Killers of the Flower Moon is undoubtedly the most anticipated film of the fall. The Martin Scorsese crime saga stars Leonardo DiCaprio opposite breakout Native American actress Lily Gladstone (Blackfeet/Nimíipuu) in a retelling of the mysterious 1920s murders of the Osage people over their oil-rich Oklahoma land. The renowned filmmaker enlisted tribal consultants to ensure he was accurately depicting the tragedy, and the movie is rightly being heralded as one of the first feature films to honestly show Indigenous genocide and erasure in the United States.
To capture that accurate portrayal, all aspects of the film—from the acting and mannerisms to the production design—had to hit the mark. For the costumes, Scorsese tapped longtime collaborator Jacqueline West, whose résumé includes Dune, The Revenant, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and more. She dove headfirst into the research to better understand the Osage people’s unique clothing during that era, as they became the richest people per capita in the world thanks to their reservation’s natural resources. That newfound knowledge helped West curate culturally appropriate period attire, including power-suit blankets and military-inspired wedding coats. But she wasn’t alone in this endeavor.
Among the film’s many Osage contributors was clothing consultant Julie O’Keefe, who West jokingly calls her “secret weapon.” After their painstaking work together, the two have a clear reverence for one another and such a strong rapport that they finish each other’s sentences. A glimpse of their efforts is on display in a new clip from the film, debuting exclusively on ELLE.com, where Gladstone’s Mollie gossips with her family, dressed in a mix of traditional and modern fashions, including Osage shawls, tribal jewelry, and French hats.
Here, West and O’Keefe talk with ELLE.com about the costumes inKillers of the Flower Moon, which hits theaters worldwide on October 20. (Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
How did you bring 1920s Oklahoma to life through costumes?
Jacqueline West: I did a lot of my research at the Carnegie Library in Deadwood, South Dakota, which is this huge library on Sioux soil. Andrew Carnegie was a great student of Native American cultures, so there happened to be a lot of information about the Osage people, who you don’t learn about in school because the American school system wouldn’t talk about a travesty of this nature.
Marianne Bower, who is a producer on the film and does a lot of Marty’s research, explained that there were a lot of home movies available. My husband, who is one-quarter Blackfeet and a journalist, helped me find them. The Osage people could afford to make home movies when nobody else could, at $800 a minute, which really revealed their riches at the time. After Native Americans had been deprived of everything, the Osage people suddenly had the wherewithal to buy better, more expensive things than most white people in the United States. It made what happened to them—being given this wealth then having it robbed from them by taking their lives—all the more poignant.
And of course, I did a lot of reading. Beyond the David Grann book that the film is based on, I read Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit, Charles Red Corn’s A Pipe for February, and many others. From working on the movie The New World, I realized that you often can learn more about how people dressed by reading about their lives rather than looking at pictures, because pictures limit you. When you read, your imagination takes off.
Julie O’Keefe: When I first walked into Jacqui’s studio, she had hundreds of pictures all organized into categories, like Osage people dressed in traditional clothing, in modern clothing, in modern clothing with a blanket, and more. I had seen a lot of these photographs before, but I was struck by this picture of Lizzie Q [one of the Osage murder victims] and her daughters.
Because we are Plains Indians, we hunted for everything. Currency wasn’t part of our value system; it was really about survival, which is how Lizzie Q and her husband grew up. Then they had these three daughters who were mandated by the government to be sent to missionary schools, so they became the first English-speaking children in this Native American family. It’s similar to the immigrant experience, except it’s happening on your own land.
These girls now have this education and a lot of money dropped on top of that, and they’re grappling with how they fit into this world. When you look at the costumes, you see the mother in traditional clothing. You see Anna Brown, the oldest daughter, who is completely modern and dressing in the latest Parisian fashions. You see Mollie, who is acclimating by wearing a pair of French shoes or carrying a beautiful handbag but who is putting her Osage roots out there for everyone to see. You see Minnie and Rita, who are in modern clothing but still showing their culture with a blanket or shawl.
In presenting themselves to the world, these women are trying to find ways to fit in and stay safe. When you look at it that way, what you actually see in the costumes is the struggle of Native Americans to find their place, which is exactly how the story launches into these guardians, these killings, and all of these heinous things that happened.
How did you collaborate with Osage artisans to create the traditional attire and adornments, from blankets to moccasins to jewelry?
West: That was all Julie. Everyone trusts her, because she has worked with a lot of these artists in the past to create items for museum installations. That’s why Chief Standing Bear recommended her to us to represent the Osage Nation. It made Marty feel confident that we were doing it right, because he’s all about authenticity and respect. He really wanted to do the story justice, but more than that, he wanted to do the Osage Nation justice. Julie knew all the best silversmiths, ribbon workers, finger weavers, and jewelry makers to bring in. I have to give some shoutouts to our silversmith Kugee Supernaw, our ribbon workers Anita Fields, Maria Lookout, and Janet Emde, as well as Jennifer Tiger, Sean Standing Bear, and Moira RedCorn.
O’Keefe: What we were really doing was pulling in the community to be a part of this epic film, because that’s all Martin Scorsese makes. Production took place during the pandemic and we had all these COVID restrictions, so I arranged a trunk show where people drove up to this airplane hangar and opened up the trunk of their car to show us things as we stood up on this platform.
As Osage, we keep our family heirlooms in a cedar chest in a particular way. People had gone through their heirlooms and brought us original 1920s shawls, blankets, suits, photographs, and more so that we could see authentic items from the time period. We had this line of cars that must have been a mile long. It really made this epic film feel like a community project; it was just so moving.
West: I actually got tears in my eyes when I saw Cecilia Tallchief, the cousin of the ballerina Maria Tallchief. Here is this tribal elder in her eighties who came to share her belongings with us. People actually loaned their family heirlooms to us, and some of them were even worn in the movie. We were so careful with them, because this was a huge film with thousands of costumes in a warehouse the size of a football field.
What does it mean to you to be part of this groundbreaking film, one of the first to accurately depict Native Americans?
West: It meant everything to me. I’m from Berkeley, California, and my parents instilled an activist spirit in me. My heart was marching in 1973 at Wounded Knee. If I hadn’t pursued this career, I would have gotten a law degree to help fight for Native American rights. Knowing Marty’s work, I knew the film would be accurate. When I heard he hired [production designer] Jack Fisk, who I’ve done nine movies with, I knew the sets would be perfect and I would have to live up to that with the costumes.
I hadn’t worked with a consultant before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when we brought on Julie. But she was so collaborative and supportive from the get-go, and she really made me feel I was on the right track. Plus, she was so important to Lily’s performance, because there’s a subtlety in how things are done as part of these cultural traditions. She gave Lily the confidence that what she was wearing and how she approached certain circumstances was right for her character.
O’Keefe: What Lily wore in the film depended on what life event was going on. For example, if you’re around your house, you’re going to wear a shawl a certain way. I remember Lily had this particular scene where her mother was dying, and one way we take care of someone as they’re dying is to comb their hair. Lily walked in after rehearsal that day, and I could tell she was frustrated. She was wearing this 1920s black shawl with all this long crisscross fringe, and she told me, “I don’t know how I’m going to comb her hair with this on.” We talked through what was trying to do with her hands, then I went back to the production team and explained that she needed to put the shawl under her arm and flip it back so that she has use of both her arms. That’s what we did every day—go over how Lily would be acting and what her motions would be.
As an Osage person working on this film, it was really an incredible honor. This tragic period is something that’s very difficult for us to talk about, but I was able to work with some of the very best people in the industry and witness firsthand their level of professionalism in authentically telling this story about our history. It instilled such a deep sense of pride and humility in me to be part of this historic movie that has changed how Native Americans are included in our own stories—something we’ve been waiting for for a long time.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
