Earlier this year, when the Broadway revival of “Romeo and Juliet” was announced to star Kit Conner (“Heartbeaters”) and Rachel Ziegler (“West Side Story,” “The Hunger Games”), it Points to a unique modern style. The creative team behind the production is also in tune with this zeitgeisty Gen Z casting.
These include director Sam Gold, who has revived other Shakespeare works in a 21st century context, and Jack Antonoff – Taylor Swift, Sabrina · Right-hand man/songwriter/producer of Sabrina Carpenter and Lana Del Rey – who scores the show. But it can be said that costume designer Enver Chakartash (Enver Chakartash) among the cast members of “Romeo and Juliet” is most responsible for the beauty, charm and youthful vitality of this work. (Their other honors include winning a Drama Desk Award for “Outstanding Costume Design” last year for “Stereo.”)
“When you see kids in the mall, you think, ‘Oh my gosh, that kid is so cool,’ because they’re wearing cool pants and they have a cool vibe…that’s what I want of [for the costumes]”, Chakatash told Fashionista.
Upon entering “The Circle” at the Square Theater, the audience is immediately immersed in a world of teenagers so intimidating that they may question their own “cool” factor. The entire cast sat on stage, wearing costumes that could easily be seen on any Dimes Square resident or Parsons student. Montagues and Capulets can be found across IYKYK fashion brands such as Vaquera, Cold Culture, Y-3 and Salomon.
Photo&col;Courtesy of Emilio Madrid/Polk & Co.
“I did a lot of research around the types of brands we wanted to reference,” Chakatash said. “I wanted it to look like Gen Z, but lift it up a little bit. [We] Hopefully it has a modern feel and allows young people to see themselves in it… I love young people and Gen Z on TikTok and they’ll find something that resonates with them. [The looks] They’re not costumes, they’re cool things you can imagine wearing.
Juliet looks like an ordinary teenage girl on today’s stage (except for a brief moment when she wears a shark jumpsuit – a discreet way to bring her onto the stage, as well as Ziegler’s in West Side Story) homage to the character from West Side Story (the story of Romeo and Juliet). She wore baggy overalls tied with a studded black belt and paired with a Brandy Melville-style camisole with a dainty bow in the middle. Notably, she was also the only cast member not to wear sneakers, instead wearing black Dr. Martens boots with a puffy pink heart on the side.
“The character Juliet is 13 years old, so I really wanted her to look like a teenage girl,” explains Chakatash. “Our Juliet is also a little grungier and mostly darker, so I feel like these pops of pink remind us that she’s actually just a very young girl. This pair feels very Olivia Rodrigo— —super cool stuff that young people would want to buy but also have an innocent and juvenile quality to it, which I think was important to telling the story.
Photo&col;courtesy of Polk & Co.
Throughout the show, Juliet’s costumes depict her balance between immaturity and adulthood, pairing childishness with mature clothing. She spends much of the first act pairing a pink patterned training bra with a low-cut tank top, reminding the audience that despite the life-or-death situation she’s facing, underneath it all, she’s still just a girl .
Romeo, on the other hand, really has nothing to hide when it comes to his wardrobe. He opened the play wearing a black mesh vest by Ludovic de Saint Sernin, embroidered with branches of budding flowers. Chakatash created a second version of the tunic for the middle part of the show, with the flowers almost in full bloom (reflecting his growing affection for Juliet). At the end of the performance, when Romeo stands over Juliet’s corpse, he wears the third and final version. This time, the fabric was a completely opaque black with white embroidery that wrapped around his body in the shape of a harness.
Photo&col;courtesy of Polk & Co.
Photo&col;courtesy of Polk & Co.
“I came up with this idea because of the image of flowers in the scene,” Chakatash explains, referring to the colorful garden that unfolds when Romeo falls in love. “It represents the inner world of Romeo and Juliet and the love between them. So I felt it was important to transplant that into clothing. [Kit] I had a conversation and we determined that Romeo was a Pisces. His feelings are deeper, so this [symbolism] What a great translation.
Due to Romeo’s assigned astrology, he also wears a Pisces pendant and numerous rings around his neck. Juliet in Leo also wore her star sign on a necklace, layered with other chunky chains and rose petal earrings. Supporting characters in the show also wear plenty of jewellery; a common theme among them is an entirely silver color palette – a choice made in response to other themes in the exhibition.
Photo&col;courtesy of Polk & Co.
“Silver jewelry really helps set the stage for what we do, and I also think people are really into silver jewelry right now,” Chakatash said. “There’s a lot of amazing imagery tied into Romeo and Juliet, and we talked about how to bring religion into it. [this production] (There were a few crossover appearances, including one where Juliet’s shirt had an image of the Madonna and Jesus on it.) “I felt like it would feel more Catholic if we went with gold jewelry. So I wanted to keep it silver,” Cha said. Katash said.
In addition to the accessories, there are two other key metallic ensembles in the play: When Romeo crashes the Capulet party preparing Juliet to meet her suitor, he wears fully sequined silver jeans and a matching jacket (check Katash admits the design was partly inspired by Troy Sivan’s “Let Me Start” music video.
Photo&col;courtesy of Polk & Co.
“When I talked to Kit, he said he felt Romeo was older than his years and took himself more seriously. And there was something [more serious] About this dress. He is the most private, but also the loudest. It’s spectacular, but it’s also very simple,” Chakatash said. “It’s funny because he’s trying to be invisible at a party he’s not supposed to be at, but he’s wearing [sparkliest] Things in the room.
This was not a character-inspired choice for Juliet, as she disagreed with her father’s approval of the man she married. “It feels like, if her father was trying to marry her off to some man, and this was their first interaction, what would he have her wear? It would be this little holographic gold sequined dress,” Chakatash said. . “Something else worth noting is that Juliet is the sun, and in the text she says to Romeo, ‘Don’t be like the moon, which changes shape every day.’ That’s the idea behind their colors.
In the same scene, Romeo and his friends enter the party wearing masks to hide their Montague identities: “We bought a couple of masks from this queer designer whose brand is called Pissy Pussy. I My team and I are all queer people on the scene, and we know a lot of people who are doing amazing things, so we try to tap into that community, which I think helps make the show feel very authentic.
Photo&col;courtesy of Polk & Co.
Benvolio wears a stretch vinyl mask with a sewn-on mohawk, Balthazar wears a reflective fox mask, and Romeo wears a more ominous style that Chakatash wears in Found it during a trip to Istanbul. “There was a stall selling the weirdest masks I’d ever seen, and I thought, ‘These are perfect because it’s a recognizable mask. [symbol] But there’s also something wrong with them,” they shared. The mask Romeo wears is a silver glittering skull, foreshadowing his impending tragic death. “Sam really liked it because it reminded him of Zeffirelli [‘Romeo and Juliet’] Movie.
Likewise, for the Romeo and Juliet wedding scene, Chakatash chose a white-grey Alexander McQueen blazer: “At first glance it looks like flowers, but in the photos from the show you can start to see these The great thing about everything Skull McQueen and Sarah Burton do is that it’s all about beauty and death, so that blazer was part of the foreshadowing as well.
Photo&col;courtesy of Polk & Co.
Another costume choice that is directly related to the plot is the amount of Adidas clothing on stage: apart from the text, there is no information about the actors, sets or otherwise to guide the audience to the story that takes place in Italy. For Chakartash, there’s something inherently European about the three-stripe blazer and trousers.
“Our only direct nod to Italy comes when Gregory wears an Adidas football jacket with Italian colors and a small Italian flag,” they explained. As the piece sets the scene for the location, Chakartash made it a common thread throughout the show, including adidas looks for different characters, including Juliet’s nurse and cousin Ti, played by Tommy Dorfman Tybalt.
“When we were looking for Act II outfits for the nurses, I thought, ‘It has to be a Y-3 dress because it still feels like it’s out of this world,'” explains Chakatash. “It still has the Adidas branding , but it is a beautiful long black skirt. “
Photo&col;courtesy of Polk & Co.
The Nurse/Tybalt’s wardrobe plays an important role in Juliet’s emotional journey. In the first scene, they wear a leather jacket with darts that create a defined bust shape in the front. “Because the nurse is seen breastfeeding Juliet in the original text, we decided to use her costume to really push the image of breasts,” Chakatash said. “Once Tybalt died, the jacket became their talisman and representation. So in the second act, when Juliet is grieving, the nurse hands the jacket to her, and that felt right to me.”
There are also plenty of stylish moments in the show to enjoy, analyze, and trace back to 1597 or modern pop culture references. Ultimately, carefully curated looks from emerging designers and bespoke costumes all contribute to something greater – attracting and inspiring younger generations to the theatre.
“When I met Sam, he said he really wanted to engage young people, bring new audiences to the space, and create a piece that was truly contemporary and queer,” Chakatash said. “I think the costumes in this production were a big risk. The reason they’re so outrageous is because they don’t make sense in any way, but they completely capture the vibe of each character, [this generation]”.
“Romeo and Juliet” is currently playing at the Circle at the Plaza Theater in New York City through February 16.
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