize that. So while we're designing her look for her wedding, we also have to consider that we're designing the look for this visit in front of a prisoner that she really wants to kill. How challenging that was. Right?

[Jill Martin]

So that jacket, tell me about what went in. So you have this sexy dress that we don't normally see Bethan, when she's going to entice the prisoner. Very normal conversation. And then you wanted something white. Was that where that came from?

[Janetta Boone]

Well, we wanted to do first, going back to her dress, I wanted to do gold because it's opulent, it speaks. It's regal. It speaks, you know, richness, and not overtly so. Silver would have been, you know, it's. It's. It's almost synonymous with being white, platinum, but it doesn't feel the same. And also, because her hair is so golden, gold worked better with her overall look. Then to find a coat that was not snow white, like a polar bear white, but. But also had some of that richness of the gold in it, which is what the snow leopard has. There were all these things that went into it. And then we found the coat, and of course, it's in Europe, and we went pins and needles, hoping that it was going to get here in time. Then we needed more than one. It's always a scenario when it comes to pulling pieces together.

[Jill Martin]

It's fascinating. So. And I know, you know, one of the most famous items, and it continues to sell and sell, and everybody asked for it, and it's been replicated and copied. But the Lindsey Thornburgh, that blue coat, the cloak that she wore, and that actually was not. That was actually a Kelly suggestion. Right. You had another outfit, and she said, I feel like this might fit?

[Janetta Boone]

Well, it was. It wasn't so much that she had another outfit and she thought that that might fit. It was. We were filming, and that particular day, it was. The temperature dropped suddenly, and we didn't have the coat available for the scene.

[Jill Martin]

Did you know that cloak was going to be such a big hit when, like, are you able to envision to yourself, wow, people are going to want this?

[Janetta Boone]

Oh, I knew immediately when she brought the cloak out, she says, okay, I just grabbed this. I literally just grabbed this and threw it in my car. What do you think? She always says, what do you think? And I. And most often I say, oh, my gosh, that's amazing. And so I said that. And when I looked at it, I said, this is going to be one of those coats that everyone's going to want to wear because the color is fantastic. It's also exciting. It's exciting. And it speaks to the planes. You know, it's very Montana with the colors. I mean, Lindsey's in Montana. She builds all of her pieces. She has a studio in Montana. She's from Montana, or she lives in Montana. So, you know, it's the sky, it's the sunset, it's the mountain range, it's the land. All of that is encompassing. So that speaks to, of course, the people in Montana, and then the people outside of Montana streetwear or New York or what have you. They have no idea why they love it so much because of the colors. They don't realize that it's the sunset and the sky and all the happy feeling in places that we all want to go to. Right. It just makes you happy.

[Jill Martin]

No, it's so true. And so I know that Are a lot of the actors collaborative. As collaborative as her, I guess it's. It's a show that's so interesting because somebody like Rip, he wears the same outfit almost all the time, right?

[Janetta Boone]

Well, funny you should say that, because what he wears all the time is all black. It's not exactly the same. I was having this conversation earlier. His jacket is the same. His hat's the same. His jeans aren't even the same. He has four pairs of jeans that are different colors of blue and different degrees of what we call aging. It's how much they've been worn in and worked in his shirts. He has six different black shirts, and I've dyed them all different colors of undertones. So one black shirt may have a navy blue undertone, one black, which is very cold. So. And I do that because I like colors to have some Warmth. Well, black comes because it's the combination of all colors.

[Jill Martin]

So when he's with Beth, what is the colorway of the black to show his warmth towards her?

[Janetta Boone]

So if he's only with Beth and he hasn't been anyplace else, because we have to remember that Rip comes in from work or he comes in from killing people, or he comes taking people to the church, obviously.

[Jill Martin]

Right.

[Janetta Boone]

But if he's just with Beth, then I generally choose a warmer black, which has a brown undercoat, maybe even a deep forest green undercoat, because her eyes are green. So it picks up on those little tiny nuances ever so slightly.

[Jill Martin]

That's really unbelievable. That is. I was like, oh, he wears the same outfit. No, and I'm wrong. It must have been so interesting for you, having to conceptualize the younger Beth, the younger. And I mean, it was the younger Rip and seeing them, what they would look like. I mean, as a. As a viewer, it was so exciting to see what Beth looked like. And you really showed us a glimpse of sort of how it evolved. You know, it's like where. How it started, where it's going. You know, that Instagram phenomenon.

[Janetta Boone]

Yes, yes. The flashbacks are really pretty special. We did an 1883 flashback, too, which segued into the series. And just to show the whole family where it all began with Beth and Rip. Because he has such a challenging, dark, heavy past, I wanted to make sure that that translated in his look, he says to Beth on a somewhat regular basis. At least he said it. I know. At least twice he said once very clearly, beth, I'm nowhere. I'm on no one's record. I don't exist, you know, right before they got married. And so I constantly draw on those moments that Taylor writes in, because he's a shadow. He's a ninja. He doesn't exist. So he has to remain in black. And when he was younger, when young JD Found him in the barn, or actually yet where was he? He was on the property. He was on the ranch when he found him. And he was so broken and so just desperate and without life because of what happened to his mom and then what had to happen to his dad. When you're without life and void of any form or being at all, that's where you get black. And it's important for the costumes to translate the communications from Taylor in his writing as well. And the world that he's building with young Beth, all of her pieces are vintage, and we've altered every last one of them.

[Jill Martin]

And what about Kevin Costner and how is he to. Is he more of a this is what I want to wear, or is he open to. I mean, I'm sure. Is Taylor very. The most specific with him?

[Janetta Boone]

Taylor has really provided me with an incredible license to do.

[Jill Martin]

That's awesome.

[Janetta Boone]

It is so incredible. It's beyond awesome. It's extraordinary. And only so often does he chime in with a note for something to be slightly different. And it's quite. It's. Yes, it's breathtaking sometimes. It's very rare. So with JD Becoming governor, the governor of Montana wears jeans and a sport coat and a shirt. They almost never wear neckties. They wear their cowboy hats. So for John Dutton and Kevin also gives me license to do what I do. In the beginning, he may have had a thought when I came on in season two, but now he literally looks at me and says, well, well, what do you think? I think season three, he wanted a few options. He said, well, let me see what else you have. But then he always goes back to my original outfit that I presented and recommended. And so now he just says, well, what you got? And I'll just. And I'll present him with the outfit in its fullness, head to toe. And he may say, well, let's try another color hat. Whether. Because he has navy blue, he has brown, he has gray, he has black hats. And I say, sure, let's try these hats. But if I set a hat with it, maybe the navy hat, he'll look at me and he'll go. He'll say, you're right, it's the navy hat. And that'll be it. And it's. Yeah, wow. Is exactly right.

[Jill Martin]

This is just so fascinating. So just tell us what to picture. Like, what is the Yellowstone closet look like?

[Janetta Boone]

So our. The costume house for Yellowstone is actually two buildings now. We poured over into an another building last season. It's two buildings that are 3,500 square feet each. We keep every single thing. Mainly because I don't know if Taylor's ever going to do a flashback. And he did a flashback in season four with Lee, who was killed in season one. And if I got rid of the clothes that he was wearing, I really would have been in a bad way. So I keep everything. Everything is logged and cataloged per character. And if we don't see a need for it immediately, we put it aside in a container where it's, you know, where it's held with high regard with moth repellents and things of that nature, because that does exist. We are in a Ranch land. There's moths everywhere. So we, you know, so we make sure that we keep the integrity of the garments and as well as catalog everything so we know what we have and where it is.

[Jill Martin]

Do you just love your job?

[Janetta Boone]

I love my job. I do. I'm so passionate about what it is that I do, and that's what keeps me going every moment of the day when I'm doing my job. And it's never really a job when I'm doing my research. My research is the people that I'm engaging with in the community. It's the sheriff's department. I go up to the sheriffs all the time. And I'll say, guys, I'm the costume designer for Yellowstone. I just wanted to check out your uniform because I noticed that there's some things that are new and I have to get it right every time. And they said, we appreciate you because not always is it done right. We thank you so much for taking the time to do that. And then the people in the grocery store or in the casino or what have you, I just. And I want. And that is also an opportunity for me to engage the community because it's no mystery. There's no diversity in Montana. So when I walk around, people wonder who I am. Now, people know sort of. Well, they're part of the Yellowstone crew, but I want to invite them into our world. They can't come to set or anything, but if I include them in what it is that I'm doing, they're so welcoming and appreciative. So that even adds more to why I love my job so much.

[Jill Martin]

Janetta, thank you for your talent and your passion and for bringing us the most incredible looks and for getting all of the world into country Couture.

[Janetta Boone]

Oh, my gosh, Jill, thank you so much for having me.

[Jefferson White]

Our thanks to Jill and Janetta for sharing the secrets to dressing for success on Yellowstone. Don't forget to subscribe to the official Yellowstone Podcast and you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Official Yellowstone Podcast is a production of 101 Studios and Paramount. This episode was produced by Scott Stone. Brandon Gis is the head of audio for 101 Studios. Steve Razis is the executive Vice president of the Paramount Global Podcast Group. Special thanks to Megan Marcus, Jeremy Westfall, Ainsley Rosito, Andrew Sarnow, Jason Reed, and Whitney Baxter from Paramount. And of course, David Glasser, David Hucken, and Michelle Newman from 101 Studios.