Costuming the life and love of Tammy Wynette and George Jones was always going to be a massive undertaking. Luckily for creator Abe Sylvia and director John Hillcoat, they had Mitchell Travers on the hunt to make George & Tammy as spectacular as possible. Not only did Travers find the allure, sparkle, and humanity, but he taps into the loneliness, tragedy, and sadness of a marriage that couldn’t survive despite never-ending passion.
At the start of our conversation, we immediately dive into color. Even though George & Tammy is shorter than other limited series (6 compared to others that clock in at 10 or even 12), Travers was tasked to multiple garments for every episode. How he handled all of those quick performance montages I’ll never know. Everything radiates color, and you’ll notice that there is no black.
“I have a department wide ban on black,” Travers says. “Like many people I wear a lot of it, but I like to limit the color in my work. If I ban it, I can choose to use it, but if I don’t, I find it comes back every time we send a shopper out. It forces me to make more interesting choices. I want the ability to choose the color rather than rely on it. In a fitting with Jessica we realized we needed the color for one sequence. In some ways Tammy is in mourning, and a little black shift dress felt like it hit all the right notes. Black felt like a fresh idea when it’s the only time you’ve used it in a show “
A color that is very present when Tammy is at home is bright yellow. Late in the series she wears it in the kitchen when she makes a birthday cake, and she has been photographed by the pool looking like a boss with large sunglasses and yellow, pleated pants.
“Most people dislike the color yellow,” he says. “In a fitting we started to discuss Tammy’s color palette and there was something that drew us toward yellow. Something about it felt inherently country, and a bit maternal. We were able to work with golds, butter, and even primary yellow to really explore its full spectrum.”
One of the most talked about dresses throughout George & Tammy is her red, bangled dress that she wears for her first Vegas appearance with George. The way Chastain carried herself inspired Travers to include fringe that would sparkle with every step, and it certainly grabs your attention. When she is still, alone and trying to make a solo performance work, we can see the longer pieces of fringe embellished all over.
“The Vegas dress came from observing Jessica’s ‘Tammy walk,'” There was a really specific way she started to swish that I wanted to accentuate with the movement fringe. In a moment where her character just wants to hide- I wanted to make it impossible for her to escape the razzle dazzle of showbiz. Tammy is quite literally in the spotlight in a moment she feels most alone- and my job was to make that feel a bit more heartbreaking with every fringe tassel we added.”
When Tammy gets marries to George Richey, it’s an awkward affair. Tammy’s wedding dress looks like it’s suffocating her with a lacy, restrictive neckline. I wanted to see Jessica Chastain rip it off and tell everyone that they need to leave. Everything felt wrong going into these nuptials.
“In my research I spoke to a few people who had actually attended this wedding,” Travers reveals. “The sentiment was that she wasn’t in her best way on that day. We wanted the dress to echo the feeling so we intentionally made the dress feel imbalanced. It has a high covered neck and completely exposed arms. One too many tiers of lace ruffles and is just a bit too short. For a woman who had many of her performance looks made- it was important that this dress felt like she bought it.”
Why are men so afraid to try new things or don bright colors? If George Jones can wear a light blue suit with pink, jeweled accents and play to crowds in the South, you can do whatever you are afraid of in terms of fashion. There is a scene where George goes to a store called Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors, and I almost fainted from seeing a bright green suit on a mannequin.
“Menswear has become so boring since the times of George Jones,” Travers says. “The man loved to take risks with his clothing and had a lot of fun getting dressed. He was a true entertainer and wanted to give his audience a show as a sign of respect. I also interpreted that as an alcoholic, his fastidious was a way of overcompensating and controlling an area of his life while others fell apart. You can put on a great suit and fool a lot of people.
This is a man who would pair a turquoise bolo with orange ostrich leather boots and keep looking for more. Michael Shannon is 6’4” so we had to custom make all of his clothing for this project. There was no costume rental house in the world who had everything we needed for Mike’s George Jones.”
Towards the end of the series, I could not get a pale blue dress out of my head. Tammy is singing on stage alone in a spotlight, but we cannot see the vital connection with her fans. Travers’ choice to bathe Chastain in such a pale color worries us that Wynette’s health and star power is fading.
“I found that dress our in the wild,” he says. “There was something about its faded star quality that really spoke to me. It felt a bit defeated to me and I wasn’t sure where we’d put it or if it would even work so I was so happy when Jessica had an immediate reaction to it as well. The image of her singing into the void was so striking to me. You can’t even see the audience anymore, after we’ve seen her close connections with the fans throughout the series.”
Even though I identify as country music allergic, that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t want to sneak into Travers’ collection and swipe a few items. There is a lot of glamour and passion on display here–an unapologetic pride in terms of color–but I would probably take a domed, leather hat worn by Walton Goggins’ Peanutt. Travers has a difficult choice to make when it comes to stealing some items for his own closet.
“If I could have stolen anything from the set I would have taken all of the faux fur coats worn by Tammy,” Travers admits. “Jessica doesn’t wear any animal products and a good vintage faux fur coat is a tricky think to find! I also am partial to the incredible cowboy boots worn by Michael. George invested a ton of money into his exotic leather boots so we had some truly unique artisanal boots made for him.”
George & Tammy is streaming now on Showtime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjrEeuQ5838
