Joseph La Corte On Honoring the Mormon Faith With the Costume Design of ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’

FX’s incredible limited series, Under the Banner of Heaven, wouldn’t be called flashy, but that’s a compliment. Writer Dustin Lance Black has created an astonishingly taut, compelling thriller, and he peels back the fanaticism of some members of the Mormon faith. One of the most consistently accurate and character-driven elements to the show is the costume design by Joseph La Corte. These pieces are exquisitely detailed, and La Corte devotes such an enormous respect that we can see how the past is threaded into our future.

When Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Brenda meets the Lafferty clan, there is a huge amount of people on screen. There are a lot of plaids and patterns, but no Lafferty looks exactly like the other. Brenda is wearing a mint green top, but the other women would be wearing dresses they made themselves from perhaps a McCall’s pattern. It’s a subtle way that La Corte was able to show how the Lafferty family didn’t spend a lot of money on clothing.

“I truly needed to understand the vastness of this family. Every time they are all on camera together, there are 33 of them, including baby Erica. They are a family of six boys, so there are a lot of hand-me-downs. You’ll even catch the youngest, Billy, in a shirt from the sixties that he probably got from one of his brothers. There was no internet or cell phones, so the way they found out from television–which they didn’t watch a lot of–or from Sears and Roebuck or Montgomery Ward catalogs. Utahans, especially Mormons, were five years or so behind in fashion. Brenda is a lot more liberal and up-to-date than a lot of them. We build closets for everyone, and then we literally took clothes out from the dad to the brothers and we have to adjust from there. Maybe a shirt is too bright for one scene or someone else is in a too similar color so we’d swap it out.”

Since Brenda is the outsider of the family at the start, she is the gateway into this world, especially for those of us who aren’t familiar with the Mormon faith. As we see her become absorbed into this family’s circle, we can slowly see how her clothes change because of expectations thrown onto her. With a family like the Laffertys, you are marrying the entire brood, and La Corte found an unexpected source to help with her wardrobe journey.

“We were very lucky, because Brenda’s family shared some photo albums. She loved patterns, and she loved colors. What was more interesting was that she was constantly photographed with big groups of people, and ,in every picture, she is laughing and having a good time. It was important to us that before she becomes a mother or a wife that we understand that she loves color and she is a lover of live. For Daisy [Egar-Jones] we see her from post-college to after her pregnancy. On some days, she would be playing pregnant Brenda and college Brenda in the same day, so we also had to be mindful of the character’s padding throughout.”

Andrew Garfield definitely wears suits well in Banner. Detective Jeb Pyre isn’t a man with a lot of vanity, and you can tell that he takes his job very seriously. Garfield is slender with a tall frame, but La Corte made some key color choices to allow Pyre to not make him feel dated or out of the loop.

“The fit is a huge part of it. Andrew is very tall on him, and he has broad shoulders. You can really put a paper bag on him, and he will look good. We didn’t want to over tailor him, because he is a Mormon. When people are watching, they want to be drawn into the story, and Andrew is a sex symbol outside of the show. We did a lot of research on Mormon detectives in the 80s, and we picked the best colors that would accentuate Andrew. In episode four, I went to set, and Andrew was in an amazing, vintage, green suit. When he comes out of the car, he is the exact same green as the car in the shirt. When he puts the holster or badge on, I think that really sets him in. He is a classic 80s cop, but Mormon-ized with his hair being perfect.”

A lot of audiences (including myself) are learning just how sacred the wedding ceremony is in the Mormon faith. For both the location and the costumes, La Corte (along with production designer Renee Read) had to be very delicate in how they handled the private ceremony. The women are wearing delicate fabrics and the men don stiff hats. There is something forbidden and voyeuristic to seeing the wedding scene, but authenticity and respect was very much on La Corte’s mind.

“Those are very private things that the general public doesn’t know about. Those are known as The Robes of the Holy Priesthood, and unless you are in the religion, you don’t know about them. Someone put on YouTube of the entire, contemporary ceremony happening. We found tons and tons of photos that we could, and we cobbled them together. We had two Mormon advisors, Troy Williams and Lindsey Park, and they were able to convince two ex-Mormons to send us their actual clothes from the period. We compared them, and we were about ninety percent right. We went back to change them, because we wanted to be as accurate and truthful–and respectful–as possible. There was worry that we were going to bash the faith, but the show wasn’t put out to destroy anything. It’s interesting that you bring those up, because on gentleman isn’t happy with the show. He created an Instagram account to express what he believes to be wrong with the show. When he brought up that scene, I thought to myself, ‘They are replicas…and they were vetted.’ We even gotten feedback from LDS officials who were pleased with how respectful the scene was. They were pleased with how that wedding scene was shown.”

Under the Banner of Heaven isn’t simply a true crime story or a fable of violence intertwined with faith. It’s also a history lesson. La Corte crafted absolutely stunning period costumes for the flashbacks of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. One of the key scenes shows an argument between Smith and his wife, Emma, over the topic of having multiple spouses. La Corte like the symmetry of the married couple ready to do battle with one another.

“When Dustin Lance Black and I talked about those scenes, we wanted the elements to be historical moments. We felt that Joseph would feel the most power in his uniform, so we wanted to show that. For Emma, we wanted her to feel that her dress was an armor or uniform as well. That dress took 110 hours to sew by hand, and each sleeve took 16 hours because of all the pleating and decorative stitching. We felt that she needed to be in that dress, because of the lace by the collar. It is dimly lit, but the detailing on the sleeves is amazing.”

Even though are a lot of muted tones, La Corte knew that there were some items that he would take for himself. I expressed interest in finding Brenda’s Christmas sweater for myself or a red suit jacket worn by Sam Worthington. I admit that I felt strange asking La Corte my standard costume designer question, but he revealed a surprising choice of what he would put in his own closet.

“There are some spectacular pieces in the last few episodes. In the casino, there are clowns. I wouldn’t wear the makeup, but I would wear those clown outfits. Even though the show is set in the 80s, there’s a 30s or 40s quality to those clowns. I love jumpsuits, because they are so comfortable. There is one in this that I would take.”

Under the Banner of Heaven is streaming on FX now. You can find more of La Corte’s designs on his personal site.