The buzz around the Netflix Western The Harder They Fall is palpable. From London, where the world premiere was held, to Los Angeles, New York and Kingston, the noise is hard to ignore. The star-studded black cast includes Idris Elba, Oscar winner Regina King, Zazie Beetz and Jonathan Majors. The high-profile music mogul Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter has co-producer credentials and Jeymes Samuel, the film’s director.

There’s the music, too, elevated by the drum and bass line peculiar to reggae music, delivered by Grammy-winning reggae, dancehall sensation Koffee who drops the title track The Harder They Fall. It’s brutal! Bloody brilliant, visually appealing and a must-watch. The big guns (pun intended) were rolled out for this one.

One in particular, notably costume designer Antoinette Messam, caught our eye. Messam is a Jamaican-Canadian who was born in Montego Bay, and attended primary school there before migrating at the age of seven to Toronto. Her family roots span [on her mum’s side, the Sterlings and the Herons] the parish of Westmoreland. Her grandparents lived in Broughton (crossroads Little London) road to Savanna-la-Mar. On her father’s side, the Messams have roots in Clarendon, May Pen, stretching to Spanish Town. She would discover at the Netflix launch party that the mother of reggae great, Barrington Levy, whose remixed Here I Come is featured prominently on the film’s soundtrack, is also a Messam. There’s more! Jamaican-Canadian supermodel Chantelle “Winnie” Harlow’s father is Messam’s first cousin and resides in Sav.

It is this informed background that she would draw on to create costumes that perfectly capture the swag of the cast and the vision of director Samuel, who is incidentally the brother of Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Seal ( Kiss from a Rose). “This is the Western he [Jeymes Samuel] wanted to see as a kid. This is who he wanted to see in his Westerns and this is how he wanted to see them dress,” Messam shares with the Style Observer (SO).

Messam’s dad Edward was also a huge fan of Westerns. Little wonder, we reckon, that she screamed when she got the confirmation call. “The director Jeymes Samuel called and told me himself. I screamed. I couldn’t believe it as it was a very intense interview process. And I got it! I worked really hard to get the job and he fought even harder to have me,” shared Messam from Los Angeles.

“My creative process started with costume meetings with the director, sharing references, listening to music that inspired him and breaking down the characters and their stories,” Messam continued. “My references came from everywhere. My personal reference library, the Internet, online fashion collections and lookbooks. The production designer and I shared all our visual references and created a combined THTF ( The Harder They Fall) digital reference library. Once we knew the world, the illustrations came next. Then, once approved, we built the costumes that would then be fit on cast.”

The costumes are as smooth and seductive as the film’s score. The film might have been set in the late 1800s but Messam was given artistic freedom. Top of mind, however, was director Samuels’ favourite colour red! And naturally denim. Lots of it. Messam in an interview with Variety.com shared that she used denim as her fabric of choice, with the aim of showing the influence of African indigo in a colour palette that ties the worlds of the film together.

Perfectly logical for the costume designer whose mum Evelyn was a seamstress and her maternal grandfather Clifford Sterling a well-established tailor, and who, in her own words, accidently fell into costume designing.

The one-time model and stylist tells SO that the film Orphan “is still up there as one of my best film experiences… It was my first studio film and working closely with my director Juame Collett Serra to create the looks for Esther was amazing. The character is iconic and comes to life every Halloween”.

One of her worst experiences thus far was working through the pandemic. “We were one of the first films out the gate when the world opened up again and the COVID-19 protocols made doing our jobs a challenge. It was hard to do final checks on cast before we shot when we couldn’t get any closer than six feet,” she says

Messam, with 30-odd years under her belt, attributes her sticktoitiveness to her Jamaican roots. Naturally, those early days were difficult, she recalls. “I had to work that much harder, and complaining was not an option. I was also lucky in that I had mentors who believed in me and knew I could deliver. I will forever be thankful for the opportunities I was given. What they say about Jamaicans… ‘we likkle but we tallawah’. My parents worked hard to be able to bring their family to foreign to have more opportunities. I made it a point to take and use every opportunity offered me. Thankfully, it has been a long time since I was the only person of colour on set.”

So has there been change? “Yes and no,” she responds. “There has been change, in that I am seeing more studios and networks discussing diversity and asking for more diverse crews. I have seen a change in myself; I am now asking if attempts were made to fill positions with experienced people of colour. Or give inexperienced young people an opportunity to get positions that are entry-level so they can learn. I am using my voice and my position.”

She certainly used both her voice and her skills on The Harder They Fall. “I was proud of what we were producing, what I knew we were accomplishing as a group. It was a very stressful but exciting time,” she recalls. When it comes to sharing her thoughts on dressing those badass women there’s hardly a pause. “What can I tell you! All the female leads in my film were very different characters, were in different gangs: The Nat Love gang and the Rufus Buck gang. Their way of dress was first decided by the town and economics. Then their style and action… They were all very strong and cool at the same time, badass!”

And the men? “The same could be said for the men,” she shares. “The storyline dictated their costume. For example, we first see Idris Elba’s character Rufus Buck as an outlaw years before, then a prison outfit that quickly changes to his “new” look which was custom-made for the film by Ozwald Boateng. He appeared uncomfortable in his clothes because they were brand-new and he had worn a prison uniform for several years.”

Asked to detail a particular look, Messam takes SO to the scene when Rufus Buck gets dressed in Trudy’s saloon. When she walks in he asks: “How do I look?” You see the vulnerability in his face, the slightly sloppy appearance inside the bar. But when he walks out he is tidied and stands strong in his red velvet frock coat, black vest and pant, with textured shirt. All custom-made for the film by Savile Row tailor Ozwald Boateng.”

SO is taken to another… “Or if you are speaking specifically to Douglastown, Marly’s saloon…

“Jonathan Major’s character Nat Love enters Douglastown in his courting clothes… he’s come to town to ask his love to marry him. He is wearing a custom leather jacket in russet. A cobalt blue denim shirt, and dark raw denim jeans, all custom-made for the actor. His hat and boots were also custom-made. The leather poncho he wore riding into town was Balmain that my team altered and distressed to work in the scene.”

If you haven’t yet watched The Harder They Fall, watch it! If you have, watch it again paying keen attention to every seam, stitch and fold by Antoinette Messam, yet another of our Rock stars.