A designer who knows the city
Govan started with a personal advantage. “I was born and raised in Houston, Texas,” she told IndieWire. “Reading the script, I really appreciated Bassam’s capacity for understanding how diverse Texas is, and Houston specifically.” The bigger challenge was faith. “I wanted to be very mindful and respectful of Muslim identity, but not fall into a prescribed idea of what a Muslim is, because there is no such thing,” she said. “But there is a construct of Black Muslim style and contemporary modern life, an unabashed way of dress that is vibrant, that is rich in texture, that is rich in color and swag.”Building Latif
For Latif, Govan drew on a wide range of sources. She told IndieWire she referenced Tuareg dress, particularly in the indigo palette, and the Baye Fall, as well as the more utilitarian side of Japanese samurai clothing. The balance was delicate, because the audience meets Latif as a killer before it knows him as a father. “There’s a level of restraint that’s very important,” she said. “I didn’t want the costumes to announce themselves.” Several of his costumes are her own designs. For a funeral scene, she created a thobe that combines a traditional tunic silhouette with the details of a tailored men’s dress shirt: micro-stripe shirting with a contrasting denim band collar and cuffs. She designed loose shalwar trousers in blue and white for his meditative practice with his sword, and a multicolored morning tunic with long sleeves that, in her words, “reflects his attempt at optimism.” Across these looks, she explained, untucked shirts, long sleeves and loose trousers keep the modesty and ease of his everyday wardrobe, while the details express different sides of the man. The piece that holds his two lives together is a long denim kimono coat. Govan made it in collaboration with Daisuke Muramatsu, owner of the label Prospective Flow, using pieces from his collection. Add a Tuareg-inspired tagelmust and an embossed leather belt holding his sword sheath, and the same man reads as a warrior. “Latif remains a father, a man of faith, and a warrior throughout that seamless transition,” she said.The pastor in the cowboy hat
Latif’s adversary is Pastor Hwan, an evangelist cult leader in charge of a heavily armed militia, played by John Cho. NPR’s critic calls Cho terrific in the role, wearing gold dental grills and a cowboy hat. Govan began her research with cult leaders. “How do they identify in their dress and style?” she asked. She then turned to the look of militias and to Texas and Western iconography: the hat, boots, spurs, embellished denim and crosses on his jeans. His most arresting shirt was a last-minute brief. On a Friday evening, Govan said, she received a note asking for a portrait of his mother on the back of the shirt, to be on camera Monday, in six multiples. She found an airbrush artist to hand-paint the image, and fringe details and studs were added to the shirts, all within a 72-hour window. With only one fitting per lead actor, she said, the research had to do the work. “When we tried all the final pieces on that day and John stepped out of his camper fully loaded with the cowboy hat in his hand, the jeans, the shirt, the black ostrich boots with the spurs, and the belt buckle with crosses on it, it just came together.”A daughter with her own language
For Latif’s daughter, Fatiha, played by Adia, Govan wanted to show what she called “a young Muslim girl’s freedom of expression through her clothing.” She brought modest but modern teenage silhouettes together with roomy streetwear, track jackets, sports jerseys, sneakers and layering. Her hijabs were tied and styled in different ways, in mustard yellows, muted greens and blues, and lavender. “Her colorful hijabs were tied and styled in various ways, giving her costumes a language of comfort and a controlled sense of teenage rebellion,” Govan said. One of her favorite looks comes in the scene where Fatiha steals milk for her baby sister, wearing a hockey jersey, jeans and a hijab. In a shot of her alone in the mosque, Govan said, those around her are in traditional dress and she is not. “I wanted to show that juxtaposition.”Why it matters
American films rarely put practicing Muslim families at the center of the story, a point IndieWire makes in introducing the interview. Govan’s work shows what careful costume design can do in that space: avoid cliché, draw on a global wardrobe from West Africa to Japan, and still feel like a real family in a real Texas city. She is also clear that none of it happens alone. “No costume designer, no cinematographer, no production designer is an island unto themselves,” she said. “We work together.” New York audiences were among the first to see it: the film opened in select theaters here and in Los Angeles before its wider release, and IndieWire lists it as currently in theaters from Orion. Read on: how costume designers have shaped the city on screen in Dressing New York, and the craft behind the stage in Curtain Up. Find talent in the MOAM directory · Subscribe to The MOAM List · Follow MOAM on Instagram @moam_co and Facebook makingofamogul · Tips and corrections: hello@makingofamogul.comSources
Photo: “Mahershala Ali by Gage Skidmore” by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Editor’s note: facts in this article were checked against the linked sources in October 2026. Deirdra Govan’s words are quoted as published by IndieWire, and other details of her designs are paraphrased from that interview. Plot details are from NPR’s review, and release dates from The Guardian. The featured photograph was taken in 2019 and is not from the film; MOAM has no commercial relationship with the film or its distributor.
Leave a Reply