In boarding Blitz Bazawule’s feature take on musical The Color Purple, costume designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck came “full circle.”
The project came around nearly four decades after Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple film, based on the classic novel by Alice Walker, on which she’d served as costume supervisor. Jamison-Tanchuck knew, heading into the shoot, that Warner Bros’ new take on the story would be challenging to pull off. “But I love challenges,” says the designer, whose work recently earned her a Critics Choice Award nomination. “I love breaking out of a box.”
Starring Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Taraji P. Henson, Colman Domingo and more, Bazawule’s The Color Purple reintroduces viewers to the story of Celie Harris-Johnson, who rises above not only a number of personal tragedies, but also the limitation imposed upon her, as an African American woman coming of age in the South in the early 20th century.
Jamison-Tanchuck prepped the movie musical of huge scope in less than four months, grappling not only with a sprawling cast of characters, but also with the passage of time. “Our movie traverses 40 years,” explains Bazawule, in conversation with the costume designer, in today’s edition of The Process, “[which] meant that we were constantly talking about what year this piece made sense, what year this piece had phased out, and such.”
“When we started with Color Purple, starting in 1910, all the way to 1946, all of those periods have their own different silhouette,” the designer adds, “and you just can’t get around that.”
Of course, the added challenge on this film, in contrast to 1985’s The Color Purple, was the fact that the movement required of performers in “massive dance numbers” had to be taken into consideration when designing the wardrobe, as well. “The dancers… were changing out so often, and that was no one’s fault at all,” Jamison-Tanchuck says. “Fatima Robinson, who is an incredible choreographer, she did her best to keep the same dancers for certain particular numbers, but it was just difficult.”
Recently nominated for multiple Golden Globes, The Color Purple hits theaters on Christmas Day. In addition to Spielberg, returning producers included the original film’s star, Oprah Winfrey, as well as Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones. For more on Bazawule’s “bold new vision” of the story, and Jamison-Tanchuck’s efforts to make it feel “wonderful and timeless,” click above.
