Isis Mussenden (‘Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ costume designer) on ‘fantastic canvas’ David Oyelowo who brought the historic figure to life [Exclusive Video Interview]
“Once again in 2024 we dig up a historic figure, a person who is so important to our history that none of us ever learned about,” says Isis Mussenden about what is so power about the Paramount+ limited series “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” and its title character. Reeves was one of the first Black U.S. Deputy Marshals, and the costume designer confesses that she “didn’t know anything about” him prior to joining the project. She was brought onboard by Wynn Thomas, the production designer, and once she received that call, she began researching the legendary figure and was “fascinated” by what she found. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
There are a few photographs of the real Bass Reeves and these photos were “pivotal” and “absolutely the most important thing” to Mussenden as she began her work on the costuming for the series. “We started with the pictures and, of course, I had David, this fantastic canvas, who looked so much like him,” shares the costumer about working with series star and executive producer David Oyelowo. The scope of the series – it follows Reeves from the Civil War through the late 1870s – meant that the designer had to prepare many different looks, from the character’s enslavement through the “pioneer women and homesteading for the Black community after Emancipation.”
WATCH our exclusive video interview with David Oyelowo, ‘Lawmen: Bass Reeves’
One of the most exciting elements of “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” for Mussenden was the opportunity to work on such an early American period piece. “The Civil War era in America is something that I had never done. I’ve touched on many genres and many eras but that was not one,” says the costume designer. Indeed, those genres include fantasy films such as the three “Chronicles of Narnia” pictures. Surprisingly, those movies helped prepare the costumer for her work on “Lawmen.” As she explains, “Because I had done all this fantasy, and I had done horses and swords and guns and that kind of stuff, that was secondhand to me.”
The biggest challenge of bringing this era of history to life was trying to create period-appropriate textiles. As the designer shares, “The textiles that exist today are not the textiles that existed then and so therefore you’re trying to get the silhouette and you’re trying to make these clothes look like the era, but the fabric is so different.” Mussenden did weave numerous pieces for Oyelowo to wear, and those fabrics added a layer of difficulty when shooting on location in Texas given its extreme weather conditions. She recalls, “We had a four-day ice storm, tornado watches along with lightning strikes along with freezes… and then the heat comes in and then we have these heavy fabrics… It was like a rollercoaster.”
Mussenden had over 200 characters to dress in the limited series, and two of the most memorable are the antagonist Esau Pierce (Barry Pepper) and Esme (Joaquina Kalukango). “I used a lot more leathers on him,” says the designer of Esau, sharing that she had made “leather vests and longer jackets and a little swag, and he could really work that.” A cousin of Bass’ wife Jennie (Lauren E. Banks), Esme wears “the styles of the day” from the North, where she had relocated after Emancipation. The costumer calls actress Kalukango her “muse,” adding, “Those dresses were like overdone chairs with fringe and trim and this and that, and she could just handle it.”
Out of the “thousands and thousands of pieces of clothing” Mussenden created or sourced for the show, she singles out one look and moment from early on in the process as particularly important to her. She remembers, “We only had David and we were on his second fitting here in Los Angeles… I had made the black hat and I found this jacket and the vest and we had gotten some holsters, which was really helpful, and we put it together and we had that iconic Bass Reeves.”
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