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The costume wizard behind these ‘Depraved’ outfits has been down the Yellow Brick Highway earlier than

EntertainmentThe costume wizard behind these 'Depraved' outfits has been down the Yellow Brick Highway earlier than

If Willy Wonka set off for Cirque du Soleil and handed by “Bridgerton,” he’d be prepared for “Wicked.” However the film musical’s costumes aren’t only a mashup of seems we’ve seen earlier than; they’re a sublime reinvention of iconic “Wizard of Oz” references and a joyous summation of its designer’s profession.

The wildly colourful and complicated costumes of “Wicked” are the work of Paul Tazewell, whose designs for one more beloved musical, “West Side Story,” earned him an Oscar nomination in 2022. He grew to become the primary Black male to earn that honor, and with “Wicked” he’s favored to change into the primary to win it.

Tazewell, 60, introduced all of his significantly related life expertise to the job. He’s designed costumes for theater, dance, opera, movie and tv, incomes recognition in every medium. He’s even designed “The Wiz” 4 instances, beginning in highschool in Akron, Ohio.

“I made the costumes in the middle of our dining room on my mother’s Singer sewing machine,” he says. By 2016, he’d received an Emmy for “The Wiz! Live.”

“Wicked,” nevertheless, introduced the designer inventive challenges that his teenage self by no means may have imagined.

Tazewell needed to discover methods to make the lead characters visually in dialog with one another, although Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is darkish, earthy and inexperienced, whereas Galinda (Ariana Grande) is mild, bubbly and pink.

(Common Photos)

Tazewell needed to synthesize the calls for of the film script, the L. Frank Baum e-book, the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz,” the Broadway musicals “Wicked” and “The Wiz” — and mesh with director Jon M. Chu’s imaginative and prescient. He additionally wanted to make the lead characters visually in dialog with one another, although Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is darkish, earthy and inexperienced, whereas Galinda (Ariana Grande) is mild, bubbly and pink.

The job required that he transfer to London for 2 years starting in 2022. Whereas there, he utilized artisans who embroidered costumes, made hats or developed textiles for “Bridgerton,” “The Crown,” “Queen Charlotte” and the London manufacturing of “Hamilton,” which in 2016 netted Tazewell a Tony Award.

Costume designer Paul Tazewell shows one of his "Wicked" costumes.

A royal jacket for Prince Fiyero.

(Emil Ravelo/For The Occasions)

To handle the monumental “Wicked” activity, he divided to overcome. Tazewell staffed the costume division of typically 150 folks to give attention to characters or areas, resembling Emerald Metropolis or Shiz College.

“It was like Santa’s workshop, literally,” says Tazewell, who was in Los Angeles for a current Costume Designers Guild presentation and dialogue of his work. “We had a long table where we would set things up. I’d look at any of the upcoming questions or upcoming issues, or look at fabrics.” Some days, he says, it regarded like an meeting line. Workrooms had been mapped by colour.

 Costume designer Paul Tazewell shows off one of Elphaba's black dresses.

Even clothes of all black had been intricately detailed.

(Emil Ravelo/For The Occasions)

“You go through the door of the Elphaba room, and it’s basically all black fabrics and textures. And then you bust through to the right to this other room, and it’s this explosion of pink and sparkles and lavender and everything that’s sheer and floating and full of butterflies that we’d laser-cut [for Galinda],” he says.

All through, Tazewell cleverly inbuilt references to iconic parts. The striped socks of the Depraved Witch of the East present up as wavy variations in Shiz College uniforms. Jeff Goldblum’s Wizard of Ozmirrors the frock-coat silhouette from the unique movie. Swirls present up on robes and footwear, a nod to tornadoes, whereas Galinda’s round cutouts and effervescent materials recall how her 1939 predecessor, Glinda, arrived in Munchkinland in a pink bubble.

Tazewell’s fashionable contributions added intricate clothes building that injected intrigue and motion. Materials are variously folded like origami, appliqued, quilted, embroidered, beaded, gathered, pleated, printed, felted, dyed, etched, lasered and layered. Many methods come collectively within the iconic pointy black hat for the long run Depraved Witch of the West. Elphaba’s is made from crooked tiers of micro pleats that collect underneath the brim to resemble mushroom gills. It additionally collapses into itself, like a tenting cup that squishes flat.

That ingredient of transformation is changing into a Tazewell signature.

Costume designer Paul Tazewell shows off a sparkly pink gown from the film.

Materials for Galinda’s costumes had been “pink and sparkles and lavender and everything that’s sheer and floating and full of butterflies that we’d laser-cut,” Tazewell says.

(Emil Ravelo/For The Occasions)

“I’ve always been fascinated with Japanese fans, the sculptural quality and the opening and closing of them, or of umbrellas, which is a similar technique. I was also obsessed with pop-up books,” he says. “There is a magical quality about going from one thing that is hidden to opening it up into a different shape. I’ve carried that into my work as I’ve matured as a designer.”

You may see it in motion on the lengthy robes Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth put on within the film to sing in regards to the Grimmerie, a e-book of spells. With motion, their vertical skirt layers waft open, just like the turning pages of a e-book. The designer likes to fold and pleat cloth to present it a type of kinetic vitality that provides bounce to clothes: It’s there within the pleated overlays on Shiz scholar uniforms that swirl once they dance.

Among the references are impressed by trend designers, resembling Issey Miyake’s pleats, Vivienne Westwood’s and Christian Dior’s fitted jackets and Alexander McQueen’s exaggerated shoulders. The methods borrow from couture craftsmanship and Hollywood magic. Some robes had been painstakingly embroidered by a solo artist utilizing vintage machines from the 1800s. One among Elphaba’s attire was constructed from a puzzle of micro-pleated cloth swirled and invisibly hand-stitched onto dozens of sample items. Galinda’s pink arrival robe used 20,000 beads that took artisans 225 hours to stitch onto the bodice, whereas the skirt was assembled from spiraled cones of embellished, sheer pink cloth that had been hooked up in tiers.

And there’s a second film coming in November, which was filmed together with the primary, including one more degree of complexity to the design activity.

Ariana Granda stands in front of a gathering of Shiz students in "Wicked."

Costume designer Paul Tazewell likes to fold and pleat cloth to present it a type of kinetic vitality that provides bounce to clothes: It’s there within the pleated overlays on Shiz scholar uniforms that swirl once they dance.

(Common Photos)

“It was nonstop,” Tazewell says. “But I was also in that joyful spot where I’m in that creative place that has always been where I’m really myself.” That spot, it appears, is the place he transforms — into the Fantastic Costume Wizard of Oz.

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