Fashion Forward
For so many who pursue a career in design, it's the memories of watching glamorously decorated films and television shows and ornate stagings of theatrical productions that serve as their initial motivations to enter the fashion industry. While some might be inspired to create their own fashion labels, others experience a different calling. That is, to costume design.
Linda Muir, the Oscar-nominated costume designer for her work on Robert Eggers' "Nosferatu," explains that the skillsets required for each career path differ. "If a person goes to fashion school, they will likely learn skills that are more geared toward creating clothing for people to go into a store and buy," she tells Fashionista. "So often, I meet people who would like to work in a film costume department, but they don't necessarily know how to do the things that, if on a period film, for instance, we would need them to do."
Whether it's a period piece or contemporary, every project's ability to successfully build a world and tell a believable story relies significantly on what the cast is wearing — something Paul Tazewell, the Oscar-winning costume designer behind "Wicked," has a unique perspective on as a veteran performer himself.
Photo: Giles Keyte/Courtesy of Universal Pictures
"It all started in high school. I was very active in a performing arts program, so I was on my way to becoming a performer. But at the same time, I also had interest in developing my drawing and painting skills and knowing how to sew and make some of my own clothes," Tazewell tells Fashionista. When it came time for college, he wasn't able to double major in both design and performance, so he chose costume design.
Like many costume designers, Tazewell began his career in the theater, working with local companies and networking his way through the wider industry. After spending eight years at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Tazewell moved to New York City to design his first Broadway show, "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk," in 1996. Since then, he's designed the costumes behind "Hamilton," Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" and the 2019 film "Harriet" — just to name a few gigs.
Charlese Antoinette — the award-winning costume designer behind "Judas and the Black Messiah" and "Air" — also pivoted in her career intentions. After graduating from Philadelphia University with a degree in fashion merchandising and marketing, Antoinette moved to New York City to work in product development at Macy's.
"I would be walking around the city and realize there were [productions] shooting. I saw a truck that had a 'Wardrobe' label on it, and it literally clicked for me, like, oh my god, I could maybe work in costumes on the film," Antoinette recalls to Fashionista. While discussing this with someone backstage at a New York Fashion Week show, the right person overheard and offered her an internship on a movie. "I just kept working my way up in the department…[Costume designers] get to see the coolest things while telling stories and working with the most interesting people."
Below, Tazewell, Muir and Antoinette share more about what it takes to be a successful costume designer, their best advice for those interested in entering the space, memories from some of their favorite projects and more.
How does your educational background inform your work?
Photo: Courtesy of Charlese Antoinette
At most universities, there aren't majors specifically catered towards costume design. But Antoinette, who has a business degree, says her studies help her navigate the logistical aspects of her career in a way a design degree likely would not. "[My degree] actually helps me with budgeting, planning and all these things that I have to do as a costume designer to get the idea from a sketch to someone's body," she explains. "There's a lot of administrative work. At a certain point in my career, I felt like I needed to learn how to draw better to express my ideas on paper [more accurately], so I went to art school on the weekends. You've got to stay open and identify where you may be lacking in something and just learn."
Muir, who has been working in the industry for nearly 50 years, echoes Antoinette's sentiment, sharing that, despite her extensive experience, she still continues to educate herself on the topics she missed out on in her original education. "I went to college and took cutting courses, so I understand cutting but I am certainly not a cutter. I struggle with the technical aspect of things." Due to her unique sketching style, she now works with a specialized illustrator on bigger films to better deliver her vision. "If I were to go back to school, I'd probably enroll in a course that taught me illustration."
How did you break into the industry?
Photo: Courtesy of Charlese Antoinette
Tazewell says he made the most professional connections while completing a graduate program for costume design at New York University. "I continued to develop and mature as a designer and made contact with a director who was working in D.C.," he shares. "They invited me to design a production there, then the following year asked me to be the Arena Stage's resident costume designer."
In the early 1970s, Muir began working at an alternative theater in Toronto. There, she met a director that started his own small theater, where she expanded upon her skills as a costume designer. "At that time in Ontario, if you applied and your application was accepted, the government provided cultural grants that were extraordinary," she explains. At the same time, Muir was taking on any jobs she could find, constantly building her network in the stage and screen communities: "When I was starting out, I needed to pay the rent. Then, when I became a parent, I needed to provide for my son. But I was still selecting projects that I found interesting."
After initially assisting the costume crew on a film, Antoinette says she "just kept getting promoted." She continues, "Someone referred me for a paid costume assistant job because they were like, 'You know what you're doing.' I just kept working my way up."
Janty Yates — the Oscar-winning costume designer behind films like "Gladiator II" and "House of Gucci" — had a similar trajectory. After brief fashion roles at Vogue, she began working on TV and commercial sets, typically as a junior assistant costume designer. In a 2024 interview with Fashionista, she recalled working on the 1981 film "Quest For Fire," saying, "I spent six months cutting fur up in Shepperton car park. The new costume designers had no idea how [neanderthal fur] went on a body, so they re-employed junior me. It was the most extraordinary part of my life. It just opened doors."
For aspiring designers who need a more specific place to start, "Broad City" costume designer Staci Greenbaum suggested in a 2016 Fashionista interview to find out what's shooting in your area and search for online listings. She also provided a reminder: "You can work really hard but you have to be nice to people, all people," explaining that, "Your incentive for getting your next job is to do a really good job on the current [one]."
What is the collaboration process like with the directors, producers and cast on a set?
Photo: Richard Harbaugh/The Academy via Getty Images
"In the early days of designing, I'm engaging with the director to understand better what their point of view is and how they want to tell the story. Then our production designer, Nathan Crowley, is thinking about space and architecture and decoration," Tazewell says, referring to his work on "Wicked." "It's then my job to [take those things into consideration] and [deliver the storytelling] through the medium of clothing and make my own point of view jive with theirs."
When it comes to the cast, Tazewell says, "You have to very deeply consider who is playing what roles. A very in-depth conversation with the actors is part of my process so that I can make choices that align with how they see who these characters are all the way through — being able to modulate, shift and change according to their desires, their needs as actors and what they need to do movement-wise. But at the end of the day, I'm still making a choice that has been generated from me."
Photos: Courtesy of Paul Tazewell
Antoinette calls the melding of ideas "a dance." She is always reminding herself to stay true to her point of view as a designer, while doing what she needs to do "to keep [the] job." She continues, "If I'm staying true to myself and the people who hired me aren't feeling it, I've got to make adjustments. I have to swallow my pride and let my ego stuff go and remember that, no matter what, it's still my design. But I'm also here to be collaborative."
What are some of your favorite parts of the costume designing process?
Photo: Courtesy of Linda Muir
"I love to do periods that I haven't explored before. Costuming for those characters that are well-developed by a perceptive writer is always more interesting," says Muir. "It was really fascinating to try and figure out how to present people's feelings about vampires in the "Nosferatu" costuming and figure out how to serve Robert [Eggers]'s vision and create these garments with the luxury that they would have had at the time."
Antoinette also enjoys the collaborative element of her work. "I love designing, of course, but the people are what make it fun," she shares. While Tazewell appreciates on-set collaboration as well, it's "capturing the spirit" of the characters that he favors most.
Having worked on projects like "West Side Story" and "Wicked" that fans are already familiar with visually, Tazewell elaborates: "My interest is to provide a new way for audiences to experience these stories. I think they need to be nostalgic for what they've experienced before, so [for 'Wicked'] I'm pulling from 'The Wizard of Oz' from 1939. I'm not copying [any existing work], but I'm making choices that are suggestive."
What's the best advice you have for someone interested in pursuing costume design?
Photo: Courtesy of Linda Muir
"If it's possible to decide what your passion is, then gear your education towards your passion," Muir suggests. "If someone is more interested in costume design in theater or film and television, then I think they should choose a program that teaches the skillsets needed, such as distressing, aging, fabric painting, dyeing, graphic design, screen printing, cutting, drafting, sewing, illustration, script breakdown — all of those."
Tazewell focuses less on narrowing down your passion, and more on embracing it to its fullest extent. "It's important to be passionate about the work of being a costume designer. Some of that is about character development and some of that is about working with fabrics and understanding how to create," he says. "It's also about being interested in being collaborative, with a director, with your fellow designers and with actors. You have to love that kind of engagement."
He continues, "Every designer will have a different relationship to what they do. And because you'll spend so much time doing that work, hopefully that connection falls into place so that you can do the work in the way you want to."
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