The art of Christina Flannery's outrageous costumes on 'The Righteous Gemstones'

When costume designer Christina Flannery joined The Righteous Gemstones in season three, her goal was twofold: to build upon the show's already colourful outfits while also putting her own stamp on them. With collaboration from the series' creator, star, writer, and director Danny McBride, Flannery built some of the shows most outrageous and inimitable looks, earning her her second Primetime Emmy nomination for the HBO series.

"Ever since I've been a costume designer, I'm always trying to figure out a way to build something," Flannery says. The Righteous Gemstones, whose final season filmed in the South Carolina summer of 2024, serendipitously took Flannery on a ride through civil war era USA, mega-church telethons, and pole dancing, giving her the opportunity to showcase the characters' development alongside her own technical and creative skill. 

The first episode of the season transports us to civil war era USA. What was your process like for creating cohesion between that and the rest of the show? 

On this show specifically, in ways it does feel like almost every episode has its own storyline going on. We do a flashback episode every season, in the last season we did the doomsday preppers... There's so many worlds, and because the show has massive background scenes and so much going on, we're used to creating a world in its own way and just kind of incorporating that into Gemstones. 

'Prelude'; Source: Connie Chornuk/HBO

The biggest challenge filming that episode was that the first day we shot it, it was about 100° [degrees farenheit, 38° C) and the humidity – it was just a level of hell that you're not used to. 

With a show as colourful and wild as Gemstones, what were moments where you had to exercise restraint in costuming? 

It's hard for me to exercise restraint! A good example of restraint was BJ's pole dancing. Danny wanted to make sure it wasn't ‘JoJo Siwa’ [style] and over the top. We wanted it to seem like he's taking it seriously. This is a family that's worried about their image, this kind of stuff is important to them. 

There’s so much colour in the show, do you costume from a perspective of thinking about what the show looks like as a whole tableau?  

No matter what kind of show you work on, you do have to think about the bigger picture, about what looks good together. There’s a scene [in this season] where [everyone is at] at a barbecue, and for that I wanted to make sure that they looked very cohesive together. 

But I generally don't like to follow a palette because I don't feel like that is real life. On this specific show Danny does have a palette for them that he likes to be factored in - a jewel tone each. I continued that, but I injected my own version into it where I kept that but brought more colour into the palettes.  

Danny McBride, Edi Patterson, Adam Devine; Source Jake Giles Netter/HBO

What was the collaboration process like with the actors, particularly given Danny McBride directs, stars, writes, and produces. 

Danny is so available to you creatively. If you send an e-mail to him, he responds in 15 minutes. You can get on the phone with him anytime. But he does have a clear vision of like what he wants.  

Sometimes it's a little bit of a challenge, a little bit of back and forth. On season three, with the Young Danny version, I was leaning into Hank Williams Junior [the country singer] because I felt that was a really good match for Danny's character as an adult. But Danny actually had the idea to go into the Backstreet Boys, Eminem style.  

We took it and ran with it and it turned into a Fred Durst look, and Danny was loving that. We [work with Danny] on coming up with this idea and this vision together. 

Was there pressure to outdo yourself coming into season four? 

With Walton Goggins this season I’m like 'we're going to do something crazy again', but how do you top [season three’s] oyster shell outfit?  

Walton Goggins as Baby Billy Freeman in 'The Righteous Gemstones'; Source: HBO

They gave us a storyline to kind of grow his look, and [Walton] is so game, that also pushes you to be more creative, when you get to be with people that are like ‘Yeah, let’s do it, let's try it.’  So that’s how we got to the telethon outfit for him. 

There’s so many specific looks on this show, how do you decide when you’re going to build something versus buy something?  

Ever since I've been a costume designer, I'm always trying to figure out a way to build something. With this show, having the resources is so great. We have an amazing crew that's able to bring this stuff to life, but we also have an amazing leader in Danny who just really trusts the vision.  

For example, we had a white jumpsuit in season three, and people message me sometimes asking, ‘where did you get that jumpsuit from’. I’m like, ‘you think a white jumpsuit is going to last?’

People tend to forget about how much work goes into costuming [from a craft point of view]. If we need a jacket and we'll have to make 12 of them. It’s work that goes into it, and I wish people could see that aspect.