With over 63 million households watching the first season of Bridgerton, I’m not surprised that it’s been renewed for a season two. When I first heard about the show, I wasn’t all that fussed, thinking it would be just another boring period drama. However, after watching the trailer, I knew this one would be different and quickly became obsessed with the different costumes within it. Bridgerton gives period dramas a major upgrade, not only with the fashion but with a script that would make Jane Austen blush. I completely recommend it if you haven’t seen it already!
The fashion in Bridgerton came from 71 year old costume designer Ellen Mirojnick and a team of 238 people. It took 5 months for them to make and there was over 7,500 pieces made to bring the characters to life. It’s no wonder that with the amount of work that went into the creation of each piece, that the costumes would look amazing in this show.
When Vogue interviewed the designer, she said that while the pieces stemmed from the regency period but took colours from the 1950s and 1960s, as they wanted to put a fresh and modern spin on the costumes to separate and differentiate the show from previous period dramas. Each character in Bridgerton gets their own distinct style in the show:
Daphne Bridgerton
Throughout the entire series, the Bridgerton family are seen in pale and pastel colours to represent their high social standing and class. Daphne herself is always seen in blues, whites or creams. This could perhaps be to symbolise her purity and innocence as she begins the social season. The costume designer later introduces purple into Daphne’s colour palette to combine her family colours with the Duke’s darker tones of red, to suggest Daphne is starting her own family. The character is also often seen wearing pearl and and diamond embroidery, or jewels to show she is worthy of high class suitors and the title of ‘Incomparable’ (the seasons most desirable lady).
Penelope Featherington
The Featherington family contrast that of the Bridgerton family by instead opting for bolder colours such as orange, yellow and pink. This was to show that the family are outsiders throughout society. Poor Penelope even said in an episode how much she hates to wear the yellow chosen by her mother. However, the yellow colour symbolises a lot of what Penelope’s character embodies such as happiness, optimism, knowledge and friendliness. She is by far one of the most supportive characters on the show and the yellow helps to reflect that. The costume designer also used yellow to suggest caution with Penelope’s character. Without spoiling it for those that haven’t seen it yet, it gives away that we should be wary of Penelope and the final episode reveals this to be the case.
Marina Thompson
Marina’s gowns are more understated (but equally as beautiful) than those of the rest of the female characters on the show. This is possibly to show her poorer upbringing and how she was never fully accepted by the Featherington family as one of their own. It also highlighted that she was different to the rest of the girls in the social season, making her very desirable with male ‘callers’. Most of the time we saw her wearing white and pale tones to contrast the Featherington bold colours, with a signature of vine and floral embroidery. This embroidery adds detail to the simple silhouettes of her gowns, making them highly effective and tasteful.
Queen Charlotte
This character has the most elaborate costumes of them all, with over the top silhouettes and ever-changing hairdos. There was less of a focus on colour with the Queen’s gowns and more of a focus on embroidery and jewels to exude a regal look. Each of her gowns had embroidery and embellishments from the neckline all the way down to the floor, often in the colour gold, to show the characters extravagance and wealth. The skirts of the gowns were bigger than the rest of the cast, perhaps to help show her higher social status, position of power and presence in the room.
Who was your favourite Bridgerton character? Which outfit was your favourite? Let me know in the comments!
*Disclaimer- These photos are not my own and are sourced from Pinterest and Google Images
Chloe Suze 