Yahoo Lifestyle Here's Why The "Bridgerton" Costumes Are Way Less Historically Accurate In Season 3, And 30 Other BTS Wardrobe Facts
Forget the romance; the best part of Bridgerton is the fashion. We have costume designer John Glaser, hair and makeup artist Erika Ökvist, and their incredible teams to thank for all of the amazing Season 3 looks!
Here are 31 behind-the-scenes facts about the Bridgerton Season 3 costumes and beauty looks:
1.The Season 3 costumes are less historically accurate than they were in Seasons 1 and 2 because production wanted to lean into a more "heightened" rom-com tone.
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Showrunner Jess Brownell told BuzzFeed, "[Costume designer John Glaser] wanted to raise the bar. We didn't push back much on what he wanted to do because this is the most rom-com season we've ever had. Everything in a rom-com is a little bit heightened. The tone this year is a little bit more comedic. So it felt acceptable this season to push the boundaries more than usual on historical accuracy and just lean into the fun."
2.Each character's costume mood board begins with three key elements: a historical fashion reference, a modern fashion reference from 1950 onwards, and a work of art.
3.Compared to previous seasons, the costume designers intentionally made their designs and color choices softer "because of the story [they're] telling."
John told Vogue, "It’s more textural, a little more blurry. We layered fabrics—for instance, we’d take a warmer color and a cooler color and combine them, so when you’re looking at a dress, you’re not totally sure if it’s blue or green."
4.Penelope's makeover is modeled after Old Hollywood movie stars like Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth.
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For example, with her dresses, they "actually veered off from 1813 and went a little into the future to 1820" because dresses from 1820 were shaped more like 1950s evening gowns.
5.The first dress she wears after her big makeover has teal and copper inner layers to match her hair color. The wardrobe team also chose this gown because they "didn't want to give up her connection to the Featherington colors right away."
John told TV Insider, "It’s also something that the modiste helped her pick, so the modiste would have held on to the old Featherington colors. It’s not as bright as they ever were. It’s something darker than she’s ever worn. She’s wearing it with black sheer gloves, so it’s colors that she’s never worn, and it’s colors that she’ll never wear again because that was something that the modiste and she picked, and we know that situation didn’t go quite right."
6.The emerald dress was inspired by Parisian fashions of the time period, which is exactly what Penelope requested at the modiste.
7.After that dress, Penelope wears a softer, more neutral color palette so that her gowns don't give away the direction of her story.
John told Vogue, "Are her dresses green? Are they blue? We didn’t want to reveal anything about where her story might be going."
8.Her dresses have a new silhouette because the costume designer's "mission was to showcase her body, instead of trying to hide it with the regency line."
John told Teen Vogue, "We wanted to show that she's not a girl, she's a woman."
9.Many of her outfits are layered so that it's hard to tell what color they actually are, which was intentional.
John told Teen Vogue, "We softened her colors and used blue and green together, little bit of pinks, touches of yellow. We didn’t want to place Easter eggs for people to think ‘Oh, this blue dress means she’s going to be a Bridgerton.’ I wanted to keep all the costumes a little mysterious because they were all changing and evolving."
10.The pale green dress she wears during that carriage scene "was designed and made out of fabric that was reflective for night, to be magical and spectacular in that moment."
John told Bustle, "It's made of really delicate sheer fabric so that there's easy movement between the two of them. There's no hindrance of a big petticoat. We wanted it to kind of be part of her skin. The sheen."
11.Penelope's eye gems in Episode 3 are a nod to her creativity.
Hair and makeup artist Erika Okvist told TV Insider, "I think creative people, which she is, she's clearly creative because she's a pen woman, it doesn't mean that she's not creative in other ways. This is the look that she designs for herself. She's clever, she's creative, and she could have figured that one out. There is nothing in the world to say that people wouldn't use gemstones or pearls and glue them on their faces in that time as well. There are examples of people using seashells and stuff. It's not a wild idea. It did exactly what it needed to do. You noticed it, and whoever she was going to dance with would have noticed it."
12.Colin's new style was inspired by the Marlboro Man.
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John told Vogue, "We’re not supposed to talk about smoking, but that guy’s on a horse in the dust and dirt. He’s a bit sweaty, and he has a lot of swagger. We gave Colin these long coats; there’s this great movement when he walks. His look is semi-period-correct — we actually used denim for his trousers, and we gave him a belt, open shirts, and some pieces which wouldn’t have existed in that period, so he feels of this time but also quite modern."
13.He wears a darker color palette to signal his new "maturity," "swagger," and "confidence."
Showrunner Jess Brownell told BuzzFeed that he's "wearing clothes that reflect his travels and his new worldliness."
She said, "There are some hair, sideburn, and eyebrow tweaks that emphasize that he's older, more serious, and make him feel more ready to settle down — so that when and if that happens, we believe it."
14.Speaking to BuzzFeed, Nicola Coughlan asked Luke Newton if he "ever accidentally [went] home wearing Colin's underwear." He replied, "No, because I had Regency pairs that I would wear, they were slightly different to my everyday pants."
15.To create Queen Charlotte's swan wig, Erika 3D-printed a clockwork, added glass swans, and had a makeup artist from her team paint a backdrop.
16.For Erika, the most challenging part of creating Queen Charlotte's swan wig was "to make it quiet enough for the sound man not to want to kill [her]."
She told ScreenRant, "Finally, we had this ballet ,and then I was thinking, 'Well, what would be great for the ballet?' She's got moving pieces within her wig, so we printed this clockwork platform and got some motors so that I've got some swans swimming around this kind of Faberge egg-shaped wig."
17.Eloise Bridgerton wears a "summer muff" to hide the cast that actor Claudia Jeffries had to get after breaking her arm on set. On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, she said, "I'm an idiot. It's my own fault."
Here's a closer look at Eloise's summer muff:
Watch Claudia share the entire story below, starting at the 2:20 mark:
18.Eloise's Episode 2 look is a reference to Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.
Netflix, Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection
19.Though this season is set in 1813, Alice Mondrich's style was pushed forward to 1820 (the end of the Regency era) to set her apart from the other characters and to reflect her newfound confidence.
John Glaser told Essence, "I liked the fact that we were able to give her a new look that's a little different than anyone else and completely different from the old lady's dress in the attic and different even from how Alice looked originally."
20.Instead of "historically accurate" wigs, characters with textured hair wear wigs with textured hair to stay true to the show's prioritization of diverse beauty.
Erika told Fashionista, "I think that if you are not embracing everybody's hair texture and everybody's skin color, you cannot call yourself a makeup artist or a makeup designer. All we need to do is just honor what nature has provided and make it as beautiful as possible. That's how I look at it. I can't really think about it in any other way."
21.Adjoa Andoh's Lady Agatha Danbury wig takes three hours to put on.
She told BuzzFeed, "So I'm in hair and makeup for three hours before I even start my day. So, for me, it's the length of the day."
22.This season, Hannah Dodd took over the role of Francesca Bridgerton. John "didn't want to try to make her look like the previous actress, so [the wardrobe department] gave her a new look."
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He told ScreenRant, "We based her on Katherine Hepburn in the 1940s. If you look at the sheer blouses that she wears, that look is youthful, but it's tasteful and not that restrictive Regency look. Her clothes are translucent because she is a mystery. She's going to be a mystery to the audience, and she's a little mysterious in the actual show because she is essentially a new character."
23.This season, Kate Bridgerton's outfits have more "blatant" nods to her Indian heritage than they did in Season 2.
Liam Daniel / LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX, Netflix
John told Vogue, "Her sleeves and the cut of her dresses are much more influenced by saris in the way they flow at the back, and the colors — we went for earth tones, more natural colors, the colors of spice. And in the second half of the season, she becomes even more obviously influenced by Indian fashion."
24.Anthony Bridgerton's outfits also have a subtle nod to his wife's culture — Indian embroidery.
25.Cressida's extravagant outfits represent the "huge armor" she puts up to hide her vulnerability.
Erika told Fashionista, "The more extreme [the look], the less good she feels about herself."
26.A "beautiful blue dress" that Hyacinth Bridgerton wears was made from "a cut off from Princess Diana's dress that she wore at some point."
Actor Florence Hunt told People, "I just thought it was amazing. I felt like I was wearing a piece of history."
She also said it was her favorite look, and she was allowed to keep a piece of the fabric.
27.While researching Regency fashions, John Glaser learned that a Parisian silk shortage led to women wetting their linen dresses to give them a silky look. Since pouring water on the actors would be impractical, he used layers of sheer fabric to get a similar look.
28.The women's shoes aren't at all historically accurate. They're modern shoes from Ferragamo.
John told Woman's World, "The shoes from that period are flat, and we wanted the actresses to have a little bit of height because it looks better and they can walk easier."
29.Most of the jewelry the cast wears is from 1890-1965.
30.All of the beauty looks are "based on historical knowledge," but they're blended with editorial or catwalk looks to "make it more palatable for the modernized and because of how extreme everything is."
Erika told Fashionista, "I think that I probably have got every single picture that there is with anything Regency, and I probably also got every single book that there is as well."
31.And finally, altogether, this season's costumes are meant to look like a flower garden.
John told Woman's World, "In a flower garden, there are soft edges, there are hard edges on the leaves, there are lots of shadows, there are highlights, and there’s variance in all the colors."
What's your favorite look from Bridgerton Season 3 so far? Let us know in the comments!
