The Bridgerton costume designers on how they reinvented period romance
By Lara Owen, PA
As Bridgerton returns to our screens, Lady Whistledown’s gossip is one hook of the historical romance, but the show’s fashion has become another central obsession.
When it comes to Regency-era costuming, Bridgerton is constantly trying to make its clothes feel new yet timely. For season four – which returns to Netflix in two parts, January 29th and February 26th – designers drew upon one of the most sensual garments in period drama history: Mr Darcy’s wet shirt from 1995’s BBC TV series Pride and Prejudice.
“I think Colin Firth made the men’s period full-sleeve shirt iconic for the Mr Darcy moment,” says Bridgerton’s men’s associate designer, Dougie Hawkes. “I was involved in that [1995 Pride and Prejudice production] many, many years ago, but I think ever since then, I’ve always wanted to better it personally.”
That ambition comes to fruition in Bridgerton season four, through the protagonist, Benedict, played by Luke Thompson.
“We’ve been, since season one, trying to perfect the men’s shirt in its betrayal within Bridgerton, and I think we finally got there this season,” Hawkes says.
“I think Luke Thompson’s pulled it off for the lake sequence, which you will see in this one. I think it really just, literally, the shirt looks fabulous, and it’s, I’m very happy.”
It is a detail that neatly captures what Bridgerton does best – taking something rooted in period drama and reimagining it through a modern lens and fantasy. As John Glaser, the lead costume designer for this season, puts it, pure, historical accuracy is “not what the show is.”
Hawkes sums it up more expansively, noting that “John [Glaser] has bought the word spectacular to design of Bridgerton, and I think that is the best word to sum it all up […] as a viewer, you really should want to see something that’s spectacular.”
Season four embodies that ethos more than ever before. For the first time, Bridgerton properly ventures below stairs – into kitchens, corridors and servants’ quarters – asking its costume designers to make two worlds coexist.
“When [we were presented] with the scripts and the outlines, it was obvious that it had a new dynamic compared with previous seasons,” Hawkes explains. “There was a lot more contrast between the glamorous pools, and we were now introduced to what goes on below stairs. So that dynamic was a very new thing for us […] We had to present it to the viewers as a new thing.”
For Glaser, that shift was an opportunity: “We also had to make [it clear that] the downstairs [is] as interesting as the upstairs has always been, which was a nice challenge.”
The difficulty lay in getting the balance right. “It was blending the fantasy of the upstairs with the reality of the downstairs. So a new area for us to balance the two worlds,” says Glaser. “They couldn’t be so extreme that they didn’t work together, but they still had to look and appear differently.”
Crucially, ‘downstairs’ in Bridgerton is never dull.
“Not at all,” Glaser insists, when asked whether it meant toning down the flair. “Because we set boundaries. You know, how far you can go with the downstairs, [but it] still had to be glamorous.”
Hawkes agrees that it “wasn’t as gritty as perhaps it would have been […] the apron bows were all very designed and precise, whereas maybe, in reality, it would be just a string […] but that’s the fun of it.”
As Glaser puts it, “A lot of things that would have just been functional […] were functional, but at the same time they were pretty.”
Transformation remains central to Bridgerton’s appeal. Much like Penelope Featherington’s transformation in season three, Glaser teases “the introduction to other Penwood girls”, but it is the men who experience the most radical shift.
“This was one season where the men, especially [Benedict], got to make that transformation, which Dougie [Hawkes] did miraculously, because he freed them up.”
Hawkes’ approach to Benedict was rooted in romanticism. “Because he’s the artist, he’s the romantic, you know, I took him, I tried to push him to the limits of being the kind of Pre-Raphaelite, if you like, and softened him right up. I wanted to make less is more, it’s romantic without being over thought.”
Another pivotal journey belongs to Sophie, the illegitimate daughter of Richard Gunningworth, Earl of Penwood, who is introduced this season.
“The other transformation would have been Sophie, because she had to travel back and forth between the two worlds,” Glaser says. Hawkes adds, “We see her in at least three different households, because she moves employment, which is great and will catch the viewers out no end.”
It is the first time the series has asked a character to truly live in both realms.
Colour continues to symbolise power, personality and place throughout the different households.
“We still use the original colour palette from season one,” Glaser explains, “but saying that, as the characters have matured and developed, our colour palette has matured and developed.”
The signals are subtle and perhaps not as overt as Penelope Featherington’s transformation from yellow to emerald green. When a character enters the Penwood house, says Glaser, “[they’ll] add pink to the aprons, and pink to their hair, to their head pieces – but [it’s] not blatant.”
Hawkes points to a seasonal shift too. The previous seasons have often been filmed in spring, but for season four, it was autumn. “We wanted to bring those richer, darker, golden leaf colours, if you like, into the costume,” he says, “and that’s very, very evident.”
Modernity seeps in through details, too. “With the guys, I’ve really picked on pop culture and art culture and fashion culture,” Hawkes explains, “just in men’s jewellery.”
While “we don’t make an attempt to put an Easter Egg [a symbolic item] in. It just kind of happens naturally,” Glaser says, he does reveal a possible Easter Egg to look out for in the first episode’s masked ball: “Something that we want to see, if people actually see, is that Benedict has a bracelet. We’ve never used a bracelet on any man.”
Hawkes contextualises it: “Historically, it is there […] mostly used as a remembrance thing […] but it’s a piece that I think brings it well up to date.”
What unites every decision is a refusal to settle. “We never give up, and we’re always looking for the better option,” Hawkes says. Whether it is fastenings, trousers or collars, refining is constant.
As Glaser notes, the series format allows evolution: “We never like to go fall on our laurels, we’re always looking at it […] and trying to perfect it and make it look better.”
That relentless pursuit leads back, inevitably, to the shirt.
“We’ve stopped using white because just it doesn’t [work] well enough,” Glaser says. “It doesn’t film well enough for us, and it just doesn’t fit into the Bridgerton look anymore […] we’ve taken the shirts into [more] pastel colours.”
In Bridgerton, even a simple shirt carries the weight of romance and reinvention. Season four promises to do the same for the ton around it – upstairs, downstairs and everywhere in between.
