Wicked's costume designer on how to tell stories with clothes | Paul Tazewell
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You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. Next week is the global release of Wicked for Good, the sequel to the wildly popular movie Wicked. And ahead of that big premiere, we are sharing this powerful talk from the film's Oscar-winning costume designer, Paul Taswell. He takes us inside his thinking around the subconscious language of clothing. It shapes who we view as heroes and who we view as villains. From his work on the period silhouettes of Hamilton and the blending colors of West Side Story to the visual dualities of Wicked, Tazewell makes the case that design is never neutral. And stick around after his talk for a short Q&A with Ted's Monique Ruff-Bell.
What makes someone wicked? Is it the color of their skin? Is it the story we've been told? Or is it what they wear? How do we make those judgments? What clues do we rely on? What assumptions do we carry, sometimes without even realizing it? As a costume designer, it's my job to use those assumptions for better or for worse. People often assume my job is all fabric and sequins, dresses, buttons, maybe a good hat. In truth, my job is about perception. I am a storyteller, and my medium, my language, is clothing. Through silhouette, color and texture, I shape how you see someone before they speak a word. I decide whether you lean forward with curiosity or pull back with suspicion. When I put a character in a shade of scarlet or wrap them in velvet or cut them up in sharp black lines, I'm asking you to feel something about them instantly, silently.
That's what fascinates me, how simple fabric can tell us who is a hero and who is wicked. I seek out a thematic hook in every project, something human, something that allows me to find myself in the story. I'm not just decorating a character. I'm telling a parallel story, one that lives in the clothing. Costumes are not static. They move with the body. They evolve. Sometimes they even tell lies. They reflect growth, conflict, resolution. I can telegraph an entire emotional arc in the fit of a jacket, the fraying of a hem, the way fabric breaks down under stress. What's extraordinary is this. You feel it. even if you don't realize it. Costume is a subconscious language. I'm using your power of perception to lead you through the story."
This manipulation of perception carried me to Hamilton. At its core, Hamilton is a story of us versus them, colonists versus empire, immigrants versus the establishment. But Lin-Manuel Miranda handed me something radical. He said, I want the audience to see our founding fathers through today's lens. So imagine that challenge. Black and brown bodies dressed in 18th-century coats and breeches rapping about revolution.
What insights does Paul Tazewell share about the subconscious language of clothing?
History reimagined in real time. I designed period silhouettes, yes, but with restraint. Neutral tones on much of the ensemble while allowing their skin to show through and the power of their voice to ring true in center stage. And then, in contrast, King George III appears in full regalia, bewigged, jeweled, painted in perfect detail from his portraitist. He is the old world, they are the new. That visual duality, modern bodies in period shape versus one man preserved in all his pomp, is what makes... the story of democracy unfolding so compelling. It takes the historically familiar to frame a modern perception of how our nation was formed. And suddenly, there's Thomas Jefferson. Tommy Kail, our director, and I decided, let's make him a rock star.
So on stretched Jefferson, in flamboyant purple, modeled after a pop icon. Not by chance. That was a statement.
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