Behind the sequins and sparkles of The Wizard of Oz costumes

Wed 28 Dec 2022

From the iconic ruby red slippers to Glinda’s biker helmet, each and every item of clothing on the stage of The Wizard of Oz has been meticulously thought through.

Given our slightly longer than expected Yellow Brick Road to Oz, Rachael Canning has been designing the costumes for our Made at Curve Christmas production for the past three years.

Rachael has also given life to Dorothy’s loyal friend Toto and those pesky Scarecrow-taunting crows, creating the puppets for the show.

Led by Costume and Puppet Designer Rachael, with Costumer Supervisor Anna Josephs and a huge team of costume-makers, an incredible amount of time and effort goes into creating those bright and colourful outfits you see on our stage!

But that’s not all. Our Wardrobe department also work tirelessly on each and every show, washing and preparing outfits daily and dressing the 22 cast members in the 100+ costumes. Even helping Dorothy’s three friends get changed in less than 100 seconds at the end of the show!

We’ve gathered our favourite facts and figures about the costumes in The Wizard of Oz to give you a small insight to the behind-the-scenes of the stitches of those witches (costumes).

  • All shoes are hand painted and decorated using vintage earrings buttons and buckles
  • The ruby slippers were hand made to Georgina Ounorah – our Dorothy’s – foot, and then each stone was applied by hand by the team Parachute Collective! There are approximately 2000 stones per shoe, in three different colours.
  • Every item of clothing, aside from the Winkie boots, has been customised one way or another
  • All graphics seen on the costumes have been created by a Graphic Designer
  • Over 250 metres of material were used to create the costumes!

For more images on our wonderful costumes, head to our Mezzanine Level and check out our free The Wizard of Oz exhibition until Sunday 8 January.