Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked, which has been adapted into a hit Broadway musical and now two feature films, gave the Wicked Witch of the West the name Elphaba and a backstory that elicited sympathy for the outcast, branded a villain for standing up for the underprivileged. Reclaiming the witch as a misunderstood character, combined with ambitious pop culture representations such as Samantha and Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige Halliwell from the 1990s drama Charmed, makes the conical hat much less ominous.
This is also thanks to Academy Award-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell of Wicked. He reinterpreted Glinda’s “terrible” hat to better reflect Elphaba’s relationship with Earth. “It’s nostalgic as it reflects the silhouette we recognize, but the way it spirals makes it unique” Tazewell told The Cut.
universalWicked reconsiders the evil witch trope, and it deserves a lot of credit for making the conical hat less scary. After all, as Kounine argues, there is nothing inherently scary about it. It is nothing more than an interpretive object that we imbue with meaning through mythology that has been passed down over centuries through art and stories. And the meaning of these myths changes over time.
Some modern Pagans believe that hats are conductors of energy, and children still ask for hats during spooky season. Actually, the witch’s hat is Google’s Most Popular Halloween Costumes in 2021 – Before Wicked Just as woodcuts, portraits, and fairy tales influenced the modern material culture of conical hats, today’s iterations will also inform future generations’ understanding.
Source: BBC Culture – www.bbc.com
