“Bridgerton” is most famous for the scenes where the cast gets undressed, but that doesn’t mean time and attention isn’t paid to the period clothing of the Shondaland Regency love story.
For Season 2 of the smash-hit Netflix series, Sophie Canale was promoted to head costume designer of the series.
“I was really fortunate to be part of the design team on Season 1, as an assistant costume designer,” Canale told Variety. “I wanted to develop what Ellen had created and really look at the characters. We had this foundation from them, and I really wanted to push the individualism of each person and looking at how each of their stories were being told in Season 2.”
Canale spoke to Variety senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay for Variety Artisans presented by HBO. During the interview, Canale broke down some of the most iconic looks of the season and the process behind designing signature looks for each family of the ton.
For Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley), Canale gave her dark colors for the first episodes, before slowly putting her in lighter colors as she falls in love. For her bridesmaid’s dress during her sister’s ill-fated wedding, Canale drew inspiration from Indian styles, using fabrics from the country for the embellishments and fashioning the seam in a manner similar to a sari.
One of the most memorable scenes of Season 2 of features male lead Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) trip and fall into a lake, emerging with a sheer, almost see-through white shirt. According to Canale, the white shirt Bailey wore in the scene is different from his usual outfit, and was specifically picked out to be as sheer as possible.
“We actually had a fitting with Johnny and we were spraying him with water, and he was like ‘No, just give it to me,’ and we just absolutely soaked him in the fitting room,” Canale said. “Then I recorded it and sent it to Chris [Van Dusen] to say ‘This is how sheer we’re going to go.’ So yeah, that was fun.”
“Bridgerton” Season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix. Watch the full Artisans video above.
