Content creator Tori Calamito shows her dress before the “Wicked: For Good” premiere while at Paper City Fabrics in Holyoke.
Reminder Publishing photo by Tyler Garnet
HOLYOKE — Paper City Fabrics owner and Holyoke-based fashion designer Joseph Charles has once again teamed up with popular content creator Tori Calamito to create a custom gown for the movie premiere of “Wicked: For Good” on Nov. 17 in New York.
Calamito is best known to her 400,000-plus followers on multiple platforms as “The Oz Vlog,” where she voices her passion for the film while sharing memorabilia and other facts.
For 28 years, Calamito has dedicated her time to collecting and preserving Oz memorabilia and researching the history of L. Frank Baum’s work and the various films and other media those works have inspired.
The film, “Wicked: For Good,” based on the long-running Broadway musical, functions as a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz” film and stars Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba.
Calamito is an official Oz historian who has garnered a devoted following on social media for her videos about the “Wizard of Oz” books, movies, collectibles and fandom.
This gown marks the second collaboration between Charles and Calamito. It follows the success of last year’s Glinda-inspired gown that dazzled at the Los Angeles premiere of “Wicked” in 2024.
This year, Charles and Calamito paid homage to Dorothy Gale’s iconic blue gingham dress. Like last year, the gown is crafted primarily from secondhand fabrics sourced from Paper City Fabrics, The Holyoke fabric shop is owned and operated by Charles.
Charles said he follows Calamito’s The Oz Vlog on Tik Tok and Instagram. He shared that he helped design the dress for last year’s premiere of “Wicked.”
Charles explained that with the second movie coming up he asked, “are you down for round two?,” stating, “I am if you are, and we came up with the idea of like a glamorous adult Dorothy.”
Calamito said that it was an easy decision to collaborate with Charles again after the beautiful dress he designed for her last year.
“He did a magnificent job on the first dress,” she stated, “I never felt more beautiful in my whole life, so when he said round two, it was a no brainer. We worked so well together and as you can see, two for two.”
This year’s gown took everything they loved about the first collaboration and raised the bar even higher, according to Charles.
The old Hollywood inspired gown is a light blue silk mare fabric lined in gingham as a tribute to Dorothy. Charles said it took him about a month to complete.
For Calamito, the partnership has become a meaningful tradition. “Joseph has an incredible ability to capture the spirit of Oz in his work. Last year, we celebrated Glinda. This year, it’s Dorothy’s turn.”
The collaboration between Charles and Calamito represents a unique fusion of fashion, fandom and sustainability, rooted right in the heart of Western Massachusetts.
Before the premiere, Calamito expressed her excitement. She said, “I’m so honored and excited; still pinching myself. I’m just so lucky to have partnered with someone who makes me feel so beautiful because it is intimidating stepping out there knowing that you are going to be seen by a lot of people, and so feeling confident is half the battle.
“Go see ‘Wicked: For Good’ on Nov. 21,” Calamito concluded.
