If you’ve ever seen the original The Wizard of Oz movie (even if you haven’t), you’re probably familiar with Dorothy’s ruby slippers.
They’re kind of iconic.
The sparkly red sequined shoes are the ones Dorothy takes from the Wicked Witch of the East after the house collapses on her when she arrives in Oz with Toto. And, they are the same shoes that help Dorothy get home when she clicks her heels three times.
Wizard of Oz ruby slippers.
KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty
Behind Cynthia Erivo’s Spellbinding Wicked Transformation, from air make-up to stenciled eyebrows (exclusive)
Somewhere between six and ten pairs were created for Judy Garland to wear in the 1939 film, and only a few are known to still exist—one is on display at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, and another is going up for auction next month. The BBC estimates it will fetch a cool few million dollars.
When Paul Tazewell, costume designer for evil, created his own shoes for this year’s film, he went back to the original source material for inspiration. And it turns out that Baum didn’t intend for those shoes to be red at all.
“They’re not ruby,” Tazewell tells PEOPLE of the original shoes. “In the book it was these weird little silver boots.”
But that’s why The Wizard of Oz made in technicolor for 1939, the studio wanted to take advantage of the many colors it had at its disposal, so Gilbert Adrian, costume designer for MGM, wandered outside of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel.
Tazewell took the original book concept as his starting point and went from there.
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo embodied theirs Wicked Characters in this full press tour — check out the gorgeous looks
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/wicked-slippers-112124-b8d4b5f480ac4c72949035ff317fba37.jpg)
Wicked crystal slippers.
Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
The PEOPLE Puzzler has arrived! How fast can you solve it? Play now!
“There’s the idea of Cinderella and the glass slipper, and then it’s like we’ve made the shoes into a myth and we’ve given them over to our fantastic fairy tale,” he says. “In the book they were silver shoes, then they became crystal and silver shoes.”
Tazewell incorporated swirls and jewels into the shoes that actress Marissa Bode (who plays Nessarose, the character who later became the Wicked Witch of the East) would wear. evil, and thus created something completely new and unique for this film.
But his silver shoes simultaneously pay tribute to those of Gregory Maguire Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West — a book which Wicked on Broadway and Wicked both movies are based on. Maguire also stayed true to Baum’s account, writing in his 1995 novel that the shoes were beaded and given to Nessarose.
At Maguire’s WickedGlinda enchants the shoes to help Nessarose (who was previously in a wheelchair) walk, and when the spell is cast, they turn red. In the Broadway show, Elphaba is the one who cast the spell!
Wicked Makeup Artist Confirms Ariana Grande Used Rem Beauty to Get ‘Princess-Like’ Glow (Exclusive)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2)/wicked-cynthia-erivo-marissa-bode-112024-1facb04eca214b13808d2ad9c5e9fa07.jpg)
Nessarose and Elphaba in Wicked.
Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date with the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to interesting people stories.
If you are confused by all the shoes and all the colors, all you need to know is that sometimes the shoes are red and sometimes they are silver!
The wonderful world of Oz has many repetitions that intertwine with each other, but they are all connected in some way. The Wicked the ruby slippers may not be red, but they are truly inspired by Baum’s original work from over 100 years ago, making them the perfect shoes for Dorothy when she needs to find her way home!
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education