The Warden's wardrobe screams bad bitch that takes no shit: stiff, no stretch, straight leg Levi's or Wranglers, a thrifted button down, a leather belt with a homemade belt buckle, and cowboy boots she's had since she was 21. There's a flashback scene when we see the Warden as a girl, maybe around 11 or 12. She's wearing the same sort of outfit: blue jeans, a button down, and cowboy boots and hat (alluding to the fact that she's the type of gal who will never change her style and will die wearing those same cowboy boot because, you know, if it ain't broke...). The wild red hair, the silver hoops, the fascination with her nails (rattlesnake venom makes them sparkle you know), and the feminine choices for shirt wear all make her look like she's comfortable with her feminine and masculine sides. She doesn't have anything to prove, she just IS. We don't ever see much about the Warden's personal life, not like we do with Kate Barlow. We see the blip of her childhood: digging holes in the middle of the desert with her grandfather, hell bent on finding the buried loot from Barlow. We see her home for a little while, also obsessed with Kate Barlow, full of vintage wanted posters and vintage furniture that's probably been in her family for years. And her car, that was her grandfathers. A vintage Cadillac of some sorts, maybe. But that's exactly it: vintage. Hand-me-down. She is her family. She doesn't feel the need to buy new clothes (not like she really can, she's in the middle of the desert at Camp Green Lake). She doesn't replace or renew, she just uses everything up until maybe one day it falls apart. There's something admirable about that: only wearing what you've got and what you've had and never thinking about anything else. She is sustainable, much like her favorite outlaw Kate Barlow: wearing the same stuff, day in and day out and not leaning into the female stereotype of having 100 outfit changes and too many clothes that they'll never wear. She's what we like to call a rough and tumble broad.
This movie struck a cord within me as a kid. So much that I read the book over and over afterwards. My edition of the book is hammered to say the least. Besides the storyline and fun, entertaining characters, I always felt a strong attraction to Patricia Arquette as Kissin' Kate Barlow in the film. I just thought she was so damn cool. She went from a sweet, innocent, and madly-in-love school teacher to one of the most notorious outlaws ever - male or female. I had an intense interest in fashion and clothing as a child (and watched so many movies - probably why I felt compelled to dump my musings here) and I always found Kate Barlow's wardrobe one of the more fun costumes in film that I'd witness during my childhood. The story behind her wardrobe switch relative to her character change is obvious: whites and pinks and neutrals as school teacher Kate and then a suggestive, red saloon gown when she kills her first victim. We almost never see her wear skirts again - until the moment she dies when she wears a tattered skirt and the same black bowler hat she stole from the first men she robbed. Kate's pants are evident: she's a woman out for revenge, why would she be wearing a skirt or a dress anymore - although that would be just as cool. However, the appeal of Kissin' Kate Barlow comes from a combination of the icy blonde hair and Patricia Arquette's soothing, feminine voice that contrasts her aggressive, gun wielding, pants-wearing persona. But is it a "persona"? Or is the outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow Kate Barlow's authentic version of herself? It's who she presumably spends more of her life as; who she dies as. It's through the love of her life, Sam, that she is motivated to become the notorious outlaw. She becomes comfortable in her new life, thriving murdering men who have wronged someone, somewhere at some point and leaving a trade mark that is so undeniably feminine it hurts. The last time we see Kate, she's running on empty. She's still wearing the tan and white button down we first see her in and she has the black bowler hat from her first victim. Much like her admirer the Warden, she doesn't have a need for a wardrobe change. She's too busy raising hell.
