'Wicked' costume designer Paul Tazewell gave us insight into how he pulled off a tall and iconic wardrobe order for the now record-breaking box office hit. He's been working in the costume space since he was 16 years old, and given that his first ever job was creating looks for a stage production of 'The Wiz' at 16, this job marked a real full-circle moment for the Tony Award-winning and Oscar-nominated designer. "I'm working with the same story and characters—a different interpretation, but 33 years later, here I am," he told us.
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00:00My name is Paul Taswell, and I'm the costume designer for Wicked, the movie.
00:04I was invited to design Wicked.
00:07John Chu reached out to me, and I was super excited to be able to retell the story
00:12that has been a part of my life for such a long time.
00:14It was probably when I was 16 that I was offered the first opportunity to design a musical,
00:19and that was The Wiz.
00:20So it's kind of a great full-circle moment.
00:22I'm working with the same story, same characters, different interpretation,
00:27but 33 years later, here I am.
00:30It's eight months to a year of pre-production before we start building costumes.
00:36Where I start originally is to pull together visual images I feel connect to
00:43how I might imagine what this world will be.
00:46The cast is surrounded by spirals because that design element was adopted by Nathan Crowley as well.
00:51I very intentionally used Glinda's pink bubble dress, the silver and crystal slipper.
00:56The shapes, those are all based on a spiral.
01:00There was a lot of research and development for Elphaba's costumes.
01:04I knew that I wanted to use textures reflective of what I had found in images of fungus and tree bark.
01:11For every one look, there was always going to be three dresses made
01:15because we would have the hero look for Cynthia,
01:19and then we would have a second in the event that something happened to that first,
01:23just as a backup, so if the sleeve got torn or she was splashed with something,
01:28so that we weren't holding up the camera.
01:30And then there was a stunt double,
01:32although Cynthia was adamant about doing as many of the stunts as she would be allowed.
01:37But yes, for the number of costumes, we always needed to have three.
01:42There were primary issues that were designed as there were primary dresses
01:46specific to Glinda's wardrobe.
01:48It was imperative that everything that was in her room, in her dorm room,
01:51looked as if she would actually choose it and wear it.
01:54There are the dresses that they dance kind of during Popular,
01:57and that whole scene was really delightful.
02:03When her wardrobe opens up and spits out different pieces of clothing, all of it's sparkly.
02:08For Popular, I made the decision to design a silk teddy
02:13that's embroidered with butterflies and lace that has kind of a butterfly pattern,
02:17topped with a dotted net peignoir.
02:20And it's inspired by the Hollywood glamour of the 30s and 40s.
02:24It's really specific to that silhouette.
02:26That was what I was trying to evoke.
02:28There's an emotional arc that's created by the choices that I'm making as far as the clothes are concerned.
02:33There are different reflections of who these women are and what their style is.
02:37And as we move through their year, they're also emotionally changing.
02:42Some of those crowd days where we had all the dancers on set,
02:45there were at least 300 uniforms made.
02:48My intent was to create a new way of saying uniforms.
02:52You know, I spent a lot of time putting together color combinations to represent shiz.
02:58We landed on the teal and coral combination that you see represented in the shiz sweater.
03:04That's a take on uniform cardigan with a stripe, but I've changed it into a swirl pattern.
03:11I decided that the Ozzien way would be to deconstruct the uniform shape.
03:16It speaks to individuality.
03:18I wanted to create a world within shiz that felt very inclusive and was all about self-expression.
03:25I can point out Miss Throp's dress.
03:27And the reason it's red is because it's a poppy turned upside down.
03:30The idea of poppies relates to the potion that she drinks and just her as a potential addict or user.
03:38And she also has a silk poppy that's at her waist.
03:40There's an origami spiral that is on the wizard's ascot.
03:44And then it ends in an eye.
03:46But that same origami spiral is on the buttons in all of Oz.
03:51My big favorites is the silver and crystal slipper on Nessarose.
03:55It starts with a tornado that is spiraling up the heel.
04:00It creates the heel and then it opens up and then the spirals are surrounding the foot.
04:05And then there's the ruby slipper of the Wizard of Oz 1939 film.
04:09I knew that I was going to be faced with a lot of questions around what is already part of the culture of Wizard of Oz and of Wicked.
04:17Because many of those audience members being huge Wicked fans.
04:20Everyone is going to come in with a preconceived notion of who the characters are.
04:24What they look like.
04:25How we're going to tell the story potentially.
04:27I want for anyone who comes in to see our Wicked to really get swept away into a world that feels fully complete.
04:35And that was everyone's hope.
04:40And they're already replicas being made.
04:42Very good.
04:43Oh my gosh.
04:44For people to take this kind of care.
04:46Because I know that it takes a lot of hours to make costumes.
04:49And there's great care that's being used in creating these costumes.
04:53I think that it's really beautiful.
04:55It's beautiful for me to have had that effect on other people and have people get excited about my work.
05:00I wonder if it took the 225 hours that it takes for us to make one of those dresses.
05:04She's actually hand-beating all the bubbles.
05:06Wow.
05:07That's amazing.
05:08And she's got the crown.
05:09And she's got the wand.
05:15The bubble dress.
05:19The bubble dress and Elphaba's Emerald City.
05:25It was the bubble dress.
05:28Oh God.
05:29It is Elphaba.
05:30And it is in the second film.
05:31And I can't tell you what it is.
05:32But it's where she ends up.
05:35We're at a time in our lives that being able to get swept away into a fantasy world is so necessary.
05:41It's imbalanced for everything that's going on.
05:43So I'm really excited that I could be a part of that.
06:04Elphaba