Wizard of Oz Costumes

The Wizard of Oz was shot in both black and white and Technicolor film. All sequences that take place in Kansas were in black-and-white with a colored sepia tone, while all the Land of Oz sequences were shot in color. David Bezanson of Filmcritic.com said “This took the viewer from the gray world of Kansas to the colorful world of Oz. Letting the Costumes take center stage.

Costume designer Adrian Adolph Greenberg designed all costumes for the 1939 film. The most important part of Adrian’s design was to create the characters that the stares were known by.

The characters of The Wizard of Oz, at least, are certainly known by their costumes: Dorothy and her crisp puff-sleeve blouse and starched gingham pinafore, the Cowardly Lion and his scruffy mane, the Tin Man and his clunky suit of scrap metal, and the Scarecrow and his baggy patchwork garb.

Adrain created costumes which were intended to reveal information about the setting, character and plot through fabric.  Says California’s Fashion institute of Design & Merchandising. In a 1937 interview Adrian noted that 'Few people in an audience watching a great screen production realize the importance of any gown worn by the feminine star...the fact that it was definitely planned to mirror some definite mood, to be as much a part of the play as the lines or the scenery, seldom occurs to them.'"

 

The design of the slippers provides goes against the relative pattern of the costumes. The slippers stand out and make a statement from their first appearance in the film. This might be because the slippers are the key to getting Dorothy home.  

The costumes in the Wizard of Oz are not complex; they are there to establish characters as particular individuals. The costumes the actors wore helped the characters come alive as much as the Technicolor did.