The sweater that changed Oz, for good.
The internet is going wild over Elphaba’s (Cynthia Erivo) “sex cardigan” that she wears during an intimate scene with Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) in “Wicked: For Good.”
After fleeing Emerald City with Fiyero on the day of his wedding to Glinda (Ariana Grande), Elphaba takes him to her secret tree house, where they share their true feelings to each other in a duet to “As Long as You’re Mine.”
Elphaba, smitten for Fiyero, takes off her usual black attire and slips into sexy black lingerie — before she puts on an enormous gray knit cardigan.
The fashion piece has gone viral on the internet, with fans sharing their epic reactions to Elphaba’s unexpected outfit choice.
Sharing a photo of the sweater on Anne Hathaway’s character in “The Devil Wears Prada,” one fan wrote, “are you wearing the—,’” adding, “Elphaba’s sex cardigan? Yes, I am.”
“Y’all are laughing at Elphaba’s ‘sex cardigan’ as if Anthropologie isn’t currently planning to sell that thing for $140 and people will buy it. #WickedForGood,” another fan said on X.
Someone else tweeted, “Elphaba was taking no chances when Fiyero got in that treehouse. Broke out the good lingerie and her sex cardigan.”
“Those who are hating on elphaba’s cardigan just don’t know the powers a truly comfy cardigan can hold over a girl,” a different “Wicked” fan wrote.
“Coming out as someone who likes the elphaba sex sweater,” another twitter user confessed.
Erivo herself reacted to the fandom’s infatuation with the sexy sweater in a recent interview with Bustle.
“I am plugged in a little bit. I love that everyone is so invested in the little details,” said Erivo, 38. “Especially if they’re invested in the outfit, I’m happy, because that was one of those things that I wanted for her. I was like, if she’s in her home where she lives, why would she still be in her war outfit? Why wouldn’t she be in something comfortable, the thing that makes her the most vulnerable?”
“I wanted a moment of real softness for her,” the Oscar nominee continued, “so it was something that I had talked to [costume designer] Paul [Tazewell] about, to find something that made her really womanly, like that she was there in her space as comfortable as could be. So I’m glad people are clocking all those little details.”
While Elphaba’s cardigan turned up the heat in the “As Long as You’re Mine” scene, director Jon M. Chu revealed he actually made the moment less horny.
“I just felt like, ‘Is this movie the type of movie where you just sit and stare at each other and sing?’ I was like, ‘There’s nothing happening,’” Chu, 46, told Entertainment Weekly. “And passion can only happen…. They didn’t have time to…. We need a scene where they go out on a date or something. How do they know each other?”
The filmmaker also recognized that Erivo brought “dignity” to Elphaba in the steamy scene.
“She’s like, ‘I would have a home, I would make it smell nice. I would put my hair up,’” he added. “She’s not just a caricature that we’re making fun of in learning the backstory. It’s not fan fiction; this is a real character to her.”
“Wicked: For Good” is in theaters now.
