This post contains major spoilers for Bridgerton season 4 part 2.
Ever since Bridgerton premiered in 2020, costuming has become one of the show's biggest selling points, and the stakes are even higher for season four.
Clothing has always been a symbol of status in the Bridgerton world, but this season it has truly been a protagonist. From stolen shoe clips to inherited necklaces and forgotten gloves, the costuming was a big part of the storyline to bring Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha) and Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) together.
“On Bridgerton, we tend to create things that are fun and fantasy,” John Glaser, the head of the Emmy-winning costume department for the show, tells Teen Vogue. “This season, it became more of a real show, where you had to actually follow the shoe clip, follow the handkerchief, follow the embroidery on a handkerchief, follow the necklace. It wasn't fluff. We take everything seriously, but they became little projects within themselves to make sure that it was helping to tell the story.”
Bridgeton costumes take a notoriously long time to be made, with thousands of new looks added every season and hundreds of principal costumes ready for their time in the spotlight. Costumes begin being made months before a new season starts shooting, and the team continues manufacturing until the last day, as Glaser explains.
“The craftsmanship that goes into the manufacturing of the costumes. The embellishment of the costumes. The jewelry. The textiles. The millinery. The pattern matching. There are so many elements, and we see them for such a short time. It'd be lovely if people could actually be able to look at it and appreciate it and see it,” assistant designer George Sayer adds.
To help fans dive deeper for now, and in honor of part two finally coming out, we sat down with Glaser, Sayer, and men's associate designer Dougie Hawkes to dissect all the costume details you might have missed from season four of Bridgerton—including some carefully planted Easter eggs.
1. Benedict's bracelet
John Glaser: When I was doing research, I saw Steve McQueen with a watch. I think it's a TAG Heuer or a Rolex. I saw Paul Newman. James Dean had an ID bracelet. And I thought, "That's a really nice signature piece," and we don't use jewelry on men. So I came up with the idea of using that. And Dougie came up with the bracelet.
Dougie Hawkes: I delved a little bit more into history. There were lots of keepsakes and love tokens, and also memento mori, where people used to use hair, woven hair as a bracelet. We expanded on that a bit more because I thought that was a little bit of bad taste, so we used leather and metal.
When I started putting it together and drawing the design, it actually looked like something in retail. We've got a bespoke jewelry department, so we were very fortunate to have jewelry designers there. After a few prototypes, we came up with something that I think is an air of iconoclasm about wearing a piece of jewelry like that, for that period.
JG: People look for Easter eggs. I thought they would catch and see this bracelet right away. But what's interesting is that the audience is now used to seeing bracelets on men, so it wasn't out of place. Your eye didn't catch it. It just seemed like a normal thing. So no one's ever picked up on it as an Easter egg, but now that we've mentioned it, people will start looking at it.
DH: It's fabulous. It's great. You might see nothing else but the bracelet.
2. Sophie's necklace
JG: There were two ways to go. The necklace could have been much more elaborate, like a family historical heirloom with a diamond amethyst, but she could never have hidden it. It's something that she couldn't have worn when she was a maid.
George Sayer: And her mother wouldn't have been able to afford it.
JG: Right. So we landed on the amethyst, which is [a] stone of Korea, and sterling silver. It was the simplest thing that we could think of, which had some influences from Korea. It's something that she could have, that she could easily hide. And it's something that Benedict couldn't notice too easily. It had to be a very subtle little hint. We always said that it's a very tiny piece of jewelry, just like you said, that tells the story throughout the show. It couldn't be so obvious and so blatant that you'd get tired of looking at it. We almost want you to forget that she's wearing it or that it's there until she finds it again or shows it to you.
GS: We dealt with hiding it when we were designing the maids' uniforms; [we decided that] she would wear a fichu, so it could be hidden under that, [or we had] the panel of the maids be a high-necked uniform. There were always ways that we cheated it. And the chain length might have changed from time to time, just so it was out of shot. But it was a great idea to keep it as simple as it was, and I think it's perfect for the character. It was relatively easy to hide.
3. The maids' costumes
GS: That's a good question. We did.
JG: Actually, we did the maids completely. The Bridgerton ones. Because we knew that Sophie would have to wear one. She's the leading lady. She has to look pretty. So the design was changed. No one would ever notice that there was a change. It's very subtle. It's just a more, I don't want to say sexy but…
GS: It's the neckline. We just made it a little bit prettier.
JG: Prettier neckline, a different fabric. But you wouldn't notice is different.
GS: No, it's the same fabric.
JG: No, it's not. It's subtle changes that you wouldn't know. Even George doesn't know that it's a different fabric! It's a different fabric from the original maids.
GS: Okay. With regards to the other maids, the Cavender maids, we'd never seen that house before. When we did the Cavender maid, we wanted to design her so that she had that fichu to help tell part of the story.
So when she gets really soaking wet in the carriage, the tulle is wet against her chest. So it just, again, made it look a bit like a man in a wet shirt. It just made it look a little bit sexier. So that was a very conscious decision. And then when John was doing the Penwoods, you know, it's from an older house, it was a little bit more old-fashioned, so more high necks and more regimented. Overall, there were just very subtle nods between the maids' uniforms as we went.
4. The My Cottage dresses
JG: They were copies.
GS: We had to have repeats for the action that was going on in My Cottage, and particularly the mud splatters. I think we made six dresses and used two.
JG: That's a subtle thing, too, because the dresses that were made for her were to look like Daphne's from season one, which, believe it or not, is a different cut and silhouette from even season three, let alone four
GS: We did look at Daphne's, didn't we? But they were looking pretty tired.
JG: There's one dress that she wore, which was Francesca's actual dress.
GS: And there's a shawl, which is Daphne's, that no one has picked up on.
JG: That is actually from season one, and that's another Easter egg.
GS: So that's when she's flying the kite. She's got a Daphne shawl. But that was it. They were repeats for practicality, so we just found the tulle that looked like it would've worked in her world.
5. Cressida's return
GS: She's just so much fun.
JG: Every look of hers is fun and unique. She's a challenge because we don't see her that much. And you use the word “style,” and I always say a costume designer has the luxury of having scripts and time to develop a character through their clothes. A stylist only gets one chance. They have to tell that story with one outfit. That's kind of how Cressida is. Similar to Araminta, as well, you've got to hit it the first time and then continue it. She doesn't have a lot of space to grow, go backwards, or experiment. You've got to style her hard and right the first time. Because we don't see her that much, you can't travel backwards. You have to always keep her moving forward.
GS: Because obviously, we haven't seen her through the first part of the show, we wanted it to be really dramatic when you saw her. It was really great to get back to that character again. Over the seasons, she's got more and more [out there]. We ramped her up in season three quite a lot. This season, we've eased back a bit but made her more refined.
JG: She's become more refined, but extravagant at the same time.
DH: And when she comes back, she comes back with her toy boy, for goodness's sake.
JG: What did you think of her husband?
DH: You don't see him much.
JG: You could give her a poodle, and it would be the same thing.
DH: Well, he basically was.
6. The black outfits
JG: The funeral looks were all black. We did use black and off-black for all of those. George was in charge of Araminta. And if you look at Araminta's clothes, they're black, but there's so much texture and—
GS: —detail.
JG: They look black, but there's a lot of interest. If they were plain fabrics, you'd be bored out of your mind. But there are layers, textures, highlights, and shadows.
GS: And it was so much fun!
JG: Araminta also has a great new silhouette that no one else has worn.
GS: She had to be really tailored, and there needed to be an uptightness about her. We always said that her clothing was like her armor. She'd been through mourning twice, but she had now taken on black as her signature color. She was starting to own it.
JG: She's the most runway that you'll ever see. But she is wearing armor. Absolutely. And she's not evil. She's misunderstood.
GS: Regarding the other cast, they loved wearing black. It was the first time that they were all so enthusiastic about going into blacks when they came into the fittings.
JG: Even though somebody was dead, they were very [happy] to wear black.
GS: I know! And because we make so many clothes, it's always challenging to find new fabrics. So to be able to totally embrace black, it meant that suddenly there was this whole world of fabrics opened up to us. It was great.
JG: That we never use.
DH: Bridgerton Gothic.
DH: We were lucky in the respect that the scripts were referring to the fall and winter, almost. So personally, I really enjoyed doing the guys' overcoats, the long overcoats, and the top hats, because it created that graphic image of black, sharp, Gothic. For once. We very rarely get that chance, so I played it.
GS: Hyacinth had a funeral look that I really loved as well. It was very cute.
JG: I didn't like any of them.
GS: Yeah, he doesn't. I just do what I want.
JG: No, I'm kidding. Seriously, I liked seeing them all together because we've never seen a grouping of black silhouettes. It was nice to see hard silhouettes without fluff and air going through them. It was a nice change.
GS: And the location's amazing as well for that. So the whole thing was really dramatic.
JG: And guess what we're doing now?
GS: You're not allowed to say!
JG: Everything is red! [Laughs.]
DH: He's teasing.
7. Sophie's Sophie Gun look
JG: Well, in reality, they all would've had white kid gloves. The silver gloves, the gloves that she wears to the ball, are just a traditional glove. It's nothing out of place. We dressed her in blue because she's becoming a Bridgerton, so we had to follow that path a little bit with some blue.
The necklace change is because it's the first time that she's not a maid, it's the first time that she's not just Sophie, she's now part of the Bridgerton family. So we thought it would be a necklace that Lady Bridgerton would've lent her to go to the ball.
JG: They're a different glove, but they're the same [style].
GS: There's no Easter egg there! Those are our gloves. It's a good point. I might need to go look at images of it again, actually, but it wasn't a deliberate thing.
JG: What's interesting is that we talk about time. We made this a long time ago, and there was a conversation once where someone asked, "Would she wear the same gloves that she wore to the ball?" And it was like, "No, because they were her mother's."
GS: Her stepmother's.
JG: Her stepmother's, sorry. And that would cause confusion as to why she would. If she was hiding those gloves, how did she get them again? It becomes a whole steamroller.
DH: That's a big part of our job, actually. Deconstructing the script that we're given and then working out the logistics behind every move and every costume change because—
JG: —because people like you will ask that question. [Laughs.]
8. The wedding looks
JG: Yes, it was a country wedding, so that dictates the softer and more [relaxed looks].
DH: It's the nearest Bridgerton will ever come to Jane Austen. Right? Because it's set in his cottage. But also looking back to season three, we decided to have all the boys in a more traditional, although very Regency, runaway gown coat. And this was a great opportunity to show just Benedict and just Anthony in something a little more pushed towards the 1820s. We're showing a period of time travel here and maybe showing off what we might be leading to. So I wanted to give a hint of a new silhouette there. They are the only two that carry that almost-frock-coat flair to their coat. It was a chance to design, and it was great. I hope it came to fruition.
JG: Dougie mentioned Jane Austen. Jane Austen always takes place in the country. Bridgerton is actually one of the few shows that takes place in the city.
DH: Mayfair!
JG: So we've made up this city world. So when we went to the country for the wedding, we could be a little more realistic. A little more Jane Austen, just to show you the difference between the country and the city.
GS: That went right across the board on the other costumes as well. Sophie's borrowing a Daphne dress, but it's quite a simple dress. It's not like she's walking around in a whole load of diamonds, kicking up bits of mud and stuff. We tried to simplify that and simplify the Crabtrees. It just made it look more rural than we're used to doing.
DH: It was a sweet pastiche of a painting of that period. It was almost like you could unscrew the lens of the camera and put a soft focus lens on. It made it a little easier and a little more romantic, I guess. I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed watching it. It was great.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
