Queen Charlotte's Extravagant Afro in 'Bridgerton' Was Inspired by Beyoncé
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You can't talk about Netflix's runaway hit Bridgerton without talking about the hair. Full stop. While the Shonda Rhimes production has all the makings of a binge-worthy series—including an all-encompassing romance, steamy sex scenes, and the unavoidable drama and high-society gossip of the Regency era—the show's delectably exuberant wigs paired with lavish costuming make for the ultimate sartorial affair.
The show's head hair and makeup designer, Marc Pilcher, of course, took inspiration from official portraiture and historical images from England's Regency era, but he also looked to more modern influences, such as films from the '50s, Old Hollywood movie stars (like Audrey Hepburn), and even modern-day pop stars (such as Beyoncé) for the untraditional period romance.
Below, Pilcher breaks down the story behind the show's greatest standout looks, including Queen Charlotte's fabulous 'fro, Lady Marina's au naturel curls, and, of course, the much-debated micro bangs of Daphne Bridgerton.
Queen Charlotte's larger-than-life wigs honor her African descent.
"When we started filming, I actually had a conversation with Chris, the showrunner," Pilcher tells BAZAAR.com. "And he basically was like, '[The queen], she's got nothing left in her life. Her husband is a lunatic, and she's basically waiting for him to die. She's got nothing else to do but try clothes on and go to parties and balls.' So I said, 'Well, why don't we give her a different wig every time she goes to a ball and it would match her outfit?' What I also wanted to do was show her African descent, because when you look at portraits at the time, there were very few portraits of women of African descent with those looks.
"There was a particular look at the time, which was called the Gainsborough look, which was a really sort of wide wig similar to the film The Dutchess with Keira Knightley. She sports this kind of Gainsborough look in that film. And I was looking at some pictures, just going through stuff, and I was like, 'I've decided that I'm going to do that shape, but I'm going to base her on Beyoncé Knowles in Austin Powers.' So I was like, 'She's going to have the biggest 'fro that you've ever seen.'
"So we did it just like Beyoncé's with the sort of lovely coppery gold outside. That wig was literally five wigs sewn together. So we bought four Afro wigs and another one. So all the ringlets were based on one wig, and the other four we straightened, and then reset on kebab sticks to get the biggest, most amazing Afro that we could. And I remember the first time when she came to set and I was like, 'Have we gone too far?' You were just waiting for the producers to go, 'No.' But, of course, she walked out, and everyone was like, 'Oh, my God, you look amazing.'
"Obviously, we did a lot of looks with the locks and little cuffs and stuff, because they're just such a perfect thing to lend themselves to the shape of the period, but also celebrate her. That's what I wanted to do, just celebrate her and show that to everyone."
Marina Thompson's coils were totally natural.
"With Marina, when we spoke with Chris at the beginning, we were going through her background. And he was like, 'She's a country girl. She comes from a family that they have money, but we want to sort of reflect that she's a free spirit. She doesn't take any mess from anyone.' So we never set her hair. We would never constrain it or put curls in it. We wanted it to move freely. Even when she had those huge sort of styles when it came out, it was all just her natural curls falling just so they would move beautifully. We always wanted to keep her free and just totally natural. Even her makeup we kept very minimal. But she's a beautiful girl. She doesn't need much makeup."
Daphne's micro bangs are Hepburn-inspired.
"She was based on Audrey Hepburn in War and Peace. If you look at the images for that film, obviously, it was made in the 1950s, even though, again, it was a Regency period film. Initially, it was just a sort of small, straight bang that went all the way across. But then as we progressed, Chris wanted it to feel softer rather than a full bang. So that's why it sort of got split just to sort of sweep out the way to show more of her face. And then in later episodes, we cut more sort of feathery bits just to sort of loosen it up even more, because he wanted to see a progression of the softness of her as we went through—that's how they came about. Everyone's talking about the bangs."
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