Ariana Grande Outfits That Meant More Than You Realized

When you've been in the public eye long enough, you know you can convey so much by what you choose to wear, even when you don't say a word. Kate Middleton, for example, is known to wear outfits with a special meaning, like she and Princess Charlotte did at Trooping the Colour 2025. Even Trump's daughter Ivanka has worn outfits with hidden meanings. If you're a celebrity with something to say, sometimes it's just easier to do it with your clothing, instead of getting up on the nearest soapbox and making a declaration.

Ariana Grande is another celebrity who has spoken through her outfits instead of her words. Not only did Grande take method dressing to the next level while promoting her film "Wicked," but there have been other occasions when her outfits had a specific meaning. "I'm a huge advocate of self-expression, being yourself, and encouraging people to embrace who they are and the things that make them beautiful," Grande told Allure in 2017. "I love people's uniqueness — the quirky, weird, interesting, and different things about everybody."

It's this deep appreciation for what can be expressed through clothing that's been the inspiration behind some of the outfits Grande has worn to events. If you're someone who thinks that a dress is just a dress, it's time to take a closer look at your favorite celebrities. Sometimes it's not just a dress, after all.

In 2019, Ariana Grande was scheduled to perform at the Grammys, but ultimately opted out after an issue with producers. Not only did she not perform, but she chose not to attend. However, Grande already had her custom Cinderella-inspired dress by Zac Posen ready to go, which she shared in a now-deleted Instagram post. In the caption, Grande wrote, "when @zacposen makes u a custom gown it doesn't matter if you're singing or not.... thank u," per E! News. Fans were quick to note that the dress was most likely a reference to her ex Mac Miller, who passed away in September 2018 and had written the song "Cinderella" about Grande.

Well before Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo began promoting "Wicked," Grande was already fully in character. Not only was she rocking multiple "Wicked" tattoos, including matching ink with Erivo, but her Met Gala dress in May 2024 had a subtle Glinda-inspired message. The Loewe gown included a mother-of-pearl bodice and a floor-length pleated skirt. "Pearl is my birthstone, so it's very meaningful to me for that reason," Grande told Vogue in May 2024, adding that it also felt like a nod to Glinda's bubble and "Wicked" due to the opalescent pinks and greens throughout the fabric.

For the Australian premiere of "Wicked" in November 2024, Ariana Grande switched things up, wearing a custom gown by Vivienne Westwood that was similar to the one worn by Billie Burke in 1939's "The Wizard of Oz." As Grande told Vogue Australia, the dress was her favorite because of the meaning behind it. "'Wicked' is a very thoughtful and detailed celebration of the land of Oz and the many iterations of these characters that have come before ours, so we thought it would be a beautiful place to start," Grande said. She completed the look with a silver diamond butterfly choker necklace, by jewelry designer Lorraine Schwartz, much like the one Burke wore in the film. 

In a move that proved Ariana Grande is a force in not just the Hollywood industry but in the cultural landscape, she double downed on the Cinderella theme at the 2020 Grammys, just one year after basically telling them "thank u, next."  While no one really knows what's going on in the head of someone else, it might be safe to say that the custom Giambattista Valli light grey tulle dress, with matching gloves, no less, wasn't an accident. Grande wasn't able to pay a proper homage to Mac Miller in 2019, so she went extra Cinderella in 2020.

When Ariana Grande attended the Oscars in 2025, where she also performed "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," she wore a gorgeous ruby red dress by Schiaparelli. While it was clear the dress was inspired by Dorothy's ruby slippers, there was something else you may have missed: an actual ruby slipper on the back of the dress. "I wanted to pay tribute to the ruby slippers and to Judy Garland with this dress, and Daniel [Roseberry] really just created the most stunning piece of Ozian art from there," Grande told Vogue. Granted, the shoe isn't exactly the simple low-heel that Judy Garland wore in the 1939 film, but rather a modernized take on what the heels might have looked like today.

Although Ariana Grande stuck to a palette of pink and nude tones throughout most of the 2025 award season, she did bring some yellow to the 2025 Golden Globes. Grande and her stylist dug deep into the Givenchy archives where they found this stunning dress from the spring/summer 1966 collection by the designer. "It's yellow because follow the yellow brick road," Grande told Variety about her gown, via People. "And it's one of Glinda's favorite colors. This is Givenchy 1966 archive. My stylist Mimi [Cuttrell] and I found it and we were so excited."

For the 36th Annual Palm Springs International Film Awards in January 2025, Ariana Grande wore an iridescent silver bubble dress custom made by Louis Vuitton that was definitely serving as a reminder of Glinda's bubble. In December, Grande posted a video on Instagram with a caption that read, in part, "[A]ttempting to say goodbye to my bubble after we finished filming my final scene in it ... the attachment I felt to my wand and my bubble was comically overwhelming." So it makes senses that just a month later, Grande and her stylist may have found another bubble to fill the void.

Universal Pictures/YouTube

When Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo performed at CinemaCon 2025 to promote "Wicked: For Good," Grande's dress was in stark contrast to what we we saw on the first promotion tour. Long gone were the pink and airy colors, and in their place was black. Even Erivo had ditched the usual green and was also wearing black. Make no mistake: this wasn't a mere a coincidence, especially after both had dressed the part of their characters for so long. Unlike the first "Wicked" movie, the second is expected to be darker in tone, so there's a good chance that's the hidden message being sent here.