Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens on Justified (Episode 6.11: “Fugitive Number One”). Photo by Prashant Gupta/FX.
Vitals
Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, old-fashioned Deputy U.S. Marshal
Harlan County, Kentucky, Spring 2010 to Fall 2014
Series: Justified
Creator: Graham Yost
Costume Designers: Ane Crabtree (Season 1) & Patia Prouty (Seasons 2-6)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Justified is one of my favorite fall shows (despite the fact that each season originally aired in the spring), and I always like to revisit the tangled, moonshine-soaked underworld of Harlan County every autumn.
The first episode established the series-long conflict between Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) and Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), who dug coal together in the mines of eastern Kentucky before their diverging career paths as Raylan rose through the ranks of the U.S. Marshals Service tracking down criminals like Boyd, who started the series as the explosives-loving leader of a gang of bank-robbing white supremacists.
Both Raylan and Boyd have frequently been the subjects of requests from fans of the series as the series costume designers neatly established each man’s signature style: Boyd, somewhat fussy for a country criminal, with his layered sport jackets, waistcoats with dangling pocket watch chains, and shirts buttoned to the neck; and Raylan, who blends old-fashioned cowboy aesthetics into his modern business apparel.
What’d He Wear?
Raylan typically alternated between his office uniform of a sports coat and tie or his off-duty outfits of trucker jackets, henleys, and flannel shirts, almost always worn with his go-to Levi’s jeans. As colder weather entered the hills around Harlan County, Raylan regularly layered his latter look by pulling on a dark wool coat over the double denim, beginning with the first-season episode “The Hammer” (Episode 1.10) and seen in nearly every season—except the fourth—through the climactic scene in the series finale, “The Promise” (Episode 6.13).
Raylan the gunfighter pulls his coat back for smoother access to his holstered Glock during a final confrontation in “The Promise” (Episode 6.13).
A modern take on the gunfighter’s archetypal duster—or the “badass longcoat” as defined by TV Tropes—Raylan’s coat was so frequently worn that at least three different coats were featured on the show, as explained by Justified expert Rick, who runs the excellent Facebook fan page It was Justified. The outfit was established during Ane Crabtree’s tenure as costume designer through the first season, remaining a favorite for the character after Patia Prouty took over from the second season onward.
Made from a charcoal herringbone wool, the 3/4-length coat extends to just above Timothy Olyphant’s knees, a flattering look for the lean, 6’0″-tall actor.
Raylan pulls his Glock on Cope (Tom Proctor) as he takes to the eastern Kentucky hills in search of Boyd, Ava, and the missing $10 million in “Collateral” (Episode 6.12).
At least one of Raylan’s coats came from Hugo Boss, as detailed in Rick’s linked post and a 2012 post on AskAndyAboutClothes forum, with a quote from Prouty explaining that it’s “an old (six years) Hugo Boss overcoat from a rental house that we sorta/kinda never returned. I’ve been forever trying to replace it because we always need extras, but I can’t find any more. I even went so far as to look for fabric like it to re-create it.” Prouty’s costume design team must have had success, as a 2018 auction of series props and costumes—three years after the finale aired—included Raylan’s clothing from the final three episodes that described the coat as DKNY.
Though the series’ costume team evidently cycled through several coats over the course of the series, all were similarly styled and detailed with the prominent edge-stitched collar and large-scaled herringbone weave as seen here under the sun in “Collateral” (Episode 6.12).
Four black plastic sew-through buttons fasten up to the neck, though Raylan always wears his coat fully open to allow unfettered access to his belt-holstered Glock. The edge-stitched Prussian collar adds a commanding quality to the otherwise minimally appointed coat, which has vertical-entry welt pockets on each side and a long single vent in the back. The sleeves are set-in at the shoulders and plain at the cuffs, devoid of any buttons, tabs, or other ornamentation or fixtures that could snag as the lawman moves to quickly draw his sidearm.
Hands in his pockets while awaiting the helicopter that will aid his search in “Fugitive Number One” (Episode 6.11), the scattered snow in the hills around him add context to Raylan’s smart layers.
Raylan regularly layered the coat over his favorite casual jacket, a medium blue wash denim Levi’s trucker jacket in the “Type III” pattern that the storied outfitter had been manufacturing since the 1960s. Rick’s It was Justified Facebook page explains that, to spare Timothy Olyphant from overheating and/or to aid his mobility in action sequences, a sleeveless Levi’s jean jacket was modified to be worn in scenes that called for it to be layered under the wool coat.
Raylan joins his father Arlo (Raymond J. Barry) for a shot of bourbon at the local VFW after Arlo talks down a suicidal veteran in “Fathers and Sons” (Episode 1.12). Raylan peels off his coat to show his full-sleeved Levi’s trucker jacket, though subsequent seasons would outfit Olyphant in a modified sleeveless Levi’s jacket when he needed to wear it under his herringbone coat.
Aligned with a horizontal yoke, the pair of pointed chest pockets are the same as introduced on the Levi’s 557XX jacket in the early ’60s, fastened on Raylan’s jacket through silver-toned “donut”-style rivet buttons matching the six on the front of the jacket and the set closing each cuff. The brand’s signature slanted seams taper down in a narrow “V” shape from under each chest-pocket flap to the waistband, which is additionally rigged with a button-tab adjuster toward the back of each side. Levi’s added hand pockets to their famous trucker jackets in the ’80s, positioned with a vertical entry just behind each set of tapered front seams.
Mina and Teena were already unhappy with “Officer Buzzkill” for ruining their pool day, and their frustration with Raylan only grows in “Weight” (Episode 5.10) when Raylan tricks Mina into handing over her phone so he can call Dewey Crowe.
Raylan debuted the wool coat over his double denim in “The Hammer” (Episode 1.10), worn over a navy blue cotton long-sleeved henley shirt that’s seen again with this outfit in “Fathers and Sons” (Episode 1.12). This particular henley has a narrow placket with four “donut”-style metal buttons that fasten right up to the top of the shirt’s crew-neck.
Boyd describes Raylan as “the agent of my salvation”, though he may be regretting his geniality as Raylan takes the opportunity to speak to his “congregation” as a chance to offer them a $50,000 reward for any information leading to Boyd’s capture in “The Hammer” (Episode 1.10). This marks the first appearance of Raylan layering his charcoal herringbone coat over the denim jacket and jeans, as well as the first of several dark henleys.
“When the Guns Come Out” (Episode 3.06) again finds Raylan wearing these layers over a henley, though it’s now a pitch black cotton long-sleeved shirt that has a slightly raised neckline that tapers down to the three-button placket. (I suspect it’s the same shirt that he wore under a black checked shirt three episodes earlier in “Harlan Roulette”.)
Raylan gradually adds layers to his black henley and jeans over the course of “When the Guns Come Out” (Episode 3.06).
Raylan skips this favorite look of his for most of the fourth season, bringing it back at the end of the fifth season in the episodes “Weight” (Episode 5.10) and “Restitution” (Episode 5.13). He wears another black cotton long-sleeved henley, this one with a narrow taped placket with four black recessed plastic 4-hole buttons.
Another day, another dark henley, this time seen under his denim jacket while trading barbs with Mina in “Weight” (Episode 5.10).
Raylan diverged from his usual henleys for a visit to the Bennett homestead in “For Blood or Money” (Episode 2.04), wearing the coat and denim with a checked cotton flannel long-sleeve shirt. Tucked into his jeans, the shirt is patterned in a small-scaled burgundy-and-gray tartan plaid, each color separated by a black graph-check. The shirt fastens up the front placket with black plastic 2-hole buttons.
“Uninvited don’t mean unwelcome,” assures Mags (Margo Martindale), the Bennett family matriarch, to a decidedly unwelcome Raylan in “For Blood or Money” (Episode 2.04).
The final trio of episodes—”Fugitive Number One” (Episode 6.11), “Collateral” (Episode 6.12), and “The Promise” (Episode 6.13)—results in an old west-style showdown, and the fact that Raylan was dressed through this narrative in the long coat layered over his denim reinforces my hypothesis that the look was meant to suggest a connection to occupational ancestors like the Earps.
Under his jackets, Raylan wears a navy-and-black micro-checked cotton flannel long-sleeved shirt from Rag & Bone, layered over a dark gray washed cotton crew-neck short-sleeved J. Crew pocket T-shirt.
Raylan visits a hospitalized Boyd in “Fugitive Number One” (Episode 6.11), wearing the mini-checked Rag & Bone shirt and dark gray J. Crew pocket T that he would wear under his denim jacket and charcoal herringbone coat through the following two episodes until the quickdraw shootout that would lead to the end of his career in eastern Kentucky.
Though Rag & Bone has discontinued this particular shirt, J. Crew continues to offer a “broken-in” pocket T in a shade of dyed cotton marketed as “Bedford coal”… which seems appropriate, given Raylan and Boyd’s shared history.
Interestingly, the reverse side of his Rag & Bone shirt shows a larger-scaled tartan plaid in the same colorway. The shirt has a narrow point collar, a front placket that Raylan wears open, and a breast pocket echoing the T-shirt underneath it.
Note the larger-scaled tartan check on the reverse side of the shirt, seen most prominently on Raylan’s rolled-up cuffs.
If Raylan even wears jeans with his sport jackets and ties at the office, you can be sure he’s going to be wearing them with this off-duty look. Although the wash varies between a medium blue to a darker indigo, he exclusively wears Levi’s 501 Original Fit jeans with the button-up fly, rivet-cornered five-pocket layout, and Levi’s signature arcuate stitching across the back pockets, flagged with the small red tab sewn against the back right pocket.
After being shot in the head—more accurately, his hat—in “The Promise” (Episode 6.13), a sprawled Raylan brings his head up as Loretta McCready (Kaitlin Dever) approaches him.
Raylan wears a dark brown tooled leather belt, edge-stitched in a contrasting white thread and increasingly worn at the edges to show the lighter brown natural leather. The belt closes through a polished silver-toned single-prong buckle.
Raylan wears his U.S. Marshals-issued badge and gun on the right side of his belt, the Glock holstered in a tan full-grain leather holster with a snap-closed top strap. In the first season, he had worn a Bianchi Model 59 Special Agent® holster, but then switched to a cosmetically similar holster custom-made by Alfonso Gun Leather of Hollywood for the second season onward.
Raylan keeps his gun hand ready during a final confrontation with Boyd Crowder in “The Promise” (Episode 6.13).
Raylan’s cowboy boots are an essential part of his image as an old-fashioned country lawman. For the first two seasons, Raylan had worn brown anteater boots by Justin Boots, a equestrian footwear company founded by H.J. Justin in Gainesville, Texas, in 1879.
Still wearing his Justin anteater boots in “Reckoning” (Episode 2.12), Raylan sidesteps the blood spilled during the gunfight that killed his aunt Helen.
Beginning with the third season, costume designer Patia Prouty had switched Raylan’s footwear to a pair of cigar-colored brown ostrich leg boots made by Lucchese, another Texan boot company that had been founded by Sicilian immigrant Salvatore “Sam” Lucchese in San Angelo in 1883, only four years after Justin. The tag from his costume for the final three episodes informs us that Raylan wore gray socks under his boots.
According to WesternOutlets.com, “ostrich skin is by far the best choice in the exotic leather category. It is one of the softest, yet most comfortable and durable, of all the exotic leathers. Ostrich has soft, medium-sheen finish and is easily maintained.” Ostrich leg is specifically characterized by “a distinguished wide scale pattern similar to chicken leg but with the durability and feel of lizard.”
Unless you’re an expert in exotic leather hides, the most significant visual difference between the screen-worn Justin anteater boots and the Lucchese L1380 ostrich leg boots appears to be that the latter are appointed with a set of seams running parallel over each instep similar to “bicycle-toe” vamps.
We linger a moment on Raylan’s Lucchese ostrich leg boots as he approaches one last old west-style showdown in “The Promise” (Episode 6.13).
Though a few shots in the pilot episode show him wearing a Rolex Submariner dive watch, the series initially established Raylan’s favorite wristwatch as one that has been identified by several as a TAG Heuer Series 6000 Chronometer sports watch with a brushed steel case, round white dial, and leather bands alternating between brown and black leather.
While does appear to wear the Series 6000 through much of the series, close-ups of his wrist in the final seasons reveal a non-TAG Heuer timepiece. This wristwatch is cosmetically similar, with a polished steel case rigged on a black leather strap. Likely activated by the extra pusher at 2 o’clock, the luminous light-colored round dial is printed bold black Arabic number hour markers, each with the coordinating 24-hour marker printed smaller in red.
To me, the watch resembled a Hamilton but a BAMF Style commenter and an eagle-eyed expert at the WatchUSeek forums identified Raylan’s last watch as a Versales, a budget-oriented Japanese quartz watch. (You can occasionally find Raylan-style Versales watches on Amazon.)
Fielding the suspicions of his boss via BlackBerry (remember those?), “Fugitive Number One” (Episode 6.11) provides a good glimpse at the wristwatch Raylan wears for the series’ final episodes.
Raylan maintains his consistent cowboy image with a sterling silver horseshoe ring, worn on his right ring finger and detailed with braided sides that taper toward the back of the band.
Elmore Leonard would only give permission for Justified to proceed if the show’s creators could confirm that Raylan Givens would be outfitted in what the author deemed to be a proper hat in the spirit of the Stetson “Open Road” described in Leonard’s stories. To guarantee perfection, Timothy Olyphant returned to Baron Hats, the Hollywood hatmaker he’d worked with on HBO’s proto-Western series Deadwood.
Baron Hats developed Raylan’s signature cowboy hat in a sahara tan 200XXX beaver felt, detailed with a 4.25″ cattleman’s-style crown, 3.25″-wide brim, and a slim brown tooled leather band with a steel ranger-style buckle.
Raylan’s horseshoe ring flashes as he dons his cowboy hat in “The Hammer” (Episode 1.10), having removed it to, uh, pray with Boyd Crowder’s “congregation”.
Integral to his image as an old-fashioned marshal, Raylan’s hat symbolically “retires” when it takes a bullet that’s nearly fatal for Raylan himself in the finale episode. For this scene, Raylan’s hat appears to have been swapped out for a genuine Stetson “Marshall” as “XXX San Angelo Collection” can be seen on the brown leather hatband, referring to a specific line created by the venerable Texan-based John B. Stetson Company.
While it’s well-documented that Raylan’s hat was custom-made for the production by Baron Hats, the silverbelly hat that took a bullet through the cattleman’s-style crown in the final episode appears to be a Stetson, based on the gilt “XXX San Angelo Collection” insignia against the brown leather sweatband.
Signifying the end of his career in the hills of eastern Kentucky, Raylan then abandons his bullet-damaged hat in favor of the custom-made fedora left behind by the now-deceased gunman who had just tried to kill him.
The Gun
The series dialogue occasionally suggests that Raylan Givens carries a .45-caliber Glock, though close-ups of the screen-used weapons determines that he and his fellow Deputy Marshals are actually armed with the Glock 17 service pistol, the standard full-sized Glock chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum.
As one would expect of an old-fashioned lawman, Raylan shows considerable proficiency with his sidearm throughout the series, explaining in “Weight” (Episode 5.10) that “me, I’m good to 50, 75 yards,” a bit beyond Glock 17’s effective range of 55 yards, though he may be relying on his stated confidence to intimidate the knife-wielding Danny Crowe (A.J. Buckley).
Raylan’s Glock comes out on the driver of a mobile OxyContin clinic in “When the Guns Come Out” (Episode 3.06)
Austrian engineer Gaston Glock brought his experience working with synthetic polymers to the development of the semi-automatic pistols that would bear his name. Although it’s been stated that the first model was named the Glock 17 in reference to the number of criteria required by the Austrian military for its new service pistol, this is a false etymology rooted in coincidence; Glock had named his pistol in tribute to it being his company’s 17th patent.
As the recoil-operated Glock 17 entered production and quickly shook up the global firearms market through the early 1980s, the company continued developing variants in different sizes and calibers, beginning with the introduction of the Glock 19 in 1988, a downscaled version of the 9mm Glock 17 that set the standard for interchangeability between most Glock pistols of the same caliber, regardless of size. As of 2021, more than three dozen variations of Glock pistols have been produced in calibers ranging from .22 LR and .380 ACP up to the powerful .45 ACP and proprietary .45 GAP rounds.
Given the cosmetic similarities between the 9mm, .40, and .45-caliber models, there would have little reason for the production to actually arm Olyphant with a Glock 21, especially given .45-caliber ammunition’s less reliable reputation for cycling blanks than the more universal 9x19mm cartridge. Although the .40-caliber Glock 22 would have been the more accurate reflection of what U.S. Marshals are issued in real life, stating that Raylan carries a .45-caliber sidearm likens him more to the legendary lawmen of the old west with their single-action Colt .45s.
One final showdown on Justified, this time between the Glock-wielding Raylan and his gunslinger-styled nemesis Boon (Jonathan Tucker), who’s armed with a single-action revolver, in the series finale, “The Promise” (Episode 6.13).
The Car
Throughout all six seasons of Justified, Raylan Givens drives a black 2003 Lincoln Town Car sedan, the executive cousin of the Ford Crown Victoria that had been an American law enforcement favorite for decades, though the Town Car was more frequently in use by fleet and limousine services.
The Town Car and Crown Vic were both built on the full-size Ford Panther rear-wheel-drive (RWD) platform that had been established in 1979, though the “Town Car” etymology dates back to a limited series of upmarket Continental sedans in the late 1950s, reused for another Lincoln trim option through the ’70s before it became a separate model in its own right.
According to IMCDB, Raylan’s Town Car was almost always a 2003 model, though he had also driven a 1998 Signature Series Town Car through the first season. As denoted by the silver lettering behind the rear doors, Raylan’s Town Car was an “Executive Series”, the entry-level trim.
Raylan with his black Lincoln Town Car in “Fugitive Number One” (Episode 6.11).
Beginning in 2003, all Town Cars were powered by a 4.6-liter Ford Modular SOHC V8 engine that generated 239 horsepower, mated to a four-speed automatic transmission. Once the flagship sedan of the Ford Motor Company, Lincoln ceased production of the Town Car after the 2011 model year, focusing on the Lincoln MKS full-size sedan that was more aligned with the company’s new direction.
How to Get the Look
Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens on Justified (Episode 6.12: “Collateral”). Photo by Prashant Gupta/FX.
Raylan Givens finds a cool and comfortable way to layer his off-duty looks in a manner consistent with his “business cowboy” persona, his double denim anchored by a well-traveled coat that serves as his gunslinger-style duster as he approaches his final shootout of the series.
- Dark long-sleeved henley or short-sleeved T-shirt
- Charcoal herringbone wool 3/4-length topcoat with edge-stitched Prussian collar, four-button front, welted vertical-entry side pockets, set-in sleeves with plain cuffs, and long single vent
- Blue denim Levi’s 557XX “Type III” trucker jacket with six “donut”-style rivet buttons, pointed chest pocket flaps, hand pockets, button-tab waist adjusters, and button cuffs
- Blue denim Levi’s 501 Original Fit button-fly jeans
- Dark brown tooled leather belt with a dulled steel single-prong buckle
- Tan full grain leather thumb-break belt holster, for full-size Glock pistol
- Brown exotic leather Western-style boots
- Baron Hats “The RG” sahara tan 200XXX beaver felt cattleman’s hat with a thin tooled leather band
- Stainless steel quartz wristwatch with round white luminous dial and black leather strap
- Sterling silver horseshoe ring with braided side detail
- White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the series. I always recommend that fans of the show who are on Facebook follow super-fan Rick’s great page @EverythingJustified which features many great photos, videos, and moments from the series as well as shots of screen-worn gear.
If you want to see this outfit in action, you can primarily see these pieces worn together in the below ten episodes, which are some of the best of the series:
- “The Hammer” (Episode 1.10), directed by John Dahl, aired May 18, 2010
- “Fathers and Sons” (Episode 1.12), directed by Michael Katleman, aired June 1, 2010
- “For Blood or Money” (Episode 2.04), directed by John Dahl, aired March 2, 2011
- “Reckoning” (Episode 2.12), directed by Adam Arkin, aired April 27, 2011
- “When the Guns Come Out” (Episode 3.06), directed by Don Kurt, aired February 21, 2012
- “Weight” (Episode 5.10), directed by John Dahl, aired March 18, 2014
- “Restitution” (Episode 5.13), directed by Adam Arkin, aired April 8, 2014
- “Fugitive Number One” (Episode 6.11), directed by Jon Avnet, aired March 31, 2015
- “Collateral” (Episode 6.12), directed by Michael Pressman, aired April 7, 2015
- “The Promise” (Episode 6.13), directed by Adam Arkin, aired April 14, 2015
The Quote
I don’t care how it gets done… as long as it gets done.
The post Justified: Raylan’s Wool Coat and Double Denim appeared first on BAMF Style.