In this thrilling interview, Spencer Williams gears up for a conversation with Erin Benach, the designer behind the The Bikeriders costumes. Benach shares her meticulous process of translating Danny Lyon’s captivating chronicles of a Midwest motorcycle crew raw imagery and character transcripts into vivid, authentic costumes that breathe life into each individual within the story. From capturing Johnny’s authoritative yet nuanced style, portrayed by Tom Hardy, to depicting Kathy’s transformative journey, played by Jodie Comer, Benach details how every costume choice reflects historical accuracy and character psychology. She highlights collaborative efforts with director Jeff Nichols and her dedicated team, underscoring the profound impact of costume design on storytelling and character development.
Spencer Williams: I am so excited to be here with my friend, costume designer Erin Benach. The Bikeriders is an incredible film! Let’s start from the beginning and what led to The Bikeriders costumes. From 1965 to ’73, Danny Lyon, a photographer, documented and interviewed a Midwest motorcycle club, which inspired the film. I want to talk about your process of finding inspiration for the costumes. You’ve mentioned before sticking close to the photos in the book. How did the book influence your designs, and could you elaborate on how you translated those images into costumes?
Erin Benach: Much like I do with all of my costume design, I always start with the character. I look at the personality and the psychology behind each individual. What’s Johnny’s story? Where did he come from? What does he do? He’s a truck driver. Johnny is influenced by The Wild One with Marlon Brando. He loves racing and wears leather for protection. He probably has a 1950s silhouette because that’s his heyday. Our story picks up in 1963, so I wanted a ’50s silhouette to differentiate him from the ’60s.
Jeff and I would talk about each character. Jeff gave me a lot of background, and the book was very helpful. Danny Lyon wrote a lot and had transcripts from the actual characters. We had voice recordings from Kathy and Zipco. It was all such valuable information to make them feel real. Even though they were in uniform, I wanted them to feel individualized and have their own stories.
Spencer Williams: It almost felt like a reality show where you get to see people live their lives. You got into the philosophy of each of these characters by looking at photographs and voice recordings. It’s like the best costume designer tool, honestly.
Erin Benach: It really is. It was so helpful. Danny Lyon’s work was amazing. He also sent us a couple of random pictures during production. One time, I was having trouble with Benny’s jeans. I couldn’t find the right silhouette, cut, or rise. Much of the imagery was tight, close-ups, making it hard to see his silhouette. Then Danny sent an email with a picture, and I finally saw Benny’s jeans. I remember screaming—it was a really exciting moment.
Spencer Williams: It’s the little things.
Erin Benach: Oh, the little things. We built jeans exactly like those. It needed to be right. Austin’s body in character, in the jeans, had to fit like those did. The ’60s were a funny time for jeans. They were still high-waisted and fit these guys in a specific way. It wasn’t the ’70s denim bell-bottom time or the ’50s cuff. It was right in between. They had to fit over all the boots since they all wore boots.
Spencer Williams: The jeans were looking for their own identity at this time.
Erin Benach: They were. One uniform thing I did was ensure every piece of denim in the film went through our dyer, Troy’s shop. He overdyed everything with a greenish-bluish tint so all the denim felt and looked cohesive.
Spencer Williams: The aging and dying process must have been extensive.
Erin Benach: My hero is Troy David. He understood the kind of grime we needed. I had a rule that nothing goes on set without going through aging and dying first. Even if it was just a little touch-up, everything got the once-over. We used airbrushing and shading for an overall dust feeling, added grease stains, and ensured everything looked authentic. In person, the costumes looked crazy, but with the lighting and everything, it didn’t look overdone on camera.
Spencer Williams: The Bikeriders costumes feel authentic like these characters have been working on their bikes and wearing their clothes for days. Let’s take a moment to talk about collaborating with writer and director Jeff Nichols. I have a quote in my notes from Jeff saying that after he found this book 20 years ago, it became an obsession of his life. He has a passion for it, which shows through the film. What was it like working with Jeff, and what did that collaboration look like?
Erin Benach: This is my third film with Jeff. He’s my favorite director to work with. He’s wonderful, communicative, and so good at what he does. He helps all the departments work well together. Chad Keith, our production designer, and Adam Stone, our cinematographer, are talented and easy to work with. It’s like a dream team. I know a lot of people say that, but this is the dream team for me. My husband, a cinematographer, and I have kids, so we often negotiate who gets to make a movie, but Jeff’s films are my exception. No matter what, I get to go.
I knew about The Bikeriders years before because Jeff told me about it while we were shooting other things. I remember thinking I would have a field day when it got off the ground. I knew it would be an amazing costume movie, and I was so excited to be able to do it.
Spencer Williams: I’m glad he called because it was worth it. Thanks, Jeff. I want to talk about Johnny, played by Tom Hardy. He’s the founder of the Vandals, a long-time owner, trying to set an example for the up-and-comers. Johnny presents a little differently than the new recruits. How would you define Johnny’s style?
Erin Benach: Johnny has a 1950s silhouette versus the ’60s. Instead of wearing leather with denim over it, he’ll just wear a clean leather jacket with his colors on the back. He also has denim with his colors on the back. He doesn’t need to make it interchangeable like the other guys do. He has more options because he’s the leader.
Spencer Williams: He’s a boss. He’s a bit more leisurely; he comes into the office a little late if he wants. Let’s get into the Vandals motorcycle club. The costumes add to the film’s immersion, which is what I love about it. Authenticity seems crucial in The Bikeriders, ensuring accuracy through every layer of clothing, even down to the men’s underwear. Crafting the bikers’ vests to reflect their personalities and affiliations—how did you costume so many different characters in this club while giving them each a different personality?
Erin Benach: That was one of my biggest challenges. I wanted to create distinct characters, not just a group of guys. We started by making a base cut-over jacket denim overcut. We added our Automobile Association patch on one side, the Vandals patch on the other, and their one-percenter patch.
The Automobile Association of America made a public statement saying 99 percent of their riders are law-abiding citizens. The bikers liked that, took the one percent, and owned it.
For Benny, the idea was to convey his nonchalance. He didn’t care enough to do much to his look. We didn’t want to overdo him because he’s the ultimate “I don’t give a damn” guy. Too much detail would lose its authenticity. For him, it was about a drapey silhouette with his leather jacket and cut. Even his pants had a slightly different, baggier cut than the other guys. It was all about exuding nonchalance and effortlessness for Benny.
Spencer Williams: That’s interesting. Benny is unique in the story; he is a lone wolf trying to find his place while still seeking community. He’s a major character, and Austin Butler has been on fire recently. What was it like working with Austin Butler on The Bikeriders costumes and creating his character?
Erin Benach: Wonderful. He’s very professional and interested in figuring out the character. For instance, I’d start with a brand-new denim jacket over a leather jacket in the fitting room, and the guys would initially think it looked weird. I’d tell them, “Trust me, trust me. Next time you see me, it will look very different.” It was about getting the right fit and size and then hacking away to create these denim vests. We hand-crafted each one, with several people in my department working on them. Even Jeff’s son helped out. We made an announcement for everyone to come and help make the vests.
Spencer Williams: Another aspect that stands out is the patches on all these vests. They take control, and I love looking at all the different patches found on The Bikeriders costumes.
Erin Benach: All the patches went through the aging and dying facility. We had to create everything from scratch because we couldn’t use existing designs. We made images, words, slogans, and pictures. We had to make multiples of each patch for stunt riders and different scenes, so we ended up with about 120 different patches and multiples of each. Once they were aged and dyed, we organized them in a hanging shoe bag organizer. It was like a craft store, picking out patches that made sense for each character.
Spencer Williams: One character who isn’t as grimy when we first meet her is Jodie Comer’s Kathy. She serves as the narrator and goes through an evolution. How did you show that evolution in Kathy?
Erin Benach: Kathy starts very buttoned up, mirroring the audience’s initial perspective. As she becomes part of the culture, her look evolves. In the beginning, she’s more polished and put-together. As she gets deeper into the biker world, her style becomes more relaxed and integrated with the group. It was important to show this transition visually to reflect her changing attitude and immersion into the culture.
Kathy was a great opportunity to show because we spend so much time in the bikers’ world. Seeing her outside that world was great, so you could feel the juxtaposition. One important thing to Jeff, Jodie, and myself was that Kathy didn’t lose herself in the biker culture. She didn’t just become a biker chick. She always stayed her own person, true to who she was. It was important to reflect that in her clothing. Yes, she grabbed the denim and had some boots, but she also wore a brown suede jacket, not a black leather one. She had her issues with the club. It both saved her and gave her a family, but it was also hurtful and harmful to her family.
So, it was important to me that even though she donned pieces of the biker style, it wasn’t all the time, and it wasn’t complete. Initially, I liked using many popping purples and pinks on her, like bubblegum pink. The first time I read the script, without even looking at the book, I pictured the purple she wears when she comes into the bar. It was very specific. Sometimes, you read a script and just imagine a color. It was important to me that she had those fun, popping colors to start out with. As she entered the biker culture, she slowly got into their color palette with blues, browns, and blacks. By the end, in the 70s, she’s in her little brown shorts and a lightly heathered pink and green sweater. She’s more into her 70s color palette. She must feel authentic and true to the original Kathy we had listened to from the audio footage. We figured out what she was like, her socioeconomic status, her education, and everything that informed her character.
Spencer Williams: Yeah, she was a great anchor. You felt comfortable with her, and you could see the conflict she had between wanting to be part of something and wanting to get away from it all. That’s not the same for all the characters and all the women. There was a character I was struck by the first time I saw her—Gail, played by Phuong Kubacki. I loved seeing her costumes. She was in it, wearing the black leather and the big beehive hairdo. Can we talk about this character for a moment? She was striking.
Erin Benach: She was so striking and fun. I remember feeling like I didn’t get it right the first couple of times because she was a character that came to us late. I remember thinking this was an opportunity to show some women’s style. I redid her a bunch of times because it was tricky to find it.
Spencer Williams: She’s the one character between both worlds. You can understand the period, the club, Kathy, and The Bikeriders costumes through her.
Erin Benach: She is really informative. It was important that she felt comfortable around all the guys and represented what it was to be a female embedded in that culture. It was interesting to find her femininity within all of it.
Spencer Williams: Such a great character. I remember seeing it in the screening and thinking, “Who is that? I want to talk to her.” Someone I didn’t want to talk to, though, was one of the younger new members. They caused a lot of trouble, and you could see the difference in conflict between the younger and more established members. They looked different as if they were trying to be something they weren’t.
Erin Benach: Thank you, Spencer. That was the goal. They needed to feel youthful and not part of the group yet. They needed to feel like outsiders trying to be insiders. Sometimes, with costumes, you know the end goal and then peel back to get where you want to be. With Toby Wallace, who played The Kid, one of the newbies, I knew our goal. When I started doing his costume, I wanted to go shy of that. I wanted to make sure it was a little ill-fitting, a bit too big in the wrong places. He was also really poor, and I didn’t want him to look too good. The oversized t-shirts and pants barely fit; maybe his dad’s chopped up to look more individual. It was important for the other kids, too.
Spencer Williams: They felt like if I joined a motorcycle club tomorrow, I’d think I had to wear something like this.
Erin Benach: You could walk right into one of these biker clubs with that look.
Spencer Williams: I’d put on my Vans and Stevie Nicks concert t-shirt and blend right in.
Erin Benach: But what if you jumped on a motorcycle? Would it fall down? Would you die?
Spencer Williams: Oh yeah, it would fall down. I tried to ride a dirt bike before, which ended in complete failure. That’s like the training wheels version. So, Erin, we’re getting to the end here. How do costumes contribute to character development and storytelling in films like The Bikeriders?
Erin Benach: When discussing a world that’s a microcosm within the 60s, you need all the elements to give you the information and make you feel the world. You need production design, walls, chairs, signage, lighting, haircuts, faces, facial hair, head hair, and you really need the clothes to help tell that story. Both the story of who they are as individuals within the group and to make them look intimidating and scary. I hope I did that. I hope they look intimidating and kind of insane. Corky, played by Karl Glusman, was one of my favorites. I remember thinking, why does he even need to wear a shirt? He’s so insane, just putting a vest on without a shirt. It was about finding that energy of defiance and anarchy. I hope that was captured in the clothing.
Spencer Williams: It was. This would be a difficult project to design costumes for because we all know what a biker might look like, but you must tell each character’s story with subtle differences. Johnny is scary, but you might be able to talk to him. Norman Reedus’s character feels like someone you might have met in Venice. They’re similar but different, which has much to do with the costume design. You and your incredible crew killed it.
Erin Benach: Thanks, Spencer. That means so much to me.
Spencer Williams: Costume designer Erin Benach, thank you for joining. This has been such a joy.
