Mr. Tazewell, what can you express through film and stage costume design that you wouldn’t have gotten to express if you’d pursued a career in fashion design?
I actually was initially in a fashion program at Pratt University, but I made the decision to switch to theater design for a couple reasons. One, I wanted to be a performer! I was studying dance and I wanted to hone those skills. And I also just felt like the community of fashion designers wasn’t a good fit for me. But the biggest reason was that I was being taught to design for the market. I would have been designing to sell, and that just seemed limiting in what I might be able to do as a designer. Of course there are designers that were and are doing really extreme, beautiful clothing, but it's always as a thought towards selling the clothing. I made the decision to go back towards theater design to get to express myself without the notion of sales.
It seems like costumes are the ultimate way for you to express everything you want to express: it’s not just about making beautiful clothes, but making clothes that tell a story.
Yes, indeed, I want to explore character and story: it's seeing the emotional story unfold with the underscore of the visual. How do I represent a character and what their backstory is, and then where they're going to end up at the end of that story? How can their clothing be reflective of where they are in each given moment? How can their clothing be true to their character and to the time period or place? It really requires that I'm empathetic to that character's journey, to the story overall, so that I can make decisions that ring true.
“I want for the audience to be drawn into the world, and if those elements are there, even at a distance, it invites the audience to want to be a part of it...”
Can you give me an example of the different ways that can manifest?
Well, with my work for the musical Hamilton, the costumes were more stripped back, but there was great intention around how I used detail to be reflective of the 18th century, while also reserving a lot of decorations. The style of music and the language was all modern, so I was hoping to create a canvas for those elements. The details in the design are there, their presence is there — but many of them are tone on tone, so buttons fabricated in the same fabric as the garment. That completes the visual image, and then the audience can let that go and focus on the actors emotional arc. I want for the audience to be drawn into the world, and if those elements are there, even at a distance, it invites the audience to want to be a part of it, to engage with it.
Color is an important part of Hamilton’s costumes in general; you used green to signify money, and beige to represent parchment, for example.
We, as a collective consciousness, have a relationship to color and how it makes us feel. I rely on my own visceral reaction to color, and hope that audience members engage in the same way, that they see color the same way. Green in America is the color of money, and is a big part of Hamilton's world. The parchment beige creates that blank canvas that I mentioned. Each primary character takes on a color, and they then embody who that character is, and that character becomes an icon within the story.
Another great example in your work is Anita’s yellow dress in the Spielberg remake of West Side Story. It really embodies that icon status.
It’s an indicator, it’s an identifier. With West Side Story, it was tricky to redesign a film that's very beloved. It’s a challenging task because for so many years, people have really embraced the original film with Rita Moreno in the lavender dress that she wore for that number. I really reckoned with, you know, what is the color combination that will resonate in a similar way and have the energy that I remember feeling from the original film? How can I bring that into this new telling of West Side Story? How can I ensure it resonates with the rest of the Puerto Rican community in the film? Yellow seemed to really bring out the rest of the color palette that I was using. So those are tools that I have at my disposal that I can use to tell the story. I love how color can resonate in an emotional way.
Does texture also help tell a story? I loved your use of ruffles, frills and beading in Wicked.
Absolutely. Texture and choice of fabrics are of course also reflective of the characters. With Wicked, I used a lot of references to nature: mushrooms, ferns and fungus in the forest, trees and bark, things like that felt aligned with the character of Elphaba, because of her reserve and groundedness, and also aligned with her advocation for animals. Then that really contrasted with Glinda: all her costumes and fabrics were airy and in flight and whimsical, there was bubbles and beading and iridescence and a swirl in the clothing. There’s also inspiration in the 1939 Wizard of Oz film that goes back to the color story we’ve been talking about: the pink dress that Glinda arrives in in the 1939 film, that’s another iconic piece. It seemed appropriate to apply that to Glinda’s color palette. I love using color and texture in storytelling, it’s definitely not random.
“You never know what the camera is going to capture. It needs to be as accurate as possible from top to bottom, so it’s imperative to make those choices as confidently as possible.”
Fabric choices are also dictated by movement, right? In Hamilton you had to use stretchy and lightweight fabrics to ensure the pieces were danceable.
It’s a priority. I have to honor the function of the costumes, or the costume doesn't work. As you pointed out with Hamilton, they're moving their choreographed in a very specific way, so I need to design costumes that will allow for them to move. The men’s boots for example, are different to how 18th century riding boots looked, but they were essential in order for the actors to dance and also so that we can see the elements of their bodies as they moved, the shape of their legs. Even for a film like Harriet, which is not a musical, the costumes have to move through the space in an authentic way, they have to look authentic even if they are made from modern fabrics.
You once said that stage production is like a painting, whereas a film is like a 360 degree view of a world. What does that mean exactly?
That’s right. I mean, the same design muscles are still in play. With theater, every costume you’ve pulled or made is going to arrive in the theater at the same time, and you're going to be looking at the experience of this story all at the same time. I get to see everyone together, on stage in one performance, I get to see the actors enter and leave and orchestrate the whole picture. That’s what I meant by creating a painting. With film, you are really concentrated on who's in the line of the camera, the proximity of the face and shoulders, what’s primary, how does that work together? You never know what the camera is going to capture. It needs to be as accurate as possible from top to bottom, so it’s imperative to make those choices as confidently as possible. Plus, it’s captured in perpetuity! I need to be very secure about the costumes because once it’s filmed, that’s it.
How have you grown that confidence in your choices and in your work over the years?
Early on, because I tend to be kind of shy, I didn't allow my voice to really be heard in the way that it could be. On my first jobs, I didn't make suggestions, I didn’t give my point of view, I didn't choose to share a lot. But then I found environments and collaborative relationships where I felt more comfortable. I realized that my voice was valid, that I had a point of view, and that it was strong. I realized it was a really positive thing for me to share that point of view. I’ve been doing this for over 34 years and I’ve developed that confidence in my skills, I know that my approach is valid. It’s something I wish that I had developed earlier on because I really questioned how I was seen within the American community and as a person of color, how I was seen in the world. I wasn't seeing somebody that looked like me doing what I did in any of the spaces that I worked in. So I was paving my own path, but I’m also glad that I did, because I really step into it now with full confidence.