With all due respect, costume designers aren't often among the filmmakers who achieve widespread recognition outside of the industry. Actors, a number of directors, and even certain screenwriters are afforded this luxury, but it (unfortunately) doesn't often extend to other roles on set. Still, two-time Oscar winner Ruth E. Carter of Black Panther fame has become one of the biggest names in the industry when it comes to costumes. She's been around for four decades and in recent years has produced some of the best work of her career. In fact, in addition to her film work, Carter is also an important part of the biggest television show of the moment: “Yellowstone.”

When Taylor Sheridan was putting together his now wildly popular western series for Paramount Network, Carter was finishing work on the 2018 box office behemoth Black Panther. At the time, she was tired and had no plans to jump straight into another big project. In the end, however, she found an agreement with Sheridan and off she went to the races. In a 2019 interview with GoldDerby, Carter explained how this came to be:

“My agent called me and said, 'You need to talk to Taylor Sheridan.' After Black Panther I was really tired. I really didn't want to go back to work, but I thought I would take the opportunity to talk to him. So he called me at home (and) we had the best conversation in two hours. He just told me how The West was different because cowboys are not the same, because it's not an old idea, because it's a new idea, because sometimes they wear their clothes very hip-hop and they evoke a lot of modern fashion, which I It was difficult to believe at the time, but then it made sense. We had such a great conversation, I was inspired and said, 'Okay, I'll do it.'”

Carter noted that she doesn't recommend going from a big movie to a big TV show like that, but she did her best anyway. As a costume designer for everything from Spike Lee's 1989 classic “Do the Right Thing” to the cult comedy “Black Dynamite,” she had a lot to offer. The biggest thing Carter had to do, however, was create the look for the show's lead, Kevin Costner.

“Yellowstone” fans know Costner as the ruthless John Dutton, the patriarch of the Dutton family. Although Costner won't be back for the second half of Yellowstone's final season, the series wouldn't be what it is today without him. Carter talked about what went into crafting Dutton's look, which included a lot of tailored clothing from brands like Carhartt, as well as sourcing vintage pieces:

“(Dutton) owns such a big ranch, he’s such a wealthy man, so you know everything has to be custom-made. Most of his shirts were custom-made. His jackets were all vintage material, and we kind of approached that.” Given the depth of the Southwest and the color palette you see there, he had a lot to say about things he liked.

Costner had decades of experience as both a director and an actor when he signed on to the show, particularly in the Western genre. So of course he had an opinion about how his character should dress. Carter revealed that he and she worked together to make John Dutton what he became:

“He had his barn clothes, but most of his stuff was custom-made because (Costner) cared a lot about how things fit, how things looked and how they were presented — vintage belts, the accessories were important to him. Kevin is.” He's still an expert on cowboys, still as handsome as ever.

Yellowstone is now streaming on Peacock or you can download the series on Blu-ray/DVD via Amazon.