Bridgerton has 7,500 stunning costumes

Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick shares the monumental effort it took to bring the Netflix series to life.

bridgerton was no small feat. Shonda Rhimes went all-in for her debut Netflix series, a glamorous period piece set in 1813 Regency England, complete with royals, towering mansions, elaborate balls, and elaborate marriage ceremonies. A large ensemble brought Rhimes’ intricate, delicate drama to life. So how did you dress them all in lavish, exquisite 19th-century costumes? “The real challenge was, how do you create this world, logistically, in its reality?” costume designer Ellen Mirojnick tells BAZAAR.com.

What made the process easier was having a pre-existing relationship and “aesthetic compatibility” with Shondaland. “[With] something this size, it was comforting to know that we were on the same page,” Mirojnick says. Her costume team and the production company worked closely together to keep track of what pieces were needed, what was being made, and how they were going to be made.

For Mirojnick, the challenge wasn’t just the size of the cast, but the depth of the story. In just eight episodes, there will be ten balls, which requires a lot of dresses, tiaras, and tails. “Even though we’re fictionalizing the Regency era, 1813, there’s still a fundamental truth there. Meaning the girls change their clothes a lot,” she says. “They wear a different dress for each ball, in addition to the number of dresses that will be worn from morning to night. So we just knew that it was going to be a very, very big effort.”

“Basically, in total, including our main wardrobe, there were 7,500 costume pieces,” Mirojnick told BAZAAR. That number refers to individual items, not entire outfits, such as the multiple layers that make up a dress or a piece of outerwear. “It’s like cooking,” she explained. “You need to have enough material to be able to make the necessary costume.”

But the number is still staggering. Mirojnick believes that the main characters alone had around a thousand pieces of fabric, including items like gowns, lingerie, and more. The main female character Daphne Bridgerton, played by Phoebe Dynevor, went through 104 costume changes.
Mirojnick’s team hired five pattern makers and tailors to create and make costumes for the main characters, as well as two seamstresses. “Everything was basically custom-made, and there was a lot of hand embroidery, beading, I mean, it was a pretty sparkly show,” she says.

For the background costumes, the team had to create their own costume house, with costumes from companies around the world, including Angel Costume Company in the UK, Peris Costume Company in Spain, Tirelli Costumi in Italy, and even some manufacturers in New York. They used this warehouse to make costumes for background characters, extras, and, if needed, quick changes for the main characters.

Don’t forget the jewelry. Jewelry was sourced from dealers in New York, Italy, and the UK. A jewelry artist and designer, Lorenzo Mancianti, was also on the team, creating pieces throughout the show. The crowns were sourced from Italy and the UK, and the main characters’ crowns came from the Swarovski Archives.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’ve never [seen anything] like this,” Mirojnick said. “I guess it goes back to Ben Hur and Cleopatra and the Biblical epics, but now we’re in Regency England and the numbers are just as big.”