Who What Wear Podcast: Wicked Costume Designer

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Who What Wear Podcast: Wicked Costume Designer


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Bringing the beloved musical Wicked to life on-screen was no small feat, however, legendary costume designer Paul Tazewell was up for the task. Prior to building out the fashionable world of Wicked for its film adaptation, the Academy Award nominee designed the costumes for Broadway productions like In the Heights, Hamilton, and The Color Purple—just to name a few.

On the latest episode of The Who What Wear Podcast, Tazewell sits down with Who What Wear’s entertainment director, Jessica Baker, to share how he was approached for Wicked, where he drew inspiration for the costumes and more. For excerpts from their conversation, scroll below.

Who What Wear Podcast: Wicked Costume Designer

(Image credit: Universal Pictures)

I’d love to hear how you were approached for Wicked and what your initial reaction was. Was there anything you were especially excited or even nervous about tackling?

All of that. Lots of feels. I was beside myself when Jon [M. Chu] engaged with me. He asked to have a meeting and we must have been Zooming at that point. We had a conversation and he told me that he was interested in the possibility of me designing Wicked. I put together a presentation that was reflective of how I saw the world of Wicked and took him through that in Zoom. We had standing connections that were distant and didn’t connect to Wicked at all.