Inspired by Danny Lyon’s photobook of the same name, Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders follows the life of a Chicago biker gang from the ’60s to the ’70s. At the center of the gang is Kathy and Benny whose relationships ebbs and flows as the gang moves from their golden era into its darkest. To bring these pictures to life, Offscreen Central had the opportunity to talk to costume designer Erin Benach about creating a distinct look for each Vandal, prepping with dye and mud for all the ensemble scenes in the first week of filming, and the psychology behind Kathy’s red dress.

Jillian Chilingerian: Hi Erin, so nice to meet you.
Erin Benach: Nice to meet you too Jillian
Jillian Chilingerian: I’ve seen this film two times. I saw it last year at one of the festivals and then I just saw it again recently and I can imagine how you’re feeling that it’s finally coming to theaters and people can see it.
Erin Benach: So excited!

Jillian Chilingerian: This film was adapted from a photo book, how did that impact how you envision these characters and what influence did you take from it?
Erin Benach: The book was incredibly useful and informative. Jeff built a story and created characters around it. There was very little other supplemental research that I did to fill in the blanks that I needed. We use the characters from Danny Lyons’s book directly and transcribe from that down to how Cal decorated his vest versus Benny is the ultimate not trying effortless, don’t care guy. I wanted that to be felt and so through clothing, we just tried to make them as nonchalant, untried, and natural as possible.
Jillian Chilingerian: Watching it the second time, I was paying attention to how everyone was dressed. They are all wearing the uniform of their letters, but they each style it differently. It is like they grabbed something from their closet to make into a jacket. Those aspects helped us to tell who these characters are when they are supposed to be, more uniform compared to when they had their letters off. How did you approach each character versus them as a whole?
Erin Benach: Johnny was our club leader, and he was probably the most different from everybody. I wanted to make sure that we felt that he had his leather jacket. He didn’t do a cut he had his pieces so it was important that he felt different and part of doing that was taking him out of a slightly older silhouette and inspiration. He was a bit more 50s-inspired, whereas everybody else was more 60s-inspired. That is felt in the silhouette of his jeans and jackets and an assurance. Johnny was inspired by Marlon Brando. Then Cal who was this really genius engineer, would build carburetors and the engines and the parts of the bike and so we just imagine he’d be able to craft his vest the most out of everybody. He was sort of our most crafty and creative so he would have a few different looks, as opposed to everybody else. Zipco didn’t have denim he just looked directly at leather and I wanted it to feel a little bit European just a bit off from everybody else. Everything gets overdyed with a cast of blue and green so that it felt aged and then we would sand it, and paint it to feel the mud and the dirt on the road.

Jillian Chilingerian: I could tell how lived in these textures were and that helps to bring these characters to life from this photo book to the screen. All your senses perk up from smell to touch. How specific did you want to be about matching different silhouettes or styles of the 50s, 60, and 70s for the different looks and how important is that to you?
Erin Benach: It’s really important to me that there’s almost like a rulebook in my world and all of my characters are coming out of it. If they break a rule, there’s a reason and if they don’t, it’s because you’re creating a world and you have to you have to abide by the rules, otherwise, it doesn’t feel like a world it feels like a hodgepodge. When I’m designing period pieces or even futuristic pieces, or even alternative worlds pieces, I come up with my own set of rules and laws. I’ll call them like my bylaws of some kind. Where do they get their things? What kinds of materials are at their access? What’s their environment like? What is their financial situation? When did they wash their clothes, their dry cleaner, all these things that you’re just creating a world that it needs to come out of? The silhouette was like I said Johnny is the 50s inspired and 80% of it is 60s and then maybe 70% of it. Towards the end, we’re into the 70s so things do change and silhouettes do change.

Jillian Chilingerian: Towards the end when you see those changes, you feel like the repercussions of what has gone on within the gang and how they’re kind of sadly like splitting up and you know, it’s a sign of the times that this era is ending. It is bittersweet to watch it, but I love those very distinct markers through what they’re wearing to bring us into that. Outside of the core cast, there’s like a lot of group activity such as big ensemble scenes whether it’s the picnic or the house party near the end. How do you approach these scenes that you’re styling and make sure everyone across the board looks good, is period accurate, and the colors don’t mesh with each other?
Erin Benach: Great question. Well, my favorite part about this film is that every single one of those large scenes was shot in the first week. I was not only establishing each character’s look, style, amount of dirt, and all those patches. We had to make all of that stuff and not only that we were also doing all the big scenes in the beginning I begged my producers at some point if we could change the schedule and they couldn’t, of course. One of the hardest hurdles actually in my career was pulling it off, honestly because like I wouldn’t let anything go to camera that hadn’t been aged and dyed properly. Otherwise, again, the rule was broken and then that was its own story. At some point every single person in my department had a paintbrush in their hand and we were getting lessons from my age or dyer on how to do what he was doing. We prefit every single one of those people we have to make sure that within the immediate circle who was wearing what and what the extras that are nearby color-wise as well, making sure they don’t repeat. I wanted to save Johnny’s red for Johnny except when Kathy gets it in her dress. It was important that you could feel the non-bikeriders and what their looks and silhouettes were in comparison to the riders, you could tell that they were the 60s but they were timeless. It helped the film to place us in our time period when you see everybody together, because then you really know, between the cars and the extras. It is pre-doing every single person like weeks before and I have teams that helped me do it.
Jillian Chilingerian: I love that you bring up the word timeless because I think that perfectly describes everything, you are so sucked in where it feels contemporary but then it’s a perfect capsule of that time in history.

Jillian Chilingerian: Going to Kathy’s red dress towards the end marks the end of the good times of this group. I love her silhouette and you know we see her in the same top and pants combo throughout the film and then this is the first time that we see something else but then that’s quickly taken away from the situation she’s in and it leaves a mark on her. Was the red dress scripted and what did that moment mean to you?
Erin Benach: The dress originally was scripted and it was supposed to be velvet. I remember going up to Jeff at some point and being like, it doesn’t have to be the other right. You think what the most important part is and that is why it’s so great to work with Jeff he can always tell me the psychology of where that moment is coming from and so then I can always design based on the point of what the scene is doing. In this case, Kathy is intrigued and inspired by this slightly more aspirationally maybe sexy look, but it’s not so aspirationally out of her context of what might be cool. It was all within the context of Kathy’s mind, so what would she think is something pretty interesting and cool that she would like and that would be realistic for her character? We tried a lot of different silhouettes and a lot of different looks for that, but we liked the idea that she was a little bit nostalgic, and that look was a little bit retro, especially because we’re in like the early 70s at this point. Maybe when she was that age, she never wore a look like that. It was really short so it was a little bit uncomfortable and a little bit out of the norm.
Jillian Chilingerian: I love like the psychology with the choices of how the character is thinking and in the moment and like that’s how I would interpret that scene with Kathy. She’s looking at this pretty dress like what does that mean to her in this context?
Erin Benach: Kathy in general is our strength and this strong constant. Even though she does think she can change Benny and think that she can have this other life with him, she does not change as a person from who she originally was, she does not just become a biker chick. She doesn’t just get a leather jacket and become one of them. She is just she’s always her person and she kind of stays steady in that way.
Jillian Chilingerian: Even in those scenes where they’re at the picnic, you see the other girlfriends and wives and they’re wearing some type of a hat or a jacket kind of incorporating themselves and then she’s just in her own realm.
Erin Benach: Yeah, she’s like, I don’t need to dress like you guys to be here. I’m that good.

Jillian Chilingerian: We love Kathy. I love your work in this, it is not just they’re wearing motorcycle jackets and they’re edgy. There is a story for each character through what they’re wearing and I love the extra details with the texture and the dirt because it is like I am riding with them and smelling all that stuff coming from the road. One of my favorite movies of all time is The Outsiders so to me this feels like such a contemporary take on it and a new classic Americana tale of brotherhood. That is what your work reminded me of.
Erin Benach: That is an awesome reference and just the fact that you noticed it hopefully didn’t distract you from it but only helped you follow along. The story is just so awesome. It’s just great that people are even noticing and wanting to learn more about the story layered underneath. Thank you for noticing that.

You can find our review of The Bikeriders here.
The Bikeriders opens in theaters on June 21, 2024.