Frontier Frocks

The Title: “Dances With Wolves”

The Script: Co-producer/director/star Kevin Costner’s epic tale of a Union soldier (Lt. John J. Dunbar) who gets assigned to a Western frontier post, where his life is transformed by an encounter with the Sioux.

The Look: The Sioux costumes, including that of Kicking Bird (Graham Greene, pictured), are both wondrously simple and lush. Some 600 deerskins clothe the film’s principals and extras, as do buffalo furs, feathers and beads.

The Sioux and Pawnee costumes were researched down to the last elk tooth decoration (one of the few fakes, made from resin casts) sewn onto the dress of the leading female character, Stands With a Fist (Mary McDonnell), by costume designer Elsa Zamparelli. “We are talking museum authentic,” she says of the costumes. Her most important sources, she says, were painter Karl Bodman’s depictions of American Indians.

Lt. Dunbar’s own clothing visually expresses his assimilation into, and compassion for, the Sioux tribe. He gradually sheds his steel-blue Army jacket, vest and hat, dons a full breastplate of bone pipe and a choker and adds eagle feathers to his hair.

The piece de resistance is Stands With a Fist’s wedding gown of white deerskin, with beading, and shell earrings, inspired by a George Catlin painting.

The Labels and Stores: The Union uniforms as well as 160 garments for Sioux extras came from Western Costume. The other Indian clothes and accessories were made in workshops set up by Zamparelli; jewelry, headpieces and moccasins were made in Los Angeles, clothes with hand-beading and hand-quill embroidery were made in Sante Fe.