Glinda's Transformation: Why Ariana Grande's 'Wicked' Gown Isn't Blue Just Like the Broadway Version

Costume designer Paul Tazewell explains the decision to dress Ariana Grande's Glinda in a vibrant pink gown for the "Wicked" movie, rather than the iconic blue dress worn by Kristin Chenoweth on Broadway.

Tazewell was inspired by Billie Burke's pink dress as Glinda in the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz," wanting to capture that "fairy princess quality" in Grande's costume.

However, the Broadway version had used blue due to legal issues with the pink color.

The movie dress required an immense amount of work, with 137 pattern pieces and 225 hours of hand-beading over 20,000 beads on the bodice alone.

Tazewell aimed to give clues about Glinda's character development through the design.

"There was a lot of research and development that went into that dress," he told PEOPLE magazine.

"The design of 'Wicked' is giving us — and the story overall is giving us — the backstory of what happens once [Glinda and Elphaba, played by Cynthia Erivo] become these iconic characters, and it was my job to lead us into that."

"So who is Glinda before she gets to ride in the bubble in a beautiful gown? What are those things that lead up to that? That's what I was really trying to set up — giving you clues to build up to who she potentially becomes."

While the Broadway Glinda's blue dress has become iconic, the movie's pink gown was a deliberate choice to connect to the original film's visual identity and foreshadow Glinda's transformation.

"I was also intent on creating a similar quality of silhouette," Tazewell revealed of looking to "The Wizard of Oz" to create the updated Glinda dress.

"There's a fairy princess quality in Ariana as Glinda in that dress. It's sparkly and it is covered with bubble imagery that swirls around her. So it has all of those qualities that are magical and give you that sense of the Good Witch of the North in a very strong way, but it's re-envisioned, it's turning it on its head."