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.
Read full story here: https://the-talks.com/interview/paul-tazewell/
Comentarios