Eleanor Noyce
Published November 25, 2025 12:29pm
Updated November 25, 2025 12:31pm
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Elphaba’s choice of wardrobe in Wicked: For Good has acquired a new nickname (Picture: Metro)
Cosying up in a secret hideaway in the forests of Oz, Elphaba and Prince Fiyero serenade each other ahead of a rather, ahem, saucy reunion.
They’ve ditched Galinda, and upon arriving at Elphie’s open-plan tree living situation, the Wicked Witch of the West firmly ditches her hat, broomstick, default leather dress and slips into something a little more comfortable — literally.
Ever the rebel, Elphie doesn’t seduce her man with lace and beads, but rather, a raggedy-looking grey knitted cardigan.
The cardi/dressing gown/threadbare rug (which is actually a ‘peignoir’, according to costume designer Paul Tazewell) has been christened the ‘sex cardigan’ by early viewers of Wicked: For Good.
In the r/knitting Subreddit, a passionate post from @AsherSine read: ‘I HATED Elphaba’s wardrobe in the second movie… the frumpy dumpy cardigan… was distracting.’
Meanwhile on X, @doriantagonist wrote: ‘Oh my god. I’ve been thinking how bad could the sex cardigan be? Extremely, apparently.’
Obviously, in a PG movie, we were never going to see Elphie in stockings and suspenders, but the concept of ‘seduction by cardi’, rather than a more typically sexy ‘fit, has clearly touched a nerve with audiences.
Is it proof that we’ve all been so indoctrinated into believing that we simply must look a certain way for sex, that the idea of a Elphaba getting ‘railed in her sex cardigan’, as Vulture described it, by the 10/10 Fiyero is just too unbelievable — even in a world of munchkins, witches and flying monkeys?
‘I was terrified he’d judge my knickers’
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What do men actually ‘expect’ of women’s appearance before sex? One 2025 study from WikiHow polled 1,379 readers on whether they like lingerie on women — and 76% said a resounding yes.
Of course, there’s the ‘wrapping paper’ effect to consider — AKA, the idea that some men might purely see lingerie as something shiny that’s hiding the real prize underneath.
But beauty standards exist too, beyond what we chose to wear in bed. A 2021 study found that 40% of men admitted to being more drawn towards slimmer women, while 52% believed that women should shave their armpits.
Plus, 66% outwardly believed it was ‘unattractive’ for women to have hairy legs, while as many as 49% of men said their preference was for their sexual partners to be ‘completely shaved’ down there.
Fran*, 34, feels strongly that men do care about what women look like in the bedroom — and has felt the pressure to conform for casual hook-ups.
‘On a night out in my twenties, I really, really wanted to go home with a guy I’d met on a night out,’ the teacher, from Hertfordshire, tells Metro.
‘To be frank, the booze was flowing, I’d had a dry spell, and he had made it very clear he was very much up for it. I didn’t trust the fact he’d stay interested once he saw my hideous, white-grey knickers.’
Feeling too self-conscious to do the deed in her Bridget Jones’, Fran convinced one of her friends to swap underwear with her.
‘We all compared pants in the loos, and I chose my favourite ones!’ she laughs.
Though the group still joke about the underwear swap nearly 10 years later, Fran believes it shows that in real life, the sex cardi wouldn’t wash.
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‘Good for Elphaba, but let’s be real: most women wouldn’t shag wearing that in real life,’ she says. ‘Sure, that guy in the bar might not have commented on my atrocious knickers, but rightly or wrongly, I would not have felt sexy in them.’
Sorry, we don’t live in Oz
Unfortunately, we don’t live in Oz, and while the sex cardigan worked wonders in Wicked, the fact is, things go down pretty differently in the outside world.
Women still have to grapple with the realities of fatphobia, ableism, and racism — anything that shapes society’s view of what being ‘sexy’ really means.
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Elphie’s sex cardi — and the reaction to it — is an indicator of the future we all want: the freedom to be able to look and wear whatever makes us feel sexy, without judgement.
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
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