00:00People who really watch the show and are huge fans of it will have lots of opinions about what the
00:04principals are wearing. Why did they pick that for her? She should have really been this.
00:09It's full of Easter eggs. The costumes don't follow the books, so if you're a die-hard fan
00:13of the books, you won't be happy. Don't expect to see any leprechauns.
00:18Hi, I'm Nick Collins. I'm the hair and makeup designer on Bridgerton season four.
00:23I'm Dougie Hawkes and I'm the associate costume designer looking after the men's costume.
00:28My name is George Sayre. I'm assistant designer for women's wear.
00:31My name is John Glazer and I'm considered the costume designer.
00:34He is the costume designer, okay? You just want to make that very clear.
00:37We're here in London to break down the masquerade ball looks in season four on Bridgerton.
00:52Bridgerton is set in the Regency era.
00:55Using Regency as a basis, but we transform from Regency to a fantasy Regency.
01:03But we can include periods that suit the style rather than suit accuracy.
01:10Our show started in 1813. We are now doing 1817, 1818. We'll be pushing into 1820 in the season five.
01:19It's all based on real research from the period, from the paintings and anything that we can get our
01:25hands on. Also, this season is the first time that we've had to deal with fall. We've had to make lots
01:29of coats and outerwear. We work really closely with our hair and makeup department and also the art
01:34department. When we find a costume, we'll send over images and swatches. Everything's got to work
01:40together, including the sets. The design for any character in the show always comes from the script
01:46and who the character is, what their background is, what their story arc is. And then we create mood boards
01:53for the look of that character to tell their story or their journey.
01:57One thing that Nick always says is that in the beginning, once she establishes a hairstyle for a character,
02:03it pretty much maintains throughout the season. It's the clothing that is always evolving, but the
02:08hairstyle basically stays the same. Unless you're the queen.
02:10Unless you're the queen, it changes every week. Season four, Bridgerton wigs, I would not be able
02:17to put a number on how many wigs we have made. It's in the hundreds. We started with a masquerade ball,
02:24and I think there was at least 100 to 150 wigs just for that one event. We made three dresses.
02:33What did you make? Four. We just redressed them a lot.
02:37Principal costumes that are distinctive, we can't use them again, so they get repurposed
02:44and maybe get passed on to background. It's a constant building of stock. So what we've effectively
02:50done over the last six, seven years is create a costume house. Because our style is so distinctive,
02:58it's really hard to go and hire it anyway, because it's not your traditional Regency costume.
03:03Let's call it Bridgerton accuracy. It's based on something, but it's been Bridgitized.
03:09That's good. I like that. It's pretty good.
03:15When I found out that the first event would be the masquerade ball for season four, we were really
03:21excited. It was great as a new team coming in to go straight into that level of creativity. It's
03:29Regency characters go into a ball in fancy dress, the version of what their fancy dress would look
03:36like. So it really is eclectic. Each person has their own unique style for this ball or character
03:44that they base their costume upon. If you went to a real masquerade ball today,
03:48some people would come in their street clothes and some people would go crazy and have their
03:52costumes. And that's what we wanted to show. Just that.
03:54Even though it looks fanciful, it's based on what we thought people from the time would actually do.
04:01We began our research looking at other masquerades that have been portrayed in film and television
04:09to see ideas or good things or bad things. It could have been Regency or it could have been
04:16Georgian. We even did like a sixties wig. The different styling with the wigs all came from
04:22different periods for the last kind of 500 years. We had to dress, including principles, probably
04:28outward of 180 to 200. For the principal characters, with the writers and us, we came up with themes for
04:35them. With the masquerade, you have to think about how they're going to stay on. Because the actor
04:42wouldn't want to be able to have to stay in the mask for 12 hours filming a day. Some of the masks
04:47were put on sticks. Some of them are tied into the wigs and the hairstyle. We had to think about
04:53the makeup and also we had to think about how the mask fits the face shape to be comfortable for that
05:00longer time of filming. We were really excited about doing it. It's a really good way to open a season.
05:05And the whole team were really on board with it. It created a great energy. Yeah. All our makers were
05:11really excited to be doing something different and they could go wild with it. It wasn't difficult
05:16to hire people. Everybody heard that we were going to open with a mask ball. Everybody wanted to work
05:21with us. So it was great. I would give anything to go to a ball. So now we're going to look at some of
05:26the costumes from the masquerade. I wanted to see Benedict in a black costume because it was going to play off
05:33against him seeing the visionary of the silver lady. My concept was a poet, writer, artist. So I used
05:41Shakespeare as that historical character to base this on. He arrives in a very disheveled way as a
05:48devil may care character on horseback. So hence a riding coat, which he normally wears anyway in his
05:56riding boots. However, in his disheveled way, he still has a very dangerous and dashing edge to him.
06:08So this dress originally in the book belonged to Sophie's grandmother. Initially we played around
06:16with an earlier style dress and it just didn't work for us and it didn't work for the producers. So we
06:22then brought it forward to Regency and it became her aunt's dress. So there's not much time difference
06:28between the two of them. And we also wanted to avoid the traditional Cinderella dress with the big
06:34skirts. And so we thought by going Regency, it kind of makes a difference between what everything
06:39everybody's seen before and traditionally thinks of the Cinderella. Benedict has to really notice her
06:44stand out at the ball, but we wanted there to be a simplicity about her dress that would also help
06:50her stand out from everyone else. And the starting point was finding the base fabric actually. We
06:55worked with a company in Italy who designed the overlay and then onto that we worked onto the surface
07:04incorporating vintage pieces and contemporary embellishments with our amazing embellishment team.
07:12And because Sophie was to have made the mask for her sisters and we started off with a much
07:19smaller mask. But it was discussed that Benedict couldn't recognize who she was so we had to cover
07:26the whole face. And this is the glove that came from the attic and this is the little family crest.
07:30This is what gives them the clue as to where the person that wore this dress came from. One of the
07:35smallest things that we do forget about is this little necklace which was given to Sophie by her mother
07:42and it's amethyst which is the stone of Korea at the time. It's a little item that travels through the
07:49entire season and it tells a long story. These are two characters in the book. We picked them out as
07:57being very good characters. They're a very powerful couple in the production so we wanted to bring that
08:03also onto the floor of the masquerade ball. We actually wanted a nod towards the 60s movie which we really
08:09stuck to quite well. I thought it was quite good. I'm honoured to say my father worked on that movie
08:14so it was a nice nod really to incorporate a little bit of the colour that was used on Richard Burton's
08:21costume on this costume. With Cleopatra after we'd done the initial research a fabric supplier that we
08:28use actually had this fabric and it had been woven and beaded with us in mind pre us actually having
08:37the script. Once our buyers found this it was amazing. It was like finding the Holy Grail.
08:42So the shape of it is also dictated by the pattern. John wanted Cleopatra's jewellery to reflect the
08:48colour of the Kent house which is why we've got this light pale turquoise and the dark lapis lazuli is
08:54kind of more ancient Egyptian. And it all ties in with the, yeah so it brings the couple closer together.
09:02In any historical reference we don't see Antony and Cleopatra wearing masks.
09:08Being a masquerade ball we looked at funeral masks. Classical mask but with classic embellishment here.
09:14And again this is a situation where the collaboration with hair and makeup is very important because
09:20this costume, even though it's pretty, doesn't make any sense unless you see the mask and you
09:25see Cleopatra's wig. Yeah the wig was fantastic. Let's have a look at some of Queen Charlotte's wigs.
09:33This is the wig for the masquerade ball for Queen Charlotte. The outside of the wig is created with
09:39twisted hair and this is to represent the universe and the stars. George was very much into astronomy.
09:47Inside is a little replica of one of Queen Charlotte's crowns that was given to her by George
09:55and we've replicated it out of hair. One question we are always asked is about the weight of these wigs.
10:01We try to make them as light as possible and the cages really help us out. As you can see with this wig
10:09the cage is actually incorporated into the wig. Underneath all of these are cages. The process
10:17of making these wigs starts with the design. From the design a cage maker comes in and builds the cage
10:24which is what holds the hair. There's a lot of hair to put on these. Then the design is broken down
10:30into elements. It can take six to eight weeks to make all the elements and then eventually when all
10:37elements are ready the wig is assembled together and styled. She has 19 wigs all together in this
10:44season. This wig is created for Igbo braids which are a traditional braid which represents strength
10:52and pride which I think absolutely fits for the Queen. This wig is one of the more traditional wigs
10:58of the styling. It's got the waves and at the back it's covered in hair feathers. All these feathers
11:05were made from hair. It took a lot of labor to make all these feathers. The masquerade ball wig
11:12probably gave us the most sleepless nights because we wanted to create this cage out of hair
11:18but how do we actually get it to stand by itself? It is hair. Anyway we worked out a magic formula
11:25and as you can see it stands by itself.
11:27I'm really hoping that the viewer just aesthetically thinks it's like a dream. It doesn't matter where
11:37the camera moves there's something to visually look at and in awe. Some of the style in the costumes,
11:44the detail, the room itself is beautiful, the interactions. It was the costumes, it was the set,
11:51it was the lighting, it was the hair, it was the makeup. It's absolutely worth every minute of hard
11:56work. The finished result is quite spectacular.
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