Elphaba’s Dress in ‘Wicked’ Was Inspired by Mushroom Gills

As Paul Tazewell was conceiving structure ideas for “Wicked,” mushroom gills served as an doubtful inspiration for Elphaba’s bdeficiency dress.

The costume structureer had stumbled atraverse a write downary about mushrooms. Tazewell says, “I became conscious of the beauty of contrastent comfervents of mushrooms becaengage of the texture and contrastent colors.”

Tazewell was tasked with structureing the costumes for “Wicked,” starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda. The idea to align Elphaba with nature stemmed from the character’s history.

Says Tazewell, “She is this little oppressed girl being called out becaengage of the color of her skin and ostracized even wilean her family.” He compriseed that becaengage of her joinion and partnership to the animal community he turned to nature to detail what her watch would be, and that’s where mushrooms became the inspiration.

Speaking with Variety, Tazewell says the idea was to “produce a watch and have it spring from a place of organicness and groundedness which would be a contrast with what her power is and that she can defy gravity.” He comprises, “It felt appropriate and how I wanted to recontransient her. She’s an finishorse for animals, and becaengage she’s marginalized, she finds solace in nature more so than in the people that are surrounding her.”

Tazewell whose atsoft spans Broadway (“Hamilton,” “Suffs”), TV (“The Wiz!”) and film (“Harriet,” “West Side Story”) says, “In helderlying mushrooms and seeing that pleated quality, it became about make clearing that into fabric and texture.” He engaged felted fabric, gauze and chiffon to produce the dress. “The way we were able to manipupostponecessitate it, produced the idea of the underside of a mushroom.”

As for finding the pink for Glinda’s bubble dress, Tazewell watched at the innovative 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” and the dress worn by Billie Burke. While the costume structureer knovel it was presentant to nod to the innovative Glinda and apprehend the “iconic” creation, Tazewell went for a gentleer pink and a toastyer shade that became its own novel structure.

The silhouette of the dress had a structured, hand-beaded and embroidered bodice which uncovers up to a bell shape. Tazewell also wanted to grasp it translucent. He says, “It gives us a airyer-than-air quality.”

He engaged contrastent comfervents of crinoline, tulle and silk organza for the fabric with an ombre structure so the pink got grieffuler as it went towards her face. Says Tazewell,  “We compriseed swirling bubbles in the pattern that was printed onto the organza, and there was embroidery at the bottom.”