In celebration of Bridgerton's second season premiere, L'OFFICIEL looks back on an interview with&nbsp;costume designer Ellen Mirojnick prior to the show's debut in 2020 about how she brought a modern twist to 1800s Regency fashion.

From <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/the-crown-season-four-fashion-princess-diana" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Crown&rsquo;s</a> latest season to <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/the-queens-gambit-prada-costumes-anya-taylor-joy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Queen&rsquo;s Gambit</a>, Netflix&rsquo;s recent releases have seen some spot-on period costuming, and now its latest offering brings the British Regency Era into the mix. <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/bridgerton-season-2-teaser-spoilers-trailer-netflix-streaming" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bridgerton</a>, out on the streaming site today, presents a steamy story of London&nbsp;high society and courtship, punctuated by equally romantic and rich clothes. The series is produced by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/business/media/shonda-rhimes-netflix-series.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shonda Rhimes&rsquo; Shondaland</a>&ndash;known for binges like Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy and Scandal&ndash;and based on Julia Quinn&rsquo;s best-selling novels, promising to deliver the tantalizing drama of both creators.
Centered around Daphne Bridgerton&rsquo;s (<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/phoebe-dynevor-bridgerton-actress-interview" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Phoebe Dynevor</a>) search for a husband, the eldest daughter of the elite Bridgerton family soon finds herself devising a plan with the incomparably handsome Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings (Reg&eacute;-Jean Page), and navigating the high-society social scene that&rsquo;s carefully monitored by Lady Whistledown, a 19th-century Gossip Girl-like figure (narrated by Julie Andrews).

Bridgerton | Official Trailer | Netflix

Across Bridgerton&rsquo;s eight episodes, Costume Designer <a href="https://www.instagram.com/byellenm/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ellen Mirojnick</a> (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, The Greatest Showman) was tasked with creating thousands of Regency dress costumes. Before construction could begin on the garments, she put together an all-star team that included illustrators, pattern cutters, embellishers, milliners, a jewelry department, and people who specialize in aging, dying, and distressing. According to Mirojnick, the undertaking was the biggest in scale she&rsquo;s ever worked on, and she and her colleagues John Glaser, John Norster, and Ken Crouch essentially had to build their own costume house.

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Mirojnick, who previously worked on Rhimes&rsquo; <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/viola-davis-cover-winter-2018" target="_blank">How to Get Away With Murder</a> and Still Star-Crossed, then dove into creating the 1813-appropriate fashion, but within the Shondaland canon. &ldquo;The Shondaland aesthetic usually errs on aspiration, beauty, and lusciousness in a way that makes the modern audience want to be in the story,&rdquo; the designer tells L&rsquo;OFFICIEL. For Bridgerton, this meant producing visually-rich costumes that spared no expense when it came to candy-colored silks and Swarovski embellishments.

In order to strike the right balance between historical and modern, Mirojnick first researched the styles of the Regency period and found that its empire waist dresses would be her starting point. Once she had this foundation, her team could begin playing with ways to make the pieces stand out on screen and make the fashion more appealing to today&rsquo;s audience. &ldquo;We chose that we needed to shift our period by palette and by fabrication,&rdquo; Mirojnick says. &ldquo;We made it vibrant, and in terms of fabrication we didn&rsquo;t shy away from anything. We learned that silks and fancy fabrics from France were not imported in 1813 Regency because of the war, so they only used very thick cottony fabrics. That wasn&rsquo;t for us.&rdquo; Instead, saturated and opulent silks and layered fabrications brought more depth to the costumes.&nbsp;The artwork of Irish painter <a href="https://www.instagram.com/genievefiggis/" target="_blank">Genieve Figgis</a> also served as a contemporary inspiration for the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/the-witches-movie-anne-hathaway-costumes-designer-interview" target="_blank">costume designer</a>, whose colorful works often portray life in high-society.

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For the color palette, Mirojnick used&nbsp;clean and cool tones to differentiate the well-established Bridgerton family from the new-money Featheringtons. &ldquo;The Bridgertons are very aristocratic, of the highest social level, and they are very pristine, pretty, and powdery, so their colors are rich but simple,&rdquo; Mirojnick explains. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a specificity that is as elegant as <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion-week/dior-fall-2020-runway-show" target="_blank">Dior</a> or <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/shop-matthew-williams-first-givenchy-collection-teaser" target="_blank">Givenchy</a> in the old days, and also some elements of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/celebrating-over-a-century-of-chanel-s-parisian-chic" target="_blank">Chanel</a>. But all very clean, and none of it is trendy.&rdquo;

The Featheringtons, on the other hand, are seen in lively and vivid colors. &ldquo;They are new money, not educated as being part of the upper crust of society but they want to be accepted into it,&rdquo; the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/the-witches-movie-anne-hathaway-costumes-designer-interview" target="_blank">costume designer</a> says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all citrusy and acidy, with brazen colors for the time period. As a group, they&rsquo;re quite brazen and bold, very purposely Versace-esque.&rdquo;

Besides specific colors, each family also has special insignia that set them apart. The Bridgertons&rsquo; symbol is a bee, and the Featheringtons&rsquo; is a butterfly. According to Mirojnick, Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) wears bee-encrusted waistcoats, while Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) displays the butterfly motif either as a necklace or, in one ball scene, as the embroidered bodice of a gown.

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Amid the two main families in the series, the Duke of Hastings stands out as a prince charming figure with bachelor habits&ndash;he&rsquo;s sworn off marriage, but that doesn&rsquo;t keep the maidens and mothers surrounding him from trying to secure his hand. He has a worldliness to him that Mirojnick translated through a slightly different approach. The Duke wears gold-embellished waistcoats and velvet jackets, because &ldquo;he&rsquo;s traveled the world and has come back to London, so he brings with him another sensibility,&rdquo; she says. His dark and mature palette provides a contrast to Daphne&rsquo;s frothy pieces, pointing towards the dynamic of their relationship. Mirojnick adds, &ldquo;He has a sexuality to him.&rdquo;

'Bridgerton' Costume Designer Brings High Fashion Influences to Shonda Rhimes' Regency Era

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