Harper’s Bazaar: Paul Tazewell Breaks Down the Epic Costumes of Wicked: For Good

The designer speaks about winning an Oscar for Wicked, Glinda’s Audrey Hepburn–esque wedding dress, and Elphaba’s “kick-ass boots”

Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

Just a few months after accepting the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Paul Tazewell returns with another tour de fashion in Wicked: For Good.

The second installment of the Broadway musical production picks up a few years after the first film. With Elphaba now on the run as a state-condemned radical and Glinda on the rise as a Wizard-backed propagandist, the fantastical costumes had to reflect the truth of these characters’ emotional arcs. That’s where Tazewell (who, by the way, has also earned a BAFTA, an Emmy, and two Tonys) stepped in.

“A driving factor for me as a designer and for every project is I want to create some kind of reality for the characters, even though it might be fantasy or it might be a period production, just to understand where they start and what’s happened before the story that we are being presented with has occurred,” says Tazewell, who was also the mastermind behind the Oscar-winning costumes for the first Wicked film. “[In the first film,] you could see how they were finding their own style and telegraphing to the audience how they compare to each other or contrast with each other. Even though one is dressed all in black and the other all in pink, they are at this moment where they become a neutral. They’re not commenting on who they are. They’re really focused on the relationship, where they are at this point, and what is the choice that they’re going to make to move forward in life.”

Read the full story here: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a69452791/paul-tazewell-wicked-for-good-costumes-interview-2025/