A Sheep in Wolves' Clothing
On the costuming of The Righteous Gemstones’ Keefe Chambers
Hey all, this is a small break from your regularly scheduled horror programming before I absolutely pour myself into the Spooktacular! Enjoy and go watch The Righteous Gemstones!
As HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones finished its run earlier this year, one of the things many fans and critics have remarked on is its breathtaking, Emmy-nominated costume design. From a simple cheetah-print dress, to articles of clothing so bizarre you wouldn’t even know what to call them, designer Christina Flannery, working with seamstresses like [insert her name here when you find her Instagram], creates gaudy works of art to dress this insane, fictional megachurch family. But, although the Gemstone children (Jesse, Judy, and Kelvin) are the show’s main focus as they figure out how to run the church as a family after the loss of their mother, the saint-like Aimee-Leigh Gemstone, they are by no means the only impactful characters in the script. Alongside the Gemstone family and all its chaos are those who are dubiously lucky enough to share their lives with them. Jesse is married since before the show starts, later revealed as having had a shotgun wedding when his wife, Amber, got pregnant with their eldest son, Gideon. Judy gets married to her longtime, long-suffering fiance BJ Barnes in between seasons one and two, and Disney World, officiated by Prince Eric. And Kelvin…lives with a man named Keefe Chambers who he saved from the Devil’s clutches and just, like, kept. And Keefe’s costumes, among all the glitz and glam of the Gemstone family, are maybe the most impactfully designed of them all.
[TRULY AGGRESSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD FROM THIS POINT ON]
The thing about Keefe is, throughout the first two seasons or so, he doesn’t have that many lines, so his costumes - and Tony Cavalero’s insane physical comedy skills - are really what have to communicate his character. And, for about the first two seasons, his character is so intrinsically connected to Kelvin Gemstone that his costumes are usually about what Kelvin’s wearing, just a little more revealing, and a lot darker. And that darkness is important. The thing about Keefe is that he’s an ex-Satanist who used to work at a place called Club Sinister, until Kelvin brought him to the light. So by the time we, the audience, meet him, he’s still trying to figure out who he is outside of all that. And the main things he’s settled about his life now are that Kelvin and Jesus are the biggest parts of it. During the first season, he wears mostly what Kelvin does, just in black. There are only two times during season one where he isn’t wearing black, and one of them is because he’s wearing his youth group shirt, and the other we’ll get to later.
The second season is a little distinct from the first in terms of Keefe’s costuming, but not too dramatically so. At this point in the show, Kelvin has created the ‘God Squad’, which is a cult (sorry, brotherhood) of muscle men that live in yurts in Kelvin and Keefe’s backyard and garden and work out for Jesus. All for Jesus. So now Keefe is dressed like all the other ‘discips’, just still in black. Until the God Squad revolts, Keefe doesn’t dress like Kelvin anymore. Instead, he is dressed like men that Kelvin thinks are below him, despite Kelvin’s insistence that Keefe is more important to him than any of the God Squad will ever be. And while Kelvin’s actions towards Keefe show that he is, in fact, very important to Kelvin, Keefe still being made to dress like the rest of the God Squad shows that maybe their interactions in the context of this new conflict are more tense than either of them are letting on. This tension is further shown after Kelvin’s thumbs are broken by his father, Dr. Eli Gemstone, and it is shown that Keefe has to help him get dressed because he can’t do it himself. Even when he is treated as less than by Kelvin, Keefe still cares for him when everyone else - the other Gemstones included - refuses to do so. This fraught moment of their relationship is resolved in the season finale, when Keefe is invited up to sit with the Gemstone at their ‘church lunch’ when he’d been shunned from it before for not being part of the family.
So, before I get to season three, I want to talk a little about why it is so important that Keefe wears mostly black. While it may seem incongruous, a way for him to stand out among the other Gemstone associates, it is also a way to establish his independence from the Gemstone church. Now, don’t get me wrong, Keefe’s loyalty is entirely with Kelvin and the Gemstones. But the thing about Keefe is that he’s a follower. He followed Kelvin to the light, and will now follow him wherever else he goes. He went to Club Sinister because other people were, and maybe it would be a place to belong. He followed Kelvin with the rest of the God Squad despite being looked down on, because that’s what he does. So the fact that he wears all black still, when he has all the resources the Gemstones have, is a choice he is making for himself. He may be a saved man now, but his past is still a part of him, and an important one at that.
So then you may be asking, ‘does Keefe ever wear color?’ and the answer to that is yes. In season three, after a very convoluted series of events involving a new youth group organization Kelvin and Keefe have started called Smut Busters, a man who runs a sex shop, and the youth group parents, Keefe is kicked out of youth group and chooses to leave the church. He goes to work at a carpentry shop called Woodpecker’s, where he wears the closest to ‘normal people clothes’ we have seen so far. Most of what he wears during his carpentry era is beige, which is part of why I am not actually counting this as his first official color moment. But the other part of that is that there is a point later on that is rather pointedly his first time wearing color, specifically in an everyday outfit. And that is the final episode of season three.
After Keefe leaves the church, the Gemstone siblings are kidnapped by their Uncle Peter and his doomsday militia for hostage money. When they are apart, Kelvin is wearing a black shirt with ribbons of color on it, and Keefe is wearing his beige and jeans carpenter uniform. After they are reunited, Keefe is back to his usual Gemstone black…and so is Kelvin. For the siblings’ first sermon after being abducted, Kelvin wears all black, while his siblings still wear their signature colors. This sermon is a tipping point in the series for a lot of reasons, mainly that it signifies the beginning of the siblings’ ability to preach together. But the real tipping point for Keefe happens before the sermon, when Kelvin kisses him backstage, in front of his family.
The relationship between Kelvin and Keefe was distinctly homoerotic from the word ‘go’, but most people (myself included) hoped, but didn’t think it would ever really be followed through on. So, as any normal person would do, I screamed like I was being murdered when it was. A lot of the conflicts within Kelvin’s storylines throughout the show had to do with Keefe, whether it was the God Squad, Kelvin’s potential relationship with Taryn from youth group, or even the Smut Busters, Keefe and Kelvin’s relationship is central to both of their storylines, even before it was official. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first time Keefe is shown wearing color as a clear costuming choice is during the first Gemstone family event after their kiss. In the final scene of season three, the family gets together to smash things with Jesse’s monster truck The Redeemer as a whole family bonding event, spouses included. Keefe and Kelvin show up with rocking chairs that Keefe made them with their names on, and Keefe wearing green. Green is Kelvin’s signature color, so for it to be the first color Keefe wears, and to a family event especially, is very telling. And very sweet.
Season four has Keefe wearing an awful lot of color - for him, anyway. His base wardrobe is still mostly black, but there are more frequent colorful accents and outfits throughout, especially green. He also wears Aimee-Leigh’s old clothes at one point, but that doesn’t so much count here, given the circumstances. He and Kelvin have started a section of the church called PRISM, which is like queer youth group but for adults, too. However, Kelvin still doesn’t want to be out with their relationship to the church, cause optics. And it stays like that for most of the season, with Kelvin nominated for the prestigious Top Christ Following Man of the Year award for starting PRISM. This season really makes it clear that Keefe would do anything for Kelvin, even if that means not really being with him. And it shows that with their clothing choices being the most distinct from each other they’ve ever been. Keefe’s style is more colorful, but it’s very much still him. And Kelvin’s costumes are sparklier, more flamboyant (somehow). They’re similar, but different, pieces of each other in their clothing, not just Keefe’s style being exactly like Kelvin’s. They match instead of copying, like Judy and her husband BJ. Their relationship is made open eventually, with Kelvin winning the Top Christ Following Man award with his sincerity about who he is, and who he is with, in a sequence that will never not make me cry. The color Keefe wears the most is green, like Kelvin, and Kelvin has black incorporated into a lot of his outfits this season, including the one he wins Top Christ Following Man in. At this point, it would be nearly impossible to talk about Keefe’s costuming without talking about Kelvin’s, because they don’t come separately anymore. They’re a pair, like cute matching salt and pepper shakers, and their costumes show exactly that.
The Righteous Gemstones is really about family, and how to be one with and without people, how to welcome new people into a family that hasn’t quite figured out how to be yet. So what better way to end than with a wedding? Kelvin and Keefe’s wedding is a whole ordeal, because when you’re megachurch rich, there’s really no other way to have a wedding. So too, of course, are their outfits. Kelvin in white, Keefe in black, both with rhinestones, feathers, and capes galore. If you wanted any evidence of how Keefe has developed as a character since his first appearance, look at those costumes. Those beautiful, strategic costumes. His first appearance is in black denim shorts, standing a cool, not-gay five feet away from Kelvin. His final appearance is in some kind of custom designer at their wedding. And in between…a whole lot of emotion, danger, ambiguity, and love. Keefe is arguably the most Christian of all the Gemstones, and still he is dressed the darkest, a reminder that where he came from is not who he is. He’s extremely strong, and often dressed to show it, but is very quiet and kindhearted. The closest he ever gets to violence is restraining homophobic pastor Vance Simkins from chasing after Kelvin, and even that manages to be a gentle action. This essay is called a sheep in wolves’ clothing, because that’s what he is. A sweet, genuine man dressed like he might still go to Club Sinister on weekends - until he’s not. Until he’s dressed in designer goth, by Kelvin’s side, as always. Keefe Chambers is a saved man, and, though it may not always seem like it at first, he dresses like one, too.
Up next…the So Desensitized Spooky Season Spooktacular 2025!