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In the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz, a young Judy Garland closed her eyes, clicked her heels three times, and repeated the now-famous line, “There’s no place like home.” As Dorothy, the young farm girl from Kansas who gets swept up in a tornado and finds herself in Oz, Garland slipped her feet into the magical ruby red slippers—and 86 years later, the recognizable style still remains synonymous with the fantastical MGM musical tale.
(So much so that, in 2005, a pair was even stolen from a museum, and, just last December, they were named the most valuable item of film memorabilia in the world.)
Designed by MGM’s chief costume designer, Gilbert Adrian, the heeled slippers were constructed from a white silk base, dyed in red, covered in burgundy organza sequins, and finished with matching bow appliqués—taking advantage of the new three-strip Technicolor film process that facilitated the rise of bright color movies in Hollywood.
However, in the original 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, author L. Frank Baum wrote the shoes to be silver. And with Wicked: For Good, Academy Award-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell brought Dorothy’s wardrobe back to its roots.
First teased in the initial installment of Jon M. Chu’s adaptation starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, the bejeweled silver shoes were introduced as a prized possession gifted to Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose Thropp, by their father following the death of their mother.
Referred to by Tazewell as the “jeweled shoes,” the silver spiral heels were crafted in collaboration with artisan Miodrag Guberinic, who 3D-printed the base before embellishing them by hand with over a thousand crystals. The result was a blend of history and modernity, referencing the original heels from the turn of the century, while creating an iconic work of art entirely unique to the Wicked universe. Plus, given copyright protections of Garland’s ruby slippers, the Wicked team managed to avoid any legal issues.
“For this, we weren’t able to re-create the original film look that Judy Garland wore, and I wasn’t particularly interested in that,” Tazewell told Harper’s Bazaar. “I used a silhouette of a little girl’s dress from the turn of the century, created in blue gingham, which is very specific to the Dorothy image that we know.”
“If you look closely at Dorothy and the crystallized shoes, she’s wearing blue socks. If you compare that to Judy Garland’s Dorothy, she has blue socks with the ruby slippers. We threaded all of those ideas together so that it becomes nostalgic and a cohesive idea,” he continued.
Taking on a more central role in the second part, the shoes followed a similar storyline known to all fans of Oz, becoming magical, flying heels that, in the end, landed firmly on Dorothy’s feet…ready to send her on her way.
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