半岛体育

Designing War Paint鈥檚 costumes required a multi-faceted approach from six-time Tony Award winner Catherine Zuber, whose ensemble designs would be elemental in establishing time and place. In addition, Arden and Rubinstein鈥檚 well-documented personal fashion tastes were key to bringing them to life onstage; but, each costume (from gowns to details on accessories) would ultimately be shaped by input from the show鈥檚 stars.

鈥�War Paint was a unique challenge in that we have two leading ladies, so they need to be balanced,鈥� Zuber says. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 have one take focus over the other, and they need to have their own personalities.鈥�

鈥淩ubinstein was inherently a very theatrical person,鈥� Zuber explains. 鈥淪he had amazing taste. She liked to wear Schiaparelli, and more adventurous designers. She didn鈥檛 really necessarily wear what was up-to-the-minute. She was sort of timeless, but she always looked very fashionable and always had the correct hat. Her homes and the art she collected were so gloriously personal and artistic, so she was quite a wonderful source of inspiration. There was so much to work from.鈥�

There was more creative leeway when it came to designing an onstage wardrobe for Arden, who led a more private life, and was not photographed as often as Rubinstein. 鈥淓lizabeth Arden was a much more discrete figure, and there weren鈥檛 as many images of her. The images that we did find tended to be less theatrical, so we needed to reinvent a little bit. Her style was quite classy, but discrete, and not the eccentric that Rubinstein was. When they need to be together onstage, we didn鈥檛 want Arden to recede, so we bumped her up a little bit to get the right balance.鈥�

Zuber also uses color as an opportunity to subtly reflect Arden and Rubinstein鈥檚 emotional state throughout War Paint. 鈥淚n the arc of the storytelling sometimes they鈥檙e aligned and sometimes they aren鈥檛 aligned,鈥� Zuber explains. 鈥淚n certain scenes where they have a commonality in what they鈥檙e experiencing emotionally, there鈥檚 a connection in the pallet of what they鈥檙e wearing and a color symbiosis of the two of them together.鈥�

鈥淭hese costumes are worn in the final scene and it鈥檚 quite beautiful with the two of them together. We鈥檝e just experienced 30 years of their history, and they are quite elderly at this point, but they still hang on to their individual style. We wanted to convey the difference and uniqueness in this final moment. The style of Arden鈥檚 dress is very much of the time as opposed to Helena Rubinstein who鈥檚 sort of timeless.鈥�

鈥淲hen we were in Chicago, Patti felt the skirt was not full enough, so she had us make a really structured petticoat underneath because she really wanted it to be quite full. She also asked for this extra piece of jewelry, which I think is great. Patti LuPone has wonderful instincts in terms of what she needs for the character and she really makes it work. We did research on this skirt. In the actual photographs of her wearing this, she has a little jacket that has an elephant motif embodied in it. This seemed to be a skirt she favored quite a bit because you see it more than once.鈥�

鈥淔or Elizabeth and her final costume, her final big number is called 鈥楶ink,鈥� and we felt that it needed to be a costume that still had that energy and that color. She鈥檚 an older woman at this point in the show. There were more images of Elizabeth Arden towards the end of her life at events that she would go to. This was similar to a lot of gowns that she happened to wear. It鈥檚 not a direct copy of something she wore, but it鈥檚 in the spirit of her style. It鈥檚 based on a design that was within the collections that year. It was in an issue of Vogue I had from the early 鈥�60s and it just seemed sort of perfect for Elizabeth. We found that the fabric on the top had the right kind of embroidery, but we added the beading because we were not able to find a beaded fabric that had that 鈥�60s feeling.鈥�

FIRE AND ICE: CAPTURING A CAMPAIGN

鈥淭his is Dorian Lee鈥檚 鈥楩ire and Ice鈥� dress. In this scene, there are mirrors that come in and she has four or five reflections of herself that come to life. This is based on Revlon鈥檚 Fire and Ice ad that we replicated. We had to adjust the actual dress for dancing so it has movement. There is also a built-in body in the dress because it鈥檚 a quick change, and then they zip this on.鈥�

In the gallery below, go in-depth with Zuber as she reveals the inspiration and process behind the full breadth of fashion in War Paint.