The internet has been going wild over one of the costume choices in Wicked: For Good, the dramatic finale to the two-part movie adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical. The controversial costume? An enormous grey knit cardigan, dubbed the “sex cardigan,” that Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) wears during an intimate scene with Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) as the pair share their true feelings for each other.
After fleeing Emerald City with Fiyero on the day of his wedding to Glinda (Ariana Grande), Elphaba takes Fiyero to her secret hideout, where she puts on a tattered grey knit cardigan and the pair share their true feelings with each other, acting on all of their sexual tension in a duet to “As Long as You’re Mine.” To maintain the film’s PG rating, Wicked: For Good toned down the sexier elements of the scene from the original Broadway musical… although it’s still pretty obvious what is about to happen.
The internet’s reaction has been predictable. The unfashionable chunky cardigan has been going viral across the internet with fans sharing their reactions to Elphaba’s unexpected outfit choice ever since the film hit theatres on November 21, 2025.
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.”
Erivo herself reacted to the fandom’s infatuation with the questionable grey cardigan 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. “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,” Erivo 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.”
Erivo’s comments haven’t put an end to the memes, so since people can’t stop talking about it, we now have another explanation on the costume choice. Speaking in a new interview with Variety, the Wicked: For Good screenwriter Winnie Holzman explains how she penned that scene and what’s going on with the “sex cardigan.”
“That’s Paul Tazewell’s cardigan. I did think it was really sexy, the idea that he, Fiyero, comes to see her lair, where she has been hiding, living and keeping herself. It’s so sexy that she brings him into her secret world. I did write that he’s looking at her things. He plays it so beautifully. You’re seeing him fall more in love with her as he’s walking through her world and realizing how she lives. He’s thrown off by her and the depth of his feelings that are being evoked — he’s not the player anymore.”
“It’s almost like he doesn’t know how to do it. I pictured this character as someone who’s seduced a lot of women. I’m not saying he cheated on Glinda, but I’m saying that in his past, before he even got to Shiz, he had a lot of fun. He doesn’t quite know how to operate.”
“She starts to make it sexual. Then he starts to realize he’s really there, and he’s really turned on. He’s never been in a situation like that before. Neither has she, for real. What I think is really sexy about the way they’re playing it is how subtle it is, because they’re two such incredible actors.”
“The way Cynthia plays that, I think, is so beautiful because she’s so guarded. She knows what’s going to happen, and she wants it to happen. She takes her time, and that’s a sexy thing too, that build up, ‘This is really going to happen. We don’t have to rush.’”
Wicked is, of course, near and dear to Holzman’s heart. She wrote the Broadway musical over 25 years ago with lyricist Stephen Schwartz and teamed with Dana Fox to reimagine it for the film adaptation.
Wicked: For Good, “sex cardigan” and all, is in theatres across the country now.
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