Costume Design by: Tony Walton ( notable efforts: Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Petulia (1968), Murder on the Orient Express (1974) - it should be worth noting Walton was also a production designer, a role he fulfilled on The Wiz as well)
A sort of contemporary update on Frank L. Baum's
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that swapped the rural setting with a more urban one, as well as having an all-black cast (like the original Broadway musical the film was adapted from),
The Wiz in some ways feels like a precursor to the later
Return to Oz, with a slightly more uncanny tone and a visual style that went against the design sense establiahed by 1939's
The Wizard of Oz. As noted above, Tony Walton was both production designer and costume designer on this film, and as such had to adapt the New York filming locations to turn into their twisted fantasy counterparts -
all of Walton's design artwork can be seen on his personal website, and it should be also worth noting that he
even made physical models to give his costume makers a better idea of what the costumes should look like! Almost all of Walton's costumes for
The Wiz's version of Oz are tattered and made of rather odd-looking materials, making the film look almost like a fantastical post-apocalyptic wasteland. When Dorothy (Diana Ross) ends up in the film's more urbane and desolate version of Oz, she meets the Munchkins who this time are teenagers dressed in wonderfully colourful outfits, that have been adorned with silver lining and metallic segments, as well having been spraypainted all over (the reasoning being that they had all been transformed into graffiti before Dorothy arrived). Another notable thing about their outfits is how large panels of fabric have been cut into the shape of various numbers (1 to 8) and stitched onto the main outfit - this only applies to the 8 main Munchkins that have speaking roles, as the various extras do not have these number panels.
As per the usual Oz story, Dorothy is visited by the Good Witch of the North, Miss One (Thelma Carpenter) in this segment, who is dressed in a powder blue and pink dyed dress that itself has been covered in glittery material as well, with a square piece stitched to the front - and can you also notice that silver hat worn on her back?
During Dorothy's journey, she meets the usual figures of the Oz story such as the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion (admittedly, I have not covered them as I feel they weren't meant to be 'costumes' in the strict sense, even if it was Walton's duty as costume designer to realize them as well), and ends up in the Emerald City whose residents all wear a variety of shiny costumes in either green, gold or red - this film has the rather creative choice of having the city's colours change like a traffic light! A crying shame that these outfits aren't seen properly thanks to being shot for dance sequences, as I especially like the glittery jumpsuit and shiny suits.
Of course, one of the film's most striking outfits is worn by the film's main villain, the Wicked Witch of the West named Evillene (Mabel King), whose outfit is so monstrously over the top and garish, fitting the character's outrageous nature! A frilly pink deal (rather a contrast to the traditional garb of the Wicked Witch being all-black) covered in so much bits and bobs, and worn with a very slapdash version of a crown!
In this film, the 'Flying Monkeys' are reimagined as basically hulking bikers, wearing all-leather uniforms with large padded shoulders - the Flying Monkeys were designed by Walton, but had to be partly realized by special effects technicians (hence the image being from the Stan Winston School) being needed for the grotesque prosthetic heads.
Lastly, is the dress worn by the Good Witch of the North, Glinda (Lena Horne), whose dress is a tattered but still glittery blue deal, with silvery metallic material around the cuffs and headdress, with a shiny tiara worn with it as well.
