BEHIND THE SEAMS OF 'BRIDGERTON' JOHN GLASER COSTUME DESIGNER REVEALS SECRETS OF THE SHOW'S LOOK

Its candy-coloured costumes are one of the reasons for the runaway success of Netflix’s risqué Regencyinspired drama Bridgerton.

- GEORGIA BROWN

But when its lead costume designer John Glaser talks to Hello! in this exclusive interview, he reveals that it’s modern style icons who inspired the programme’s empire bustlines and sherbet-hued attire.

“As a costume department, we had nothing tangible as a basis for our designs,” he says.

“In the 1800s, there were only paintings, so we had to turn to influential fashion muses instead. We used icons like Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly.”

And John, who has also worked on Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, Gotham and My Best Friend’s Wedding, reveals that high-profile families provided further ideas: “The Versaces being the Featheringtons and the Bridgertons being like the Kennedys.”

Or indeed, the Middletons, as John’s assistant costume designer adds, revealing that the Princess of Wales’s family was a loose source of inspiration for the Bridgerton family’s baby-blue aesthetic.

When John was first called in to work on Shonda Rhimes’s debut Netflix series, he did so in tandem with costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, who stitched more than 7,500 garments for season one.

“We knew what Shonda’s vision was, but to physically turn it into a reality was something we didn’t know how to tackle yet,” John says.