Bridgerton Season 3: All the Hidden Meanings in the Hair, Makeup, and Costumes

LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX

The long-awaited Bridgerton season three is nearly here, dearest gentle readers, and when it does arrive, you’ll find the Ton are busier than ever. Kate (Simone Ashley) and Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) Bridgerton are very much enjoying their newlywed bliss. His sister Francesca (Hannah Dodd), meanwhile, makes her debut into society and quickly catches the eye of a potential love interest. It seems Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) may have also found a potential suitor herself.

But nothing, absolutely nothing, could be more interesting about Bridgerton season 3 than the glow-up of Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton.

Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton are unquestionably hot people in real life, but their characters were always dressed so…dorky. (And that’s putting it nicely.) That was the point—in the books, Penelope finally starts choosing clothes without her mother’s influence and is all the better for it—but still, the contrast between seasons is startling.

On the show, we have costume designer John Glaser and hair and makeup designer Erika Ökvist to thank for their transformations into leading lady and leading man.

“In season one, the clothes told you who the character was right away,” Glaser says of Penelope. “We know the character, we know who she is. Now it's ‘Let her be the character, not the clothing.’ Let her shine.”

Shine, indeed. At the start of the season, Penelope gives herself a makeover, spending all that Lady Whistledown money on clothes in more flattering shades. This new attire also coincides with a new attitude: She’s determined this season to marry and starts gaining more confidence as she steps outside of her comfort zone. Colin, meanwhile, returns from his travels abroad with more swagger and fewer ruffles. It’s a good look on him, to say the least.

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Below, Ökvist and Glaser break down all the secrets behind the Bridgerton season three hair, makeup, and outfits.

Penelope’s season three glow-up was inspired by Old Hollywood.

According to Glaser, the costume mood board for a Bridgerton character always has three things: a historic reference, a fashion reference from 1950 to today, and a piece of artwork. “It could be anybody’s painting, from an Old Master up to Andy Warhol or Robert Motherwell,” says Glaser. “Whatever inspires us.”

For Penelope's new look in season three, the inspiration was 1950s movie sirens like Marilyn Monroe. Ökvist says she started by studying Nicola Coughlan’s face to figure out what would be the most flattering. “I just felt Old Hollywood would be the best—like Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, all of them,” she says. “Nicola was quite happy with that look.”

Glaser then carried that vision through to the clothes. “We actually veered off from 1813 and went a little into the future to 1820,” Glaser says. “By the time we get to episode four, we’ve really gone to the maximum of that shape with her waist and bust.” The reasoning? The shape of dresses in 1820 more closely resembles that of evening gowns in the 1950s. And now that Penelope gets her dresses straight from Paris via Madame Delacroix, of course she’s dressing in the very latest of fashions.

Glaser also wanted to show that Penelope is feeling more confident and sexy in her clothes, especially as the season progresses. “We tried, because of what her character is doing, to show as much skin as possible,” he says. “That’s why a lot of her sleeves and gloves are transparent. Even her small gloves are just hints—hints of jewelry, hints of gloves, so we see her skin and body shape.”

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Adds Ökvist, “We want the hair and makeup and the costume to be like a visual symphony. It’s using the colors that are most flattering for her and each specific look. The main thing for her is her flawless skin, to make that look like melted butter, really. It’s just absolutely beautiful.

The first look that she’s got is something that she’s been told about by the modistes, and then she will develop that and sophisticate that until she becomes the look of the woman that she eventually becomes when she finds herself.”

But don’t read too much into the colors Penelope chooses for her new wardrobe.

“This year we wanted to make the show look textural, like a flower garden, with colors that ombré from dark to light, shadows to highlights,” Glaser says. “Lots of texture and softness.”

This new color palette is a big contrast from how Penelope previously dressed. “In the books, it states that her mother dresses her in citrus colors,” says Glaser. “So when they don’t have any money, they’re wearing old clothes. They’re repeating clothes, and they’re the most vile colors that you could imagine.” Glaser says he intentionally chose the most extreme versions of this ahead of Penelope’s big makeover in season three. “It’s kind of hard not to notice a difference.”

Once Penelope takes her style into her own hands, she—with the help of the modiste—selects colors in more neutral shades of blues and greens. She then reveals her new look at the first ball of the season. “It’s got references to green for the Featheringtons,” says Glaser. “It’s got the copper color, which helps pull in her wig color, and a larger motif from 1820. And then, of course, black sheer gloves. That's the darkest version we’ll ever see of her. That’s her first tryout.”

As the season goes on and Penelope starts developing her own style, the colors become a bit more neutral. There are a few reasons behind that. For one, Glaser says, Coughlan is in nearly every scene. “We don’t want to overpower the audience with color and clothing,” he explains. “We want the actress and character to come through. It also allows her to still be a little bit of a wallflower if she wants to, because she's still writing.”

The colors also reflect a garden—you’re not meant to really know what color each dress is. “It could be blue, it could be green,” Glaser says. “We didn’t want to influence people’s perceptions as to, ‘Oh, she’s wearing blue because it’s Bridgerton, or she’s wearing green because it reflects…’”

At other points in the season, her colors fall into the same palette of Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) and Eloise (Claudia Jessie). “It puts them all on equal landing for a few moments in the story,” Glaser says. “We didn’t want to foretell anything, so we just kept it pretty.”

Penelope didn’t dye her hair—Nicola Coughlan is actually wearing the same wig color in seasons one, two, and three.

You wouldn’t be the first to think that Penelope’s makeover included a new, more attractive shade of red. But no, that’s just the power of choosing the right colors for your complexion. “It’s exactly the same as it was in season one,” Ökvist confirms.

“She's wearing the same wig in season one, two, and three,” she continues. “Obviously, in season one, with all those oranges and yellows that she's wearing, the hair looks more red and her face looks more ruddy because it reflects straight back up into her face. Yellow is not naturally her best color, let me put it that way.”

But in colors that are more flattering for her skin tone and eye color, she looks stunning. “Even though she’s wearing the same wig, the cool, really nice neutral blues and greens make this quite bright red look more elegant and sophisticated,” Ökvist says.

“It’s the first time that she’s worn red lipstick because it’s the first time that she could wear it,” adds Glaser. “It’s appropriate for the character, plus if she was wearing a yellow dress or a bright green dress she couldn’t wear red lipstick. Now it allows Erika to do that.”

Meanwhile, Colin’s season three look is cowboy-inspired.

“Penelope's glow-up was Hollywood glamour,” says Glaser. “But Colin’s glow-up was what I felt a young girl would like to see—a cowboy, the Marlboro Man, somebody who’s traveled, somebody that’s riding a horse.” Not a white knight in shining armor, he clarifies, but “that guy who’s going to come in and sweep you off your feet.”

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You can see this in Colin Bridgerton’s first look of the season, when he gets off the boat in England. “We kept those elements of the long coat and the swagger and movement like a pirate,” Glaser says. “He’s like Errol Flynn. Somebody that’s pretty dapper but not wearing nice suits. We also took away a lot of the ruffles, anything that was feminine, and kept everything that was as masculine as we could on him.”

OK, but when did Colin have the time to work out?

If Penelope’s makeover was as simple as choosing better colors, apparently all Colin needed to get that leading man glow was a new haircut and some new shirts. “In seasons one and two, we emphasized everything round,” Ökvist says. “His hair was quite round. His face had the ruffles around the neck and jawline, so we couldn't really see this chiseled jaw that [Luke Newton] does have.”

That is a really good haircut. But as it turns out, Colin has also some newfound rizz/BDE/whatever you want to call it that’s making him so hot. “He’s gone away, matured, and come back as a man both physically and mentally,” Ökvist says. “When somebody has got that, that’s when they’ve got swagger and are sexy. You don't have to hide it. You can let them show it.”

Francesca has her own defined style now too.

This season Francesca Bridgerton has been recast, with Hannah Dodd taking over the role from Ruby Stokes. The move also comes with a bigger storyline for the character as well as some style upgrades.

“She is a Bridgerton,” Glaser says of the character. “She looks like a princess. We went right to Grace Kelly and based her look on elegance and mystery.” Adds Ökvist, “For us, it was Grace Kelly mixed with Daphne Bridgerton a little bit.”

That connection to Daphne came through in her clothes as well. “We had her repeat Daphne's presentation gowns to show that there was a family history and some family heirloom going on,” says Glaser. However, he intentionally kept her clothes from being too specific because they didn't want to do any fortune telling about the character’s story.

With a few exceptions, of course: “If you notice, she wears a lot of sheer blouses and smoky colors so she's got a little mystery to her,” Glaser says. “She’s a slightly different silhouette than the other Bridgertons because she’s been away. We wanted to show that she’s been someplace else and maybe has a different style. Her mother hasn’t taken her to the modiste—she’s been doing this on her own.”

Anna Moeslein is the deputy editor at Glamour and a devoted Bridgerton fan. Read her cover story with star Simone Ashley as well as her guide to the novels by Julia Quinn.

Originally Appeared on Glamour