So, over the holidays I, ( being a die-hard Coen bros fan), went to see True Grit, their adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel of the same name. It was an awesome flick with beautiful cinematography, an amazing screen play, stellar acting, and authentic looking costumes. I have to admit I didn’t know too much about clothing from that time period (Western American post-Civil War 1870s). The clothing in that era was very utilitarian, designed to test time and keep you warm; it was a time where you maybe had one nice dressy-up outfit (that would suck). It wasn’t about statements by any means.
Mary Zophres has worked alongside the Coen brothers for over fourteen years as their costume designer. All of the work she did for True Grit was pretty impressive. She said: “In many ways this was the most difficult film I’ve done with the Coens, but it was also the most awesome design experience I think I’ve had”. The clothes all had to be hand-made considering the era and they also had to be aged in a short, strict time period of the films production (she had a ten week prep time). If that’s not complicated enough, the fabrics used post-civil war were these dense wool fabrics which are difficult to manipulate and break down.
True Grit is all about the characters and Zophres succeeds in portraying their personalities through the creation and individualization of the costumes. The lead in the movie is 14 year old Mattie Ross, a.k.a Hailee Steinfeld, whose performance was out of this world. The cover illustration for the novel has Mattie dressed in a skirt with trousers on underneath of it (for she is on the trail basically the entire movie in search of the outlaw who shot her daddy dead). But Miss Zophres and the Coen brothers’ creative collaboration led to Hailee ditching the skirt and wearing what is supposed to be her father’s jacket, which is cutely belted I might add, along with a pair of trousers. 
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| Appaches in the "Boss of the Plains" |
Zophres has said that what makes a good Western a good Western are hats and the aging process of the garments. The hats in this movie were pimp! The kind of hats people wore in Fort Smith, or Western America in general, in the late nineteenth century were not your traditional cowboy hats. Hailee’s hat was based on the “Boss of the Plains” hat designed by John B. Stetson in 1865 which has about a 4 inch brim and crown and is “waterproof, durable, and elegant”. I mean what more could a girl want in a hat? “Lucky” Ned Pepper, the leader of the gang of outlaws, had an awesome costume. He also wore an amazing worn-in, wide brimmed hat, because the character had probably been through Mexico where the wider brim originated. Zophres also created the most wicked ,sweet wooly chaps for Lucky. Rooster Cogburn, “the fearless, one-eyed U.S. Marshall who never knew a dry day in his life”, is played by Jeff Bridges. He is definitely a larger than life character who wears this amazing HUGE grey Ulster coat, or Great coat, which is characterized typically by the large split in the back for equestrian purposes. Matt Damon plays La Beouf, the stylish Texas Ranger. The first scene is memorable for La Beouf because you see this guy sitting on this porch in an amazing fringed buckskin coat that no one in Fort Smith would ever wear. Texas Rangers didn’t have uniforms at this point in history. He’s the only one in the movie who really cares about what they look like and his hat has real O.G. kinda swag.
The color scheme of True Grit is pretty historically accurate. Men basically had the choice of black, brown, grey, and some neutral tones. The women’s outfits, according to pictures from catalogs back in the day had some variety of color to them, like mauve and mint. Mary and the Coens’ decided in order to make the movie more wintery and somber they would create the women’s costumes to mirror the palette more towards that of the men’s.
True Grit is a really great movie and I suggest you go see it, regardless if you’ve read the novel or seen the John Wayne classic. So, basically Zophres is the woman.
Petticoats and pantaloons! Love and peace, Errrrn
