“The Bikeriders” Costume Designer Erin Benach’s Vintage Vibes for Rough Riders

They never achieved the notoriety of the Hell’s Angels, but during the 1960s, when the California biker gang became infamous outlaws, the Vandals were wreaking their own brand of hog-riding havoc in Chicago. The Bikeriders (in theaters June 21) dramatizes the rise and fall of the Midwest club led by Tom Hardy’s “Johnny” and his violent right-hand man Benny (Austin Butler), as observed through the often-astonished eyes of Benny’s wife Kathy (Jodie Comer).

Writer/director Jeff Nichols’s film, shot in Ohio and based on photojournalist Danny Lyon’s “The Bikeriders” book, evokes the Vandals’ 1965-1973 heyday through the expert curation of period motorcycles and music as well as vintage biker outfits from Nichols’ go-to costume designer Erin Benach. The graphic designer turned costumer, whose most recent projects include Birds of Prey and A Star is Born, outfitted some 200 actors in well-worn jeans and biker jackets.

Speaking from her home in Los Angeles, Erin tells The Credits about sourcing all that vintage gear, explains how she costumed Austin Butler’s “I don’t care” character, and reveals her trick for aging the jeans worn by “Vandals” like Zipco (Michael Shannon), Corky (Karl Glusman) and Wahoo (Beau Knapp).

In the movie’s big set piece, 200 bikers gather for a rowdy picnic, all looking period-perfect grungy. How did you pull that off?

It’s probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my career. We sourced a ton of vintage, hand-made 200 [denim vest] cuts, and also made the [Vandals] patches.

The Vandals wear blue jeans that look very broken in—nothing crisp or new. How did you make the pants look old?

It was really important that everything was aged down, so we over-dyed all the denim with this blue-green tint to make the jeans feel road-weary. Nothing went to camera without going through my ager-dyer Troy David, who’s a real artisan. We looked at the dirt they’d be driving over and made this paint. Troy used a spray bottle and sprayed it on everything so it looked like it was covered in dust from the road. Sometimes, we’d use a brush to paint on the dirt and mud. That way, you can wash the jeans, and it won’t wash away, so you don’t have to worry about continuity issues. 

Where’d you get all those 1960s-era leather jackets?

We were in London for many of the fittings, so I started to poke around in Camden Market and talked to the guy who owns a shop with a lot of denim, “I’m doing this movie. Do you know anyone?” “Oh yeah, I know this guy who has a warehouse with a bunch of leather jackets, maybe you should call him,” and then you get in a van and drive two hours outside the city and go to this warehouse, and suddenly there’s this person who’s been hoarding leather jackets for like a hundred years and you don’t know why but it was for you really. [laughing]. It was just for me!

Anywhere else besides that warehouse?

Of course, there are all the wonderful costume houses, like Western Costume, American Costume, Warner Brothers, Disney, and CRC.

Austin Butler stars in Bikerider. He’s a photogenic fellow.

And just as good-looking in person!

How did you dress his character Benny?

Benny’s as nonchalant as you can get: “I don’t care, I don’t want to look like I care.” So we wanted the jacket and the cut [vest] to be like it fell onto his body or that he just rolled out of bed with it on. His clothes are stripped down and basic because it was important that Benny didn’t have too many details, that he wasn’t over-designed, and that he wasn’t too fitted, so you feel his ambivalence of even being there. For me as a designer, it was actually about holding back with Benny. Less is more.

Danny Lyon’s picture book “The Bikeriders” inspired director Jeff Nichols to make this film. Did you also use that book as a reference?

Absolutely. Some things were a complete lift. That sleeveless black T-shirt on Benny standing by the pool table was a complete replica, but even that has its own challenges. Is it sweatshirt material? How do you get the shirt to lie right and not be flat black and feel dirty?

The movie opens with Benny in a bar refusing to take off his Vandals jacket, saying “You’ll have to kill me to get my coat off.” The denim jacket with cut-off sleeves…

The denim pieces that go over the jackets, we call them cuts.

The gang “colors” — the Vandals patch — seem to play an important role in these characters’ identity.

The cut was kind of a character unto itself. The [Vandals] logo was an embroidered patch chain-stitched onto the jackets. Some [bikers] would cut out the patch close to the letters and stitch that on, and some, like Benny, would just keep the square patch straight off the embroiderer: “Yeah, I’ll throw that thing on,” and tack it in the corners.

Tom Hardy plays the Vandal’s leader, Johnny. In the movie, Jodie Comer’s character Kathy says she heard that Johnny started the biker gang after seeing Marlon Brando in The Wild Bunch on TV. Did Brando’s famous black leather jacket inspire your look for Johnny?

I was definitely influenced by Marlon Brando’s silhouette, which is actually very similar to Johnny’s silhouette, the jeans, the boots, the belts, the jacket — very much an influence. 

And the jacket?

Johnny actually wore a classic leather jacket style from the forties. I stuck with silhouettes and styles for Johnny that were specific to the forties and fifties, a little earlier than the sixties, as my way to differentiate him. The zipper thing [on the sleeves] was functional because it allowed bikers to get their gloves underneath it. And for Johnny, we did a deep pocket leather jacket that first appeared in the late thirties so bikers could keep their maps in that pocket. 

Did you make Johnny’s jacket from scratch, or was that a vintage piece you sourced in London?

Secret. I will not tell. I built several of the lead characters’ leather jackets, and I sourced several of the lead character jackets if we were able to find multiple.

The Bikeriders story is told mainly from the perspective of Benny’s wife, Kathy, portrayed by Jodie Comer as a no-nonsense working-class Chicago woman. How did you express Kathy’s attitude through her clothes?

Kathy was very strong. We wanted her to not change a ton [after she meets Benny]. For us, it was important that Kathy didn’t turn into a biker chick.

So, how did you design Kathy’s look?

At her fittings, Jodie would sort of put her hips forward, place her hands or arms in a certain position – that’s when you start to feel her character. I put shirts on her and tank tops and sweaters and knit wears and denims. At times, she’d wear this black western-style shirt with the white piping and snaps because that was actually in the reference material. Kathy is the feminine energy of the whole film and represents the experience of being a woman in this culture. It was important that she maintain who she was throughout all these experiences. 

The Bikeriders is the third movie you’ve costume-designed for Jeff Nichols after Midnight Special and Loving. How did you two first get together?

I watched Jeff’s [2011 drama] Take Shelter and said to my agent I want to work with that guy. The movie blew me away — the tone, the sci-fi, the amount of detail, the psychology of the characters. So I went after him. Jeff’s really good at sharing with me everything about the characters, and that enables me to do my job of interpreting their personalities.

The Bikeriders is in theaters now.

Featured image: Austin Butler stars as Benny in director Jeff Nichols’ THE BIKERIDERS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2024 Focus Features, LLC. All Rights Reserved.