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OUT Magazine: How Paul Tazewell brought his Oscar-winning 'Wicked' designs to life

  • Writer: paultazewelldesign
    paultazewelldesign
  • Mar 26
  • 2 min read

Elphaba process sketch. Courtesy of Paul Tazewell.
Elphaba process sketch. Courtesy of Paul Tazewell.

Paul Tazewell is having a moment, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been an iconic costume designer for theater, film, and television for more than three decades now. From Broadway’s Hamilton, In the Heights, and Death Becomes Her to working on films like Harriet (2019) and West Side Story (2021), Tazewell has seen his career leveled up further for his work making thousands of costumes for the two live-action Wicked movies directed by Jon M. Chu — earning his second Academy Award nomination (and first historic win!) for the first installment of Wicked this year.


From design to execution, Elphaba’s black dress references both The Wizard of Oz as well as the Wicked character’s age.


After praising directorial collaborators such as Steven Spielberg and Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tazewell describes Chu as “a very warm man [who] invites creative input as to how we’ll see the clothing, see each character, and then define what my role is.”


Tazewell created over a thousand costumes for the Wicked movies, including 60 costumes for Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), another set of 60 for Glinda (Ariana Grande), and 12 costumes for Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). Specifically, Grande’s pink bubble dress — seen in the “No One Mourns the Wicked” opening number of the film — involved 137 pattern pieces and approximately 20,000 beads. It also took 225 hours to hand-bead Glinda’s pink bodice.


Given his work in theater productions and musical films, Tazewell is challenged to make costumes that look great and fit an actor while considering that the clothes will be worn by performers who must move comfortably in song-and-dance numbers. From flying on a broom to tap-dancing through life to spitting hip-hop bars as a Founding Father (in Hamilton), Tazewell’s costumes meet a different set of requirements in comparison to designers creating looks for runways or photo shoots.

 
 
 

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