Costume designer Paul Tazewell chose distinct color palettes to help audiences track the opposing groups whether they were dancing in the school gym or fighting in the street.
He’s dressed Lin-Manuel Miranda, Oprah Winfrey and even Jesus Christ in a way, but Paul Tazewell took on his largest ever project when he signed on as costume designer for director Steven Spielberg’s massive movie remake of “West Side Story.”
Virtually every element in this more ominous and visceral “West Side Story” is doing heavy lifting to correct the historical record that had, for example, cast white actors as Puerto Rican characters. Costumes are more often drenched in sweat and grime, their seams shredded from wear and, in Tazewell’s hands, conceived to capture immigrant pride and social strife.
“The dynamic of those two worlds coming together and how they clash was important to the storyline,” Tazewell said. The gymnasium dance scene divides visually but also psychologically.“I was thinking of the contrast in aspiration for the different communities,” he explained. “With the Latinx community, they are dressing more consciously fashion-forward than the Jets are. The Sharks have to try harder. That is part of feeling like an outsider in America.
“Anita is the center of attention for that number,” said Tazewell, who dressed actor Ariana DeBose in an off-shoulder dress that’s as vividly yellow as her petticoats are red.
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