Paul Tazewell's designs for "Wicked" and "Hamilton" featured at Museum of Science and Industry

In Paul Tazewell's Oscar-winning costumes for "Wicked," art meets science in the dark, mossy coils on Elphaba’s Emerald City dress. Dressing the characters of "Hamilton,” Tazewell took inspiration from 18th century coats and corsets and blended them with contemporary streetwear trends — all so the characters feel more accessible and relatable.

Chicagoans can see his work up close in the new exhibition “Crafting Character: The Costumes of Paul Tazewell,” running at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry through Sept. 7. It consists of artifacts from his early life and costumes from movies and musicals he’s worked on, including “The Wiz Live!,” “West Side Story” and “Harriet.”

“Crafting Character: The Costumes of Paul Tazewell” came together when team members at the MSI became curious about his designs. Last year, Tazewell walked away from the 2025 Oscars with the award for best costume in “Wicked,” starring Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba — and the dresses Grande and Erivo wore in those movies are on display as part of the collection.

The exhibition at the MSI is the first one dedicated to his work, and it fits perfectly into “part of the museum's mission,” which “is to inspire the inventive genius,” said Voula Saridakis, head curator at the museum.

The experience begins with a three-minute video introduction by Tazewell, who is based in New York City. In it, Tazewell says he was asking himself an important question at a young age: “Who am I?”

He asserts, through the narration, that his work isn’t just about fashion or art — it’s about identity and storytelling with “history stitched into a hemline.” The costume designer was unavailable for an interview with the Sun-Times, according to a spokesperson from his team.

Days before the exhibition opened to the public, Tazewell spent time making sure each item was perfectly staged. “We would go costume by costume, just making those fine tweaks and just making sure everything looked like it should, according to Paul Tazewell's specifications,” Saridakis said.

As museum visitors listen to Tazewell’s words, a nearby display case holds Janelle Monáe’s custom Thom Browne suit, worn for the 2025 MET Gala. The deconstructable suit was designed in collaboration with Tazewell, of course. Then, a set of doors opens to the first gallery, where work from Tazewell’s early life takes center stage as his narration continues, this time accompanied by sketches, images and video projected onto the walls.

In childhood, Tazewell’s mother, Barbara, would make toys for him out of paper, fabric and miscellaneous objects, resulting in his very own array of marionettes and dioramas.

“She would play with them for Paul when he was really, really young, and create different stories with the same marionettes,” Saridakis said. Barbara brought characters to life through her puppets and scenes, and that lesson was not lost on her son.

Many of those marionettes were brought to the museum, Saridakis said, including the first one Tazewell ever made at four years old: a “Little Red Riding Hood”-inspired doll.

That’s when Barbara noticed he had a knack for creation, so she taught him to sew and encouraged him to create throughout grade school. Tazewell had always been curious about fashion and found inspiration in observing what people wore in historical and family photographs and pop culture.

As curator, Saridakis worked closely with Tazewell from the start. The exhibition features thousands dozens of sketches and pieces from his collection.

To fully understand Tazewell’s life and work, and choose which ones would display at the MSI, she paid a visit to Tazewell’s mother’s home in North Carolina. “As soon as I walked into that house, I could actually see where that inspiration came from,” the curator said as she described Barbara’s attic, filled with paintings and sketches as if it were its own type of museum.

Besides the “Wicked” garments, in which every single character received a unique costume, the MSI exhibit also features dozens of pieces of clothing from the “Death Becomes Her” Broadway musical, Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “The Sleeping Beauty,” Kasi Lemmons’ “Harriet” and costumes from “The Wiz Live!” television special.

The exhibition also features the revolutionary costumes from “The Sleeping Beauty,” tailored using engineering technology to solve design challenges. The garments were specifically tailored to withstand the physics of movement as dancers ran and leapt across the stage.

“[Tazewell] has this message, which is, what moves you emotionally is the key to unlocking your own creative potential,” Saridakis said. “You can find inspiration every day all around you.”