Vitals

Michael B. Jordan as the Smokestack Twins: Elias “Stack” Moore and Elijah “Smoke” Moore

Clarksdale, Mississippi, October 1932

Film: Sinners
Release Date: April 18, 2025
Director: Ryan Coogler
Costume Designer: Ruth E. Carter

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Sinners has been one of the biggest movies of 2025, with the highest opening weekend box office for an original film since Nope in 2022. Produced, written, and directed by Ryan Coogler, Sinners is set 93 years ago tonight from October 15 to 16, 1932 as the snappily dressed twin Moore brothers—recently returned from Chicago, where they were gunmen for the mob—have returned to their Mississippi Delta hometown to open a juke joint.

Smoke: Chicago ain’t shit but Mississippi with tall buildings instead of plantations.
Stack: And that’s why we came back home. Figure we might as well deal with the devil we know.

Michael B. Jordan demonstrates an incredible chemistry with… himself, portraying the dual roles as both Moores: the excitable Elias (“Stack”) and the more pragmatic Elijah (“Smoke”), nicknamed “the Smokestack twins” in Coogler’s tribute to Howlin’ Wolf’s blues classic “Smokestack Lightnin'”. Jordan has been one of the most fascinating actors to watch over the last two decades, ever since his breakthrough role as the teenage drug dealer Wallace on the first season of The Wire.

Jordan brings incredible dimension to both brothers, including Stack and Smoke’s respective romances with Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), and their dynamic with their young cousin Sammie Moore (Miles Caton), a sharecropper with a talent for playing the blues. From the trenches in war-torn France to the bloody beer wars of Chicago and Klansmen like Hogwood (David Maldonado) in their own backyard, the Smokestack twins have been winning battles for decades, but the night of October 15th introduces them to a form of the devil no one could anticipate.

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What’d They Wear?

Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter adapted trends in early 1930s menswear to the personalities and temperament of both brothers—not just in the colors but also the cuts and styles. While they may present as two guys in ’30s-informed three-piece suits and hats, the similarities end there as Smoke and Stack distinguish their looks in virtually every way possible.

“Knowing they were coming from Chicago, we figured they likely had custom suits done,” Carter told Bianca Betancourt for Harper’s Bazaar. Stack’s dramatic, red-forward look emphasizes his fiery passion and impulses, modeled more like a playboy pimp in his wide-brimmed fedora, matching scarlet striped pocket square and tie, and gold jewelry. The shrewder Smoke reflects his cooler demeanor in subdued blues, styled with a humble flat cap, utilitarian suit, and a shirt buttoned to the neck sans tie; given Sinners‘ spiritual overtones, the color may also nod to the tradition of haint blue, the pale shade that Gullah families painted porch ceilings and trim to echo the water and sky—believed to confuse wandering spirits and keep them from crossing into the home.

“I always felt like this was an American story, and I was looking at a lot of colorized photos of the South. I kept seeing red and blue, especially in workwear,” Carter explained in an interview with Jailynn Taylor for Essence. “If you add the church, the white collars, and the significance of white in relation to religion, it all ties together. [With all these components], I knew this would be a really strong red, white, and blue story.”

Carter credits Ryan Coogler with distinguishing the hot-blooded Stack and cool-headed Smoke with red and blue, respectively. These colors also unite them to their respective love interests, as Smoke’s estranged wife Annie is introduced wearing a blue dress while Stack’s ex-flame Mary wears pink. Sammie adds to the trio of primary colors with his brown threadbare jacket and hat and golden waistcoat, completing the yellow next to his cousin’s red and blue.

Smoke: Subdued in Blues

Smoke is in blue. When I found the denim flat cap, it helped [put everything together for] me. He had that working-man element. From there, I brought in the blue shirt, and his houndstooth four-pocket suit had a grayish-blue tint, more casual in style. His clothes fit him a little bigger. He has a holster underneath. He’s wearing a tieless shirt with a high collar, almost an old-fashioned buttoned-in collar. He’s more of a brawler, an everyman. He’s less concerned about his clothes than Stack is.

— Ruth E. Carter, Essence interview

Since Smoke is the first brother we see and the first to speak, let’s start with his style that Carter specifically designed to be less image-conscious than his brother. “He doesn’t have a tie, he represents the everyman, and his suit was a little more boxy, a little bigger, and a little less tailored because he’s hiding all kinds of stuff; he’s got two guns, he’s got a knife,” Carter described to Harper’s Bazaar, adding that she specifically loved the workwear representation with his blue denim newsboy cap.

Smoke’s heavy wool three-piece suit is woven in a neat houndstooth check with a black warp and blue weft, overlaid with a paler slate-blue graph-check that presents in the weft. The single-breasted jacket has a sporty symmetry that befits his senses of utility and organization. The notch lapels are swelled at the edges and roll to a three-button front that he always wears open for quicker access to his holstered pistols.

The jacket’s four pockets have a military-like symmetry: two box-pleated pockets over the chest and two larger patch pockets on the hips—each covered with a single-button pointed flap. The ventless rear skirt and natural shoulders closely follow Michael B. Jordan’s athletic physique, with the sleeves roped at the shoulder and finished with three-button cuffs.

The suit has a high-fastening matching waistcoat (vest) with six buttons that he wears fully closed between the short notch lapels at the top to the notched bottom. The waistcoat has four welted pockets and a slate-colored back lining.

Smoke’s belt and braces may seem redundant, though the belt serves a tactical purpose by leveraging his double shoulder holster rig with its two heavy .45s. This black leather belt closes through a covered silver-toned buckle, supplemented by navy braces (suspenders) patterned with double white stripes along the edges.

The belt-and-braces system hold up his suit’s matching flat-front trousers, styled with side pockets, button-through back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs).

Smoke wears black calf leather medallion-toe derby shoes with dark slate-gray socks, striped with widely spaced white stripes.

Smoke maintains cyanic consistency with his light-blue cotton shirt, printed with tonal dots against hairline-width stripes, and crafted with a plain button-up front and simple button cuffs. Though many men’s shirtmakers had been offering simplified shirts with attached collars for over a decade (as modeled by Smoke’s own brother!) by the early 1930s, he prefers the neatness of the increasingly old-fashioned neckband shirts that were designed for stiff detachable collars like the white spread collar that Smoke affixes to his shirt with silver-toned studs.

Reflecting his prior war service and the increasing trend of men’s wristwatches, Smoke wears a vintage Elgin trench watch. Sinners prop master Douglas Ware told GQ‘s Ollie Cox that he sourced this specific watch after Coogler shared the Smokestack Twins’ backstory in the 369th Infantry during World War I. Founded in 1864, Elgin exclusively produced pocket-watches for a half-century until adding wristwatches just prior to World War I, which positioned it for success as doughboys increasingly sought the convenience of wrist-worn timepieces.

“I didn’t think Smoke would have that watch before he shipped off to France but something he acquired after being there a while,” Ware theorized for GQ. “Maybe he arrived with chocolates or American cigarettes and traded with a French soldier. Maybe he won it in a card game or got some French soldiers out of a dangerous situation. To show their appreciation, someone gave him their watch. I wanted to give his watch some history to show how important it is to him.”

Smoke’s Elgin has a steel tonneau-shaped case and round beige dial detailed with Arabic numeral hour indices all appliquéd in black, save for the red “12” at the top. He fastens it to a sturdy yet softly worn brown leather NATO strap. Despite being over 100 years old, Jordan’s screen-worn Elgin was still functional… at least until Smoke and Sammie escape into the water at dawn, at which point the now blood-smeared, century-old watch became Remmick’s last victim. “We quickly found out it was not waterproof,” Ware reported.

Smoke’s Elgin trench watch isn’t the only accessory remaining from his war service, as he continues wearing his aluminum Army-issued identity discs (“dog tags”) on a short rawhide cord around his neck, clanging just over the top of his beige wide-ribbed cotton tank top after he strips down to his undershirt and trousers to lead the juke joint’s defense against the vampires outside. After Stack gets bitten, Smoke removes one of his brother’s dog tags and loops it around his right wrist.

When he reunited with Annie, Smoke unbuttoned his vest to reveal that he’s “still got that mojo bag” around his neck. Also known as a gris-gris or conjure bag, this element of Hoodoo tradition is crafted with herbs, roots, and other ingredients designed to protect its wearer.

In addition to the spiritual protection provided by Annie’s mojo bag, Smoke ensures more physical protection from the pair of 1911 pistols he holsters in a black leather double shoulder rig, positioning each pistol butt-forward under his armpit and secured to his belt to keep the rig closer to his body.

Stack: Red-forward Extravagance

Stack, on the other hand, was more tailored, more fitted in red. He’s up to speed with the fashion. He wears a turn-down collar with a tie. He’s a former pimp—he’s got the collar bar, the tie bar, the matching pocket square. His shoes were bright burgundy red with a shiny toe. He’s also seen wearing a watch chain that was custom-made by David Yurman using one of their vintage links.

— Ruth E. Carter, Essence interview

Stack’s style is characterized by more red-hot dramatic flourishes, tonally incorporating ruddy shades into his costume from head to toe. Carter shared in an interview for The Art of Costume podcast with Spencer Williams that she observed Michael B. Jordan naturally affecting more swagger while testing Stack’s wardrobe—informed by the character’s personality and his past as an Arkansas pimp, illustrated by his fedora with its rich burgundy felt and conspicuously wide brim.

“I walked into this hat shop on Melrose, and there was this red hat that ended up being perfect,” Carter shared with Harper’s Bazaar of finding Stack’s fedora, styled with a narrow black grosgrain and and a self-edged brim that he wears turned up.

Like Smoke, Stack’s three-piece suit is primarily gray but detailed with his personal accent color that gives the suit more complex character. Carter shared with The Art of Costume that Coogler’s direction to dress Stack in red posed a greater challenge than the blue, until she discovered the dark-gray woolen flannel cloth with its plain white chalk-stripe alternating with a muted red stripe that calls out the shades in his hat, shirt, tie, pocket square, and shoes.

Both brothers wear single-breasted three-button suit jackets, but the similarities end there as Smoke’s longer jacket boasts unique “fish-mouth”-notched lapels that roll to three buttons very closely spaced over mid-chest, accentuating the already elongated and flared skirt with its long double vents. The flapped hip pockets slant rearward like equestrian hacking jackets, supplemented by a more standard welted breast pocket that Stack dresses with a striped pocket square. The shoulders are roped at the sleeve-heads and finished with two buttons on each cuff.

Also like his brother, Stack wears the suit’s matching waistcoat with all six buttons fully fastened. There are four pockets, with Stack tucking his gold pocketwatch in one of the right-hand pockets on a gold “single Albert”-style chain custom-made by David Yurman, strung through the second buttonhole. The back is covered in the scarlet-red brocade silk that also lines the inside of his suit jacket, detailed with an adjustable strap across the waist.

Carter recalled to Essence that it was Michael B. Jordan’s decision to play the vampirized Stack wearing only his vest over his torso: “When they try to save him, they lay him on the floor with his shirt open. Someone makes a comment, ‘How you feeling in there?’ and Michael, on his own, turns around and goes, ‘Oh.’ He puts the vest on and says, ‘I’m fine.'”

The suit’s flat-front trousers have slanted front pockets and turn-ups (cuffs). He follows Smoke’s example of wearing the seemingly redundant combination of belt-and-braces, though his suspenders don’t get as much screen time. His belt is a thin strip of brown leather that closes through a brass-toned covered buckle. Worn with dark socks, Stack’s dark russet leather perforated cap-toe oxford shoes maintain tonality.

“[Stack] is very self-conscious and [plans] every little detail; on his pants, the pockets are slanted, he’s got the collar bar, the tie bar, the cuff links—he’s got everything,” Carter summarizes for Harper’s Bazaar. “I remember flying back to L.A. to look for things because in New Orleans, somethings you can find, some you can’t.”

Stack’s pale-pink shirt mimics his suit with its alternating stripes in muted shades of red and gray. Though the attached point collar suggests a more modern style than Smoke’s detached collar, Stack’s shirt is no less fussy, appointed with a polished gold double-ridged collar bar and gold links fastening his double (French) cuffs. These are echoed by his ridged gold tie bar, an overelaborate affectation given his waistcoat—and clearly meant to be so, as he wears it just high enough to be seen and add some additional gold flash to the image maintained by his dental work and jewelry.

The scarlet tie is patterned with pale-pink “uphill” stripes, perfectly matching his pocket square. While matching ties and pocket squares are often considered gauche today (suggesting those polyester two-for-one Ross Dress for Less accessory kits), and indeed also may have been during the 1930s (albeit for different reasons), I suspect this was Stack’s way of showing the Depression-era world that he had the sources to afford a tie and pocket square made from the same swathes of silk.

Stack doesn’t limit his gold affectations to the triangle below his chin, also dangling a gold link-chain bracelet around his right wrist and a gold pinky ring on the same hand.

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The Guns

Smoke: Ain’t no “boys” here.
Stack: Just grown men. With grown-men money.
Smoke: And grown-men bullets.

While Stack keeps a trench knife by his side, Smoke carries most of the brothers’ firepower in the form of two .45-caliber M1911A1 pistols in a double shoulder rig—one holstered under each arm. Both twins would have grown familiar with this single-action pistol platform when issued Colt M1911 pistols during their Army service in World War I, eventually upgrading in post-war life to the 1911A1 redesign introduced in the mid-1920s that included a shorter trigger, longer grip safety spur, and arched mainspring housing.

Stack is less demonstrative with his firearms, keeping a Luger P08 unholstered in the back of his trouser waistband. One of the most recognized pistols even to non-firearms enthusiasts, the distinctive toggle-locked Luger was developed in Germany in the late 1890s—first in 7.65x21mm Parabellum (.30 Luger) and then more familiarly in the now-universal 9x19mm Parabellum round, typically feeding from eight-round magazines. Adopted by many countries’ military and police agencies through the early 20th century, the Luger served as the standard German military service pistol through both world wars, phased out during the second in favor of the newer double-action Walther P38.

Stack’s Luger may have been a war relic taken from a fallen enemy during World War I, or he may have simply admired the pistol and picked one up for extra protection on the mean streets of Chicago.

After making allusions to “the trunk”, Smoke finally gets the chance to arm himself from it when preparing for a post-dawn battle against the local KKK faction. He initially picks them off from a distance with his Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), mounted on a bipod, using controlled and well-aimed single shots rather than the fully automatic fire that the weapon’s name indicates.

Designed for “walking fire” that would blend the power of a machine gun with the portability of a rifle, the select-fire BAR fired the same .30-06 Springfield rounds used in American service rifles and machine guns, fired at a rate of up to 650 rounds per minute from 20-round box magazines.

John M. Browning had been refining the BAR’s design for seven years when the United States government finally adopted his prototypes after a live-fire demonstration in February 1917, two months before the country formally entered World War I. However, contract and capacity concerns delayed production for a year until Winchester—followed by Colt and Marlin—began delivering its initial orders in the summer of 1918. The U.S. Army’s 79th Infantry Division received the first shipment of BARs in July 1918, carrying them into action in France two months later.

As it was authorized late during World War I (but still soon enough to make an impact during the Meuse-Argonne offensive), the BAR wasn’t extensively used during wartime until World War II. In the meantime, it did become a favorite in the powerful arsenals of Depression-era desperadoes like Clyde Barrow, who reportedly modified his stolen BARs with shorter barrels and extended magazines to make them even more formidable.

Once the BAR has expended its ammunition, Smoke switches to a strategically buried Thompson M1921AC submachine gun. Its smaller .45 ACP rounds and portable design allow him to more deftly fire it fully automatic for this closer-quarters combat against the remaining klansmen, first running through an entire 50-round drum magazine before firing through a pair of 20-round box magazines carried in his Army-issued web belt.

Though General John T. Thompson had intended his submachine gun as a “trench sweeper”, World War I ended before the Thompson entered production at the start of the 1920s. The Irish Republican Army were among its first purchasers, though the “Tommy gun” grew to initial infamy on American city streets as the preferred weapons of rival bootleggers.

Alternately known as the “Chicago typewriter” and “the gun that made the twenties roar”, the Thompson was finally adopted for military service at the end of the decade. A simplified design with a horizontal foregrip and longer box magazines became standardized as the M1 and M1A1 Thompson during World War II, though the dramatic early design of the M1921AC with its Cutts compensator, slanted finger-grooved foregrip, and drum magazine remains romantically associated with the interwar gangster era.

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The Car

The Smokestack twins ride into Mississippi behind the wheel of a Dodge Brothers Model 30 Touring Car, produced between the mid-1910s and early 1920s. Dodge transitioned from parts suppliers to building its own cars with the November 1914 introduction of the Dodge 30-35—simplified as the “Model 30” for the 1917 model year. Dodge cars changed little in the decade between their introduction to when the company was ultimately sold to Chrysler, save for the wheelbase extending from 110 inches at the start to the Model 30’s 114 inches and ultimately 116 inches for the all-steel Series 116 introduced in June 1922.

Based on its shorter wheelbase, windshield shape and thickness, and grille design with slightly rounder radiator corners, the Moore brothers’ maroon Dodge is likely a Model 30. All Dodges from this era were powered by a trusty 212 cubic-inch L-head four-cylinder engine that generated 35 horsepower and was mated to a three-speed selective-shift manual transmission. This combination pushed the car to cruising speeds around 35 mph, supposedly topped closer to 50 mph—modest by today’s standards, but Stack assures Sammie this is still “too damn fast”.

I’ve seen posts circulating that the twins’ touring car is actually a Patterson-Greenfield, which would be meaningful as this was the first Black-produced automobile in the United States. However, due to the rarity (only 150 were produced during the mid-1910s) and the presence of the Dodge Brothers emblem on the screen-used car, this suggestion is unfortunately debunked.

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What to Imbibe

“Whiskey, Irish beer, and Italian wine,” are the principal offerings at Club Juke, with the Irish beer specifically used by Stack to entice Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) to play at the club’s opening night. It’s an appropriate trio given the song popularized by blues legend Buddy Guy (who plays an aged version of Sammie in 1992):

I’ve encountered many widely different cocktails known as the Smokestack, but nothing really reflects the spirit of the saw-mill atmosphere in Sinners, so here’s BAMF Style’s unfortunate twist on a boilermaker using only the ingredients available in Club Juke:

1. Pour a shot of whiskey—preferably straight corn liquor, but bourbon or Irish whiskey would work.
2. Fill most of a pint glass with Irish beer—preferably a stout to support the next step.
3. Float a touch of Italian red wine (like Chianti or Montepulciano) atop the stout by pouring it over the back of a spoon.
4. Drop that whiskey into the beer and down it.
5. In case that doesn’t sound off-putting enough, eat a clove of garlic—to prove you’re not undead.

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

You can also read more about the costumes from these sources:

• The Art of Costume — “Sinners with Costume Designer, Ruth E. Carter” by Spencer Williams
• The Credits (MPA) — “Pinstripes and Blood Spatter: Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter on Making Dark Magic in ‘Sinners'” by Jack Giroux
• Designing Hollywood — “Sinners, Academy Award Winning Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter” by John Campea
• Essence — “Ruth E. Carter On Building The Costumes In Sinners And Paying Homage To 1930s Black Southern Style” by Jailynn Taylor
• GQ — “Michael B. Jordan’s Sinners Watch Couldn’t Be More Authentic” by Ollie Cox
• Harper’s Bazaar — “How Ruth E. Carter Resurrected 1930s Southern Style for Sinners” by Bianca Betancourt
• Modern Stitches Mag — “Ruth E. Carter Redefines Regal: The Revolutionary Style Codes of Sinners” by Christin Johnson

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The Quote

Smoke: We been gone a long time, Stack.
Stack: Seven years ain’t long enough to forget about us.