Sophie Canale interview: ‘Bridgerton’ costume designer
After working as an assistant costume designer for the first season of Netflix’s “Bridgerton,” Sophie Canale served as head costume designer for the blockbuster period drama’s second season. In an exclusive video interview with Gold Derby, Canale describes the excitement and the challenge in designing some of television’s most lavish fashions. “It was incredibly exciting,” she says. “It was really nice to take the reins and have this amazing foundation and then push everything a little bit further forward.” Watch the video of our webchat above.
The second season of “Bridgerton” follows eldest son Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) as he searches for a wife based on her suitability as a spouse and not based on love. Anthony thinks he’s found the perfect candidate in Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran), but Edwina’s older sister Kate (Simone Ashley) disapproves of the union, and Anthony finds himself both frustrated and fascinated by the elder Sharma sister.
This season’s introduction of the Sharma family gave Canale the change to bring different colors and tones into the costumes for the series. “It was taking, with Kate especially, the emeralds and jewel tones of India and putting those into her dresses and her Spencer jackets,” she explains. “And then [Edwina] is a softer character. She’s looking for love and used these pinks and lilacs and softer to match her sweeter and kind of naive personality.”
Canale also used colors to reflect changes in established characters, particularly for Anthony Bridgerton, whose character progressed from the more rakish playboy of season one to a darker, more repressed character in season two. Canale intentionally chose a darker color palette for the character this season to illustrate that change. “The colors represented his mood throughout, the serious and frustrated Anthony of season two,” she says.
Canale likens designing costumes for the series as “a military operation” involving a team of assistant designers and more than a hundred workers. Canale argues that organization was the key to everything running smoothly. “I design in quite a logistical way and it’s fast-thinking,” she says. “It’s decision-making and then sticking to the decisions.” However, Canale says that such difficulties are a crucial part of the work she loves. “I wouldn’t work in the industry if I didn’t like a challenge,” she claims.
