'The Harder They Fall' Costumes Help Highlight the History of Black Cowboys
Costume designer Antoinette Messam speaks with L'OFFICIEL about outfitting the outlaws in Jeymes Samuel's new Western.
Cowboy culture has had a reawakening in the past few years—from music, to fashion, to film—and with it, a re-education of who belonged to its original Wild West narratives. In Jeymes Samuel’s The Harder They Fall, in theaters now and releasing on Netflix today, it was important to center the story around Black cowboys, drawing from real-life figures like Nat Love, Rufus Buck, and more. While Hollywood’s portrayals of the Old West previously whitewashed the period, Black cowboys were a significant part of the rugged lifestyle in the 19th century, and it’s now known that one in four cowboys were Black. For costume designer Antoinette Messam, uncovering the real history while also researching Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns and modern interpretations of the genre was a starting point to constructing the striking clothes in the film.
Starring Jonathan Majors as Nat Love, seeking to avenge his family’s murder at the hands of Idris Elba’s Rufus Buck, the pair square off with backup from Regina King, LaKeith Stanfield, and Zazie Beetz. Produced by Jay Z, The Harder They Fall creates a stylized world for its characters, where everyone looks good, guns blazing.
From Majors’ cognac leather jacket to Stanfield’s denim duster, staples of Americana fashion lay the foundations for Messam’s Victorian-era costuming. The designer particularly honed in on researching denim styles of the period. “I came across this book called Jeans of the Old West that showed denim predating this movie, and it was really interesting to see that the style that we’re still using today was very evident back then,” Messam tells L’OFFICIEL. The workwear material is used throughout the principal cast’s wardrobe, seen as jackets, button downs, skirts, and, of course, blue jeans. Messam specifically made a pair of jeans for Majors from a pattern accurate to the Victorian period. “With the denim it was really good to know that the stylizing was right for the film, but also factual,” she shares.
From vivid indigo to worn-in chambray, the denim also contributes to another main element Messam took into consideration for the costumes: the color palette. First looking at the characters’ surroundings, Messam wanted to make sure that the characters would “not disappear, nor compete” with the set design. For the Rufus Buck gang, they initially had to stand out within moving train cars as they go to break out their imprisoned leader. “The silhouette across the board for the [Rufus Buck] gang was very dark with accents of color in their neckerchiefs or shirting,” Messam says. The exception was Elba’s Buck, whose black and white prison garb makes him the focal point once he is freed. Then, when they are in Redwood, the town the gang runs, the set is much more vibrant and colorful, and thus Messam “chose jewel tones. Both in principle costume, like with Trudy’s [Regina King’s], and then in accents, like the vest of Cherokee Bill [LaKeith Stanfield].”
To contrast the Rufus Buck gang, the costume designer took a more subdued approach for Nat Love and his crew. Because you see them in the warm, rich lighting of Douglaston, in the wide open planes of the frontier, and then among their foes in Redwood, Messam needed costumes that could translate among the three settings. “You see a punch of color when you first see Nat with his blue shirt and Mary [Zazie Beetz] in her red dress, but after that, the color palette pulls away.”
Highlighting not only the marginalized Black cowboy community, but also the role of women in the Old West, The Harder They Fall shows King, Beetz, and Danielle Deadwyler (who plays the gender-bending Cuffee) as equals among the men. “They’re not damsels in distress, even though the term is used in the film,” Messam laughs. “There is nothing ‘damsel’ about the three.”
“I didn’t need to beat it over the head that they were strong with their costumes,” she continues. “It was important to show that as a woman and a boss, Trudy didn’t have to dress like a man.” Thus, touches of lace add a feminine edge to her wardrobe. A white lace Ralph Lauren blouse, one of the few sourced pieces among the mostly custom-made costumes throughout the film, contrasts with her fitted leather jacket and gloves; a lace scarf worn around her head peeks from under her bowler hat. Similarly, Stagecoach Mary’s costumes feature traditionally feminine elements. “Mary is wearing underwear as outerwear the first time we see her—she’s in a corset,” Messam explains. “When we see her next, even her vest is corseted to give her that feminine silhouette.”
Even with Cuffee, who is mostly seen outfitted in masculine styles, Messam says that the intent wasn’t to hide her female identity. “That’s just how she dressed. I was trying to find the beat where she came across as a boy because that was her choice, but it’s not like she was trying to hide that she was a woman.”
Quite literally topping off the costumes is the arsenal of cowboy hats and other headwear the ensemble wears. For most of the principle cast, Messam says their hats were custom-made by milliners at Western Costume, Baron Hats, and local hat builders in New Mexico. The exception is Elba’s black Stetson. Each character has their signature headpiece that fits their personality, and in the case of Trudy and Mary, the specific style was even noted in the script. “That was a part of Jeymes’ storyline and direction—[Trudy] is in a bowler, and [Mary] is in a top hat,” Messam says.
With cowboy hats, boots, and other Western-inspired staples continuing to trend in mainstream fashion, you can expect to see more of the Yeehaw Agenda and its new inclusive bent take over.
