If Willy Wonka set off for Cirque du Soleil and handed by means of “Bridgerton,” he’d be prepared for “Wicked.” However the film musical’s costumes aren’t only a mashup of appears to be like we’ve seen earlier than; they’re a chic 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 turned the primary Black male to earn that honor, and with “Wicked” he’s favored to turn into the primary to win it.
Tazewell, 60, introduced all of his notably 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 gained an Emmy for “The Wiz! Live.”
“Wicked,” nonetheless, introduced the designer artistic 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 Footage)
Tazewell needed to synthesize the calls for of the film script, the L. Frank Baum guide, 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.
A royal jacket for Prince Fiyero.
(Emil Ravelo/For The Instances)
To handle the monumental “Wicked” job, he divided to beat. Tazewell staffed the costume division of generally 150 individuals to give attention to characters or areas, reminiscent of 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 appeared like an meeting line. Workrooms had been mapped by colour.
Even clothes of all black had been intricately detailed.
(Emil Ravelo/For The Instances)
“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 in-built 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 longer term Depraved Witch of the West. Elphaba’s is made from crooked tiers of micro pleats that collect below the brim to resemble mushroom gills. It additionally collapses into itself, like a tenting cup that squishes flat.
That factor of transformation is changing into a Tazewell signature.
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 Instances)
“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’ll be able to see it in motion on the lengthy robes Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth put on within the film to sing concerning the Grimmerie, a guide of spells. With motion, their vertical skirt layers waft open, just like the turning pages of a guide. The designer likes to fold and pleat material to present it a sort of kinetic power that provides bounce to clothes: It’s there within the pleated overlays on Shiz scholar uniforms that swirl after they dance.
Among the references are impressed by vogue designers, reminiscent of 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 in all Elphaba’s clothes was constructed from a puzzle of micro-pleated material 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 material that had been connected in tiers.
And there’s a second film coming in November, which was filmed along with the primary, including yet one more degree of complexity to the design job.
Costume designer Paul Tazewell likes to fold and pleat material to present it a sort of kinetic power that provides bounce to clothes: It’s there within the pleated overlays on Shiz scholar uniforms that swirl after they dance.
(Common Footage)
“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.
