Virginia Pope was the first to recognize Christian Dior’s Junon dress as possessing a “fairy tale beauty”. As the inaugural fashion editor of The New York Times, Pope was among a handful of women present at the couturier’s autumn/winter 1949 presentation at 30 Avenue Montaigne, and this gown – composed of shell-like petals encrusted with blue, green and rust sequins on a weightless pale silk net – took inspiration from peacock wings as a tribute to the sacred bird that symbolised the Queen of Gods in Ancient Rome. It was not meant to be the showstopper (a slit-backed “ciseaux” dress closed the collection), but it was: transforming the model into a vision descended from heaven, before laying the foundation for Ariana Grande’s clothes in a musical film some 70 years in the future.
It was the costume designer Susan Hilferty who decided to reference the now-iconic Junon dress as part of Glinda’s costume in the original broadway production of Wicked. (The so-called Good Witch is presented as the most fashionable girl in Oz, and a blue iteration of the gown is still the first thing audiences see Glinda wearing when she arrives onstage in a mechanical bubble.) Costumier Paul Tazewell further riffed on the same, couture-ish silhouettes associated with Dior in the mid-1900s for this movie adaptation, which Grande has embraced as part of her own red-carpet fashion. There have been drop-skirted Thom Browne dresses in housewife ginghams, bouffant Vivienne Westwood gowns in crystal-splattered pink tulle, and Donatella Versace’s take on Dior’s infamous bar suits. “She marches to the beat of her own drum and is a classic girlie,” Grande says of Glinda. “We started our red carpets with a Billie Burke homage, and we are ending it with a Broadway Glinda homage. I can’t wait for you to see more of Glinda’s arch and for you to see where she goes and how she grows.”
This week, Grande emerged on the red emerald carpet at the film’s final premiere in London, wearing a sherbet-coloured Ralph Lauren gown cut from diaphanous panels of silk chiffon with a smattering of Swarovski jewels. The look was a direct reference to the costume Glinda wears in the stage production when she and Elphaba travel to the Emerald City to meet the notorious Wizard of Oz. (Grande’s tinted spectacles, for example, are a nod to those given to the witches to protect their eyes from the brilliant green architecture that makes up the imperial capital.)
“I’ve wanted to celebrate the millions of ways this story and the lore of Oz inspire me,” Grande adds. “Emotions have certainly been running high! I think [the process] has taught us all so much. Our brilliant director Jon M Chu has spoken a lot about how much he needed us in order to do this, but it’s the other way around. I think we needed these characters, and this experience, and him, and Oz. My time with Glinda has permanently changed me – for the better and for good – and she will always be with me. So will my Elphie. I am so deeply grateful for my time in Oz. A part of my heart will be there forever.” Talk about a fairytale beauty.
Scroll below as Ariana Grande takes Vogue behind the scenes at the London premiere of Wicked.
Grande’s tinted spectacles were a nod to those Glinda wore to protect her eyes from the brilliant green architecture that makes up the Emerald City. Photo: Instagram.com/katiatemkin
“My time with Glinda has permanently changed me – for the better and for good – and she will always be with me. So will my Elphie.” Photo: Instagram.com/katiatemkin
“I am so deeply grateful for my time in Oz. A part of my heart will be there forever.” Photo: Instagram.com/katiatemkin
“I can’t wait for you to see more of Glinda’s arch and for you to see where she goes and how she grows.” Photo: Instagram.com/katiatemkin
“We started our red carpets with a Billie Burke homage, and we are ending it with a Broadway Glinda homage.” Photo: Instagram.com/katiatemkin
“[Glinda] marches to the beat of her own drum and is a classic girlie.” Photo: Instagram.com/katiatemkin
“Our brilliant director Jon M Chu has spoken a lot about how much he needed us in order to do this, but it’s the other way around. I think we needed these characters, and this experience, and him, and Oz.” Photo: Instagram.com/katiatemkin
“I am wearing custom Ralph Lauren. I wanted to wear yellow because Galinda wears yellow to the Emerald City in the broadway musical.” Photo: Instagram.com/katiatemkin
“I have been so excited to finally wear this one.” Photo: Instagram.com/katiatemkin
“I’m not sure [Glinda] would be into modern day trends!” Photo: Instagram.com/katiatemkin
“Emotions have certainly been running high!” Photo: Instagram.com/katiatemkin
Originally published in Vogue.co.uk
