Ariana Grande in Custom Thom Browne – Wicked: For Good Singapore Premiere. Story by Runway Magazine. Photo / Video Courtesy: Thom Browne.
For the Singapore premiere of Wicked: For Good, Ariana Grande stepped onto the yellow carpet in a custom Thom Browne gown — a look engineered with the precision of couture and the narrative discipline of Browne’s world-building.
The off-the-shoulder corseted silhouette is the result of more than 1,500 hours of hand embroidery. A gown that merges a shimmering Oz with Thom Browne’s unmistakable discipline, where every bead, stitch, and glint of light serves structure, not spectacle.
A Couture Blueprint Translated for Oz
The design draws from Look 10 of Thom Browne’s Fall/Winter 2024 couture collection, reinterpreted in a palette of white, sapphire blue, dusty rose, and transparent tones. Beneath the surface, 450 meters of layered tulle build the foundation for movement — the kind that reads softly on-camera yet carries the architectural language Browne favors.
The embroidery is a study in obsessive detail:
- 36,000 mixed white and clear cut beads
- 40,000 clear bugle beads
- 58,000 blue bicone crystals
- 13,000 blue flat-back crystals
- 110,000 light rose sequins
Raised bugle beads introduce height and texture, while clear materials stitched with colored thread create a subtle gradient — a technique that reads almost atmospheric under light. The interplay of bicone and flat-back crystals adds layered dimensionality, and the scattering of clear sequins mimics a soft reflective glow.
The embroidery transitions into clustered crystal formations across the skirt, echoing the iridescent interior of a pearl shell — a quiet reference rather than a literal motif, executed with Browne’s characteristic restraint.
Oz Meets Browne’s Vocabulary
Powder-blue and white pleated tulle godets extend from the skirt, amplifying movement with a kind of controlled drama. When Grande steps forward, the palette and shimmer evoke a stylized Oz; when she turns, the signature red-white-blue grosgrain loop tab interrupts the fantasy just enough to remind viewers: this is Browne’s world, and narrative is always delivered with a signature.
A Premiere With Intent
Grande’s appearance sets a clear tone for the film’s global rollout — high craft, high narrative, but with a measured sophistication that avoids costume literalism. It’s a couture translation of Oz, not cosplay; a study in technique rather than theatrics.
At the Singapore premiere, the gown did exactly what it was designed to do: transport, but never abandon its author.
