Latest / The Art of Costume Podcast / Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story with Costume Designers Lyn Paolo and Laura Frecon

Transcript

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story with Costume Designers Lyn Paolo and Laura Frecon · The Art of Costume Podcast

• 0:11
  One day you would walk in and you'd think, Oh my God, this
• 0:14
  amazing jewelry. It's fantastic.
• 0:16
  We'll be fine. And then I would turn to Laura
• 0:18
  and go. Yeah, it's all gone more and
• 0:22
  what are we going to do? Who's who can we hire to make
• 0:25
  more jewelry? And it was, it was sort of
• 0:27
  desperate to the point where the production manager couldn't
• 0:30
  believe that we were ordering more.
• 0:43
  Hello and welcome to the Arctic costume.
• 0:44
  I was with Joy Glass. And I am Lord Spencer.
• 0:48
  Hey, hey, Elizabeth. Hey, Spencer, How's it going?
• 0:52
  It's going cuz I could use Lord in this episode.
• 0:54
  I feel like it's finally right. Ah, just abandoning all that
• 1:00
  patriotism after two episodes. You know it's right.
• 1:04
  To be a Lord. How's it going, Elizabeth?
• 1:09
  How's the how's the play going? It's stressful.
• 1:13
  No, it's fun. It's fun.
• 1:14
  It's it's Tech Week, so there's just a lot, a lot happening.
• 1:20
  Yeah, we're literally recording like in between.
• 1:23
  Scenes for Elizabeth. Right here, she barely had a
• 1:25
  moment for me. So we're we're making it count
• 1:27
  today. I was.
• 1:29
  Like I have too much to do. Well, I've also been very busy.
• 1:34
  I only have two episodes of succession left, so I'm really
• 1:39
  working on some. Serious stuff here.
• 1:43
  Get it? I can't wait to talk to you
• 1:44
  about it. Ah, it's so good.
• 1:46
  I just, yeah, I'm stressed out. Only two episodes left.
• 1:50
  I've been really milking this show.
• 1:52
  I've been watching. I've it started it, Yeah, it
• 1:56
  started right before the new season, and it's been like an
• 1:58
  episode every four days at this rate.
• 2:01
  So. Get it together.
• 2:05
  But I'm so excited for today's episode because we're talking
• 2:09
  about a show that I absolutely fell in love with.
• 2:13
  And I have to say, it's kind of unexpected for how much I love
• 2:16
  the show. Same.
• 2:18
  So this week we watched Coween Charlotte A Bridgerton Story
• 2:26
  Spencer. So good.
• 2:28
  The way I might have liked this more than Bridgerton.
• 2:32
  I know. So I actually finished it this
• 2:35
  morning and then I spent the rest of the afternoon crying a
• 2:39
  little bit. It was just so good, so
• 2:41
  powerful, so happy. And I don't like, unlike in
• 2:45
  Bridgerton, I feel like like the stakes were very high for both
• 2:48
  of them. Yeah, like if this didn't work,
• 2:51
  it was a huge issue. Right, I believed in.
• 2:55
  Love for like. You know, 25 minutes.
• 2:58
  So that was nice. Good, good.
• 3:00
  But then it's also so funny because I'm like, we literally
• 3:03
  just watched Hamilton and it's literally the same King George
• 3:06
  and I'm just like, but is it? I know I need to pick up a
• 3:10
  textbook because to me, I'm like, there's no way that
• 3:13
  handsome man is the same one that was spitting up on Lin
• 3:16
  Manuel Miranda and the Disney Plus show.
• 3:21
  I yeah, it's actually funny. Once me and my brother, we we
• 3:25
  drove up to Maine to visit my sister and we listened to like
• 3:29
  an audio book about like the start of the American
• 3:32
  Revolution. And the King George they
• 3:35
  described in that was much more like the King George in Queen
• 3:38
  Charlotte, where he was just kind of like, I don't know.
• 3:42
  He's just, he's farmer, Farmer George, he's.
• 3:45
  Farmer George, he's still like, I just want to plant my plants
• 3:48
  and live my life. Yeah, you guys have too much
• 3:51
  drama. You figure the rest out on your
• 3:54
  own. Well with that, as Elizabeth
• 3:57
  mentioned, you know we the first two episodes of our Patriotic
• 4:04
  Heroes and Crowns month, we stayed in the United States of
• 4:10
  Captain America. Alexander Hamilton, Well, now we
• 4:13
  are traveling overseas to talk about some royal costumes and
• 4:18
  what our way then to start with one of the biggest shows on in
• 4:22
  TV right now. And it's definitely an Emmy
• 4:25
  nominee. And I'm so excited to say that
• 4:28
  we also have some insight from the two incredible costume
• 4:31
  designers who brought the show to life.
• 4:34
  So Elizabeth, I think you should start us off with a little
• 4:37
  summary for Queen Charlotte. I will Spencer.
• 4:40
  I will read the lovely summary you wrote.
• 4:44
  Did you write it? Yeah, well, you know, here and
• 4:49
  there. The Truth against her will to
• 4:52
  King George Charlotte arrives in London on her wedding day and
• 4:57
  faces scrutiny from the monarch's cunning mother.
• 5:01
  The young Queen's marriage to King George of England ushers in
• 5:04
  an epic love story and transforms high society.
• 5:09
  Wow, that's beautiful. Thank you.
• 5:12
  Thank you. Let's dive behind the costumes.
• 5:17
  Queen Charlotte Bridgerton Story was directed by Tom Verrica and
• 5:21
  created by the Shonda Rhimes. Yes.
• 5:25
  The costumes were designed by none other than the Lynn Paolo
• 5:30
  and Co costume designer Laura Fraycon.
• 5:33
  You will know Lynn for her work on, you know, just some small
• 5:36
  shows here and there like. The West Wing, ER Scandal, How
• 5:41
  to Get Away with Murder, Shameless and Inventing.
• 5:45
  Anna and Laura on the other hand, worked as a Co costume
• 5:49
  designer on inventing Anna with Lynn as well as was a assistant
• 5:53
  costume designer on True Blood, How to Get Away with Murder
• 5:57
  Kong, Skull Island. Which is a great movie.
• 5:59
  By the way, and Fast and the Furious presents Hobbs and Shaw
• 6:04
  So. Elizabeth When I was getting
• 6:07
  ready to interview Lynn Paolo and Laura Fracon, I was super
• 6:12
  stoked. But like, for some reason it did
• 6:14
  connect with me who Lynn Paolo was, especially at the moment
• 6:18
  because I was like, oh, OK, you know, like she worked on Queen
• 6:22
  Charlotte. And I like just like did a quick
• 6:24
  Google search. I was like, oh, it's Lynn Paolo.
• 6:27
  And I got instantly like terrified.
• 6:32
  Like I did connect the dots and. So this episode's going to be a
• 6:37
  little bit different and we are going to play my interview with
• 6:40
  Lynn and Laura. Such a great interview.
• 6:43
  And after the interview, plays stick around because when we
• 6:46
  come back, then Elizabeth and I are going to play our favorite
• 6:48
  game and talk about some of the costumes from Queen Charlotte.
• 6:52
  It's such a great show, so many different costumes.
• 6:55
  I mean, we could go on and on and on probably with this
• 6:58
  episode. I'm so excited I listened to the
• 7:02
  interview. It's so good.
• 7:04
  I just can't wait to talk about it.
• 7:06
  With that, hit it, Daniel. I am so thrilled to.
• 7:35
  Welcome, Queen Charlotte A Bridgerton Story, costume
• 7:38
  designers Lynn Palo and Laura Fraycon.
• 7:42
  Hey, hey, lovely. To meet you.
• 7:44
  Hi. So excited to talk to you.
• 7:46
  Too I am. Obsessed with your work?
• 7:48
  And you know, I'm a big fan of Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte,
• 7:52
  so I'm really excited to talk to you too.
• 7:54
  I let's. Just start from the beginning
• 7:56
  and one of the very first scenes of the show, soon to be Queen
• 7:58
  Charlotte, is. Explaining to her brother.
• 8:01
  The strictness, the pain, the beauty that goes into her
• 8:04
  costumes, right? She's talking about the Wellbone
• 8:07
  and she said if I move too much, I might get stabbed and die.
• 8:09
  So immediately I was a big. Fan I'm like, this is exactly
• 8:13
  what I'm. Looking for?
• 8:15
  But then it dawned to. Me.
• 8:16
  This takes place, you know, before.
• 8:18
  Bridgerton So we're not exactly. Quite in that Regency era.
• 8:23
  So my first question, maybe I'll go to Lynn first.
• 8:25
  How would you define this period and what kind of?
• 8:28
  Research Were you 2? Doing preparing for the show.
• 8:31
  Well, thank you for the question and thank you for watching the
• 8:33
  show. Super exciting for us to have it
• 8:36
  out there in the world finally. Well, you know, we we did
• 8:39
  extensive, I mean exhausting research, read books, did all
• 8:44
  the usual stuff, you know, all the things that costume
• 8:46
  designers do cuz we're all a little bit crazy.
• 8:50
  If we are deep, deep dive into the period, and I actually love
• 8:54
  this period, I I I'm actually preferred over Regency to be
• 8:58
  honest. And then after we did that deep
• 9:01
  dive into the world, the real world, we then did an even
• 9:06
  deeper dive into fashion like Dior Charles James, How could we
• 9:12
  create a more youthful version to our modern eye for young
• 9:16
  Charlotte? And how can we address the
• 9:19
  dichotomy between the old ton and the new ton?
• 9:23
  So that's where we started. And then we end up doing
• 9:25
  sketches and sending things to Shonda and explaining our
• 9:29
  palette to her. So it was, it was sort of the
• 9:31
  normal process she would do as a costume designer but on steroids
• 9:36
  almost because you know we had two periods to deal with and it
• 9:40
  was I, I actually, this show is an amazing gift.
• 9:44
  I mean, or you would agree, wouldn't you?
• 9:46
  Looking back at it's a once in a lifetime experience for me.
• 9:51
  I just can't even. It still feels surreal that we
• 9:55
  did this show and we, you know, spent a year and a half of our
• 9:58
  lives working on this. I can't imagine.
• 10:01
  I mean, so Laura, how would you? Define this period Because to
• 10:04
  me, I mean immediately was like, wow.
• 10:06
  This is over the top. This is.
• 10:08
  To me the most difficult kind of period costuming it is master
• 10:11
  class level costuming. So how would you define it?
• 10:14
  Well, I mean, it starts with the underpinnings for I think, I
• 10:18
  mean everything, every, every single thing.
• 10:21
  And corsets, it's Pannier's, it's stockings.
• 10:25
  The stockings are embroidered. The shoes have embellishment,
• 10:30
  you know, at just everything I'm trying to think.
• 10:33
  Then there's a shift that goes underneath the corset body
• 10:37
  doesn't get, you know, sore from wearing it.
• 10:40
  And, you know, I I could go on and on and on.
• 10:43
  But it's all about for us. We joke that we never it we
• 10:49
  everything from the gown itself to all the accessories and the
• 10:52
  hair pins and the gloves and the.
• 10:55
  You know the that's just for the women alone, the little bags.
• 11:00
  We could not have enough jewelry or accessories for this show.
• 11:04
  We had to keep making more and getting more in and it was that
• 11:08
  it was pretty spectacular. It's so exciting.
• 11:11
  We're definitely. Not talking about scandal or how
• 11:13
  to get away with murder anymore. Well, let's talk about Queen
• 11:19
  Charlotte in her. Earlier years it's.
• 11:20
  Clear to me that even from a young age, Queen Charlotte
• 11:23
  always had an eye for style. And fashion, Her costumes are
• 11:28
  always very elevated. Even before she.
• 11:30
  Even became the queen just sitting in the carriage.
• 11:32
  I thought, wow, this is incredible.
• 11:35
  So. Lynn, what was the overall?
• 11:36
  Concept behind young Charlotte's costumes.
• 11:39
  I think that the main thing for us was that we wanted this sort
• 11:42
  of youthful exuberance, like we wanted her to be able to climb a
• 11:45
  wall. So we did it.
• 11:47
  We did adjust her, cross the tree so she could move a little
• 11:49
  bit more and we chose fabrics that were lighter and bounced.
• 11:54
  You know, when she walks, everything moves with her,
• 11:56
  doesn't it? It's not stiff, it's not formal
• 11:58
  in any way. And we, we particularly, you
• 12:01
  know, in working with Shonda who by the way.
• 12:04
  Wrote that scene and we just did what she wrote.
• 12:07
  It was on the stage, Yeah, it was right there.
• 12:10
  She was like she's wearing this and she's doing this.
• 12:12
  And we were like, yes, ma'am. The only thing that we we
• 12:17
  changed was I think Shonda had written rubies like a Ruby
• 12:20
  encrusted gown and Laura and I didn't want to do Reds on young
• 12:24
  Charlotte yet because she, you know, that's Golda's character
• 12:28
  later on so. We asked her to change it to
• 12:32
  Sapphires and and she said yes, Lynn, sure.
• 12:38
  So she changed it for us, bless her.
• 12:40
  Yeah. So there's a lightness to to
• 12:42
  even in her sadness in the beginning and her loneliness,
• 12:46
  everything sort of light. And as Laura said, we did use
• 12:51
  impressionistic paintings as our palette, as our source for
• 12:56
  palette for the beginning of the show.
• 12:58
  So I would think the big difference is, is that young
• 13:01
  Charlotte's fabrics are really all very soft silk tapatas and
• 13:04
  and we based her gowns on the Charles on Charles James's
• 13:09
  designs from the 1950s. So that that was our basis for
• 13:13
  young Charlotte. Beautiful.
• 13:16
  And then even we get some visions into Charlotte's life
• 13:19
  and you know, I will say present day, the Charlotte that we've
• 13:22
  come to know over the past few years.
• 13:24
  So Laura, there's a reason why Queen Charlotte has always been
• 13:27
  a fan favorite. I mean, she's always over the
• 13:29
  top in her style. She commands the camera.
• 13:32
  I will say it's hard to look at anyone else because she's such a
• 13:36
  presence. So how would you describe?
• 13:38
  Queen Charlotte style later on in life.
• 13:41
  Well, first I want to say that Golda, who plays the older being
• 13:45
  Charlotte, is a force in herself.
• 13:47
  So just her alone. She is the queen she carries
• 13:51
  that she's amazing and. She's No one else could be the
• 13:54
  Queen except I. Couldn't imagine anyone else,
• 13:58
  but what What Lid and I wanted to show is as we get through to
• 14:04
  where we discover about George's illness and how young, how he's
• 14:10
  so absent. Throughout you know with when
• 14:14
  she was having her portrait painted or all the other times
• 14:17
  that we Charlotte adopts this, this is her.
• 14:21
  This becomes almost like her armor her her her way of being
• 14:25
  the crown and so the reason and so we basically you know carried
• 14:30
  her. Throughout to start getting into
• 14:33
  the deeper colors and adopting this more structured silhouette
• 14:39
  from the young youthful exuberance that we first see to
• 14:43
  where we get to now with with the older Queen Charlotte.
• 14:47
  Well, I'm not going to lie to you two.
• 14:49
  I love a royal wedding and we got one so excited.
• 14:57
  Think you might have got had three in the story, actually.
• 15:01
  Because the Regency wedding. The Regency wedding.
• 15:04
  Right, right, right. Yes.
• 15:05
  The coronation part. So Princess Augusta wanted
• 15:10
  Charlotte to wear something else.
• 15:12
  It was nice. But it's not what Charlotte want
• 15:14
  to wear, you know? So I'm so glad Charlotte was
• 15:18
  defiant. And wore the dress she brought
• 15:20
  from. France, I believe so, Lynn.
• 15:22
  We have to talk. About that wedding.
• 15:24
  Dress. It was such a moment.
• 15:26
  I know I'm I'm you. Well, you know, from a scandal.
• 15:28
  And I'm obsessed by capes. Like there can never be enough
• 15:31
  Cape all gloves. So I know I love a Cape.
• 15:36
  So yeah. So Shonda had written this scene
• 15:40
  and she had, you know, this whole discussion, also this
• 15:44
  horrible discussion between Augusta and poor young Charlotte
• 15:48
  where she insists that she wears the British the wedding gown.
• 15:52
  And if you look at that closely in the garden.
• 15:55
  You'll see that there are two De roses and and Yorkshire roses
• 15:59
  all the way around the bottom of her gown.
• 16:01
  They're embroidered on that, but they're also on George's jacket,
• 16:04
  so that had all been planned by Augusta.
• 16:06
  This is her way of saying you're ours now and you're British now,
• 16:11
  and this is who you're going to be.
• 16:13
  And I'm so proud of the character that in that garden
• 16:16
  scene she decides I'm not conforming, I'm not doing this.
• 16:19
  I'm going to be much more fabulous than these people want
• 16:21
  me to be. And then when she enters, I
• 16:24
  mean, it was such a great moment on the set because people in the
• 16:27
  audience when they weren't supposed to, that was.
• 16:32
  Me at home last night. That, you know, we had, we had
• 16:38
  done all this research and we found tons of different
• 16:42
  representations of sort of stronger, bolder embroidery and
• 16:45
  we decided we were going to go for it and our amazing
• 16:49
  embroiderer Atwan back in England.
• 16:52
  We we spent about six weeks on this gown, I think, and then the
• 16:56
  Cape over it and our embellishes went in.
• 16:58
  We just wanted this strong moment where this woman walks in
• 17:02
  and shocks everybody. Do you know that that he didn't
• 17:05
  conform? She was going to be a force of
• 17:08
  nature and that's what we wanted back down to do.
• 17:11
  It was beautiful, Laura. What did he think of the gown?
• 17:15
  Well, I mean we. I just love that thing.
• 17:18
  I want the Cape for myself, that big cowl and everything.
• 17:21
  Right. I also love what apps, you know
• 17:26
  of course what Lynn said about all the all of the work that
• 17:29
  went into it it it just really was a team effort on all
• 17:33
  everybody in our department. The Tremblay Tiara was.
• 17:39
  Made by both our Milliner and our jeweler.
• 17:42
  They teamed for weeks, just making that together.
• 17:46
  And you know, like she said about the embroidery, first it
• 17:49
  went to the machine embroidery and then it went to our
• 17:51
  embellishers, and then the panels had to go to our cutter,
• 17:55
  Kasha and her team to actually make the gown.
• 17:59
  So it was just so much of A team effort.
• 18:02
  I'm just trying to think what else I'm missing there, but
• 18:04
  yeah, everybody had to. Get together and at one point I
• 18:08
  even think I have a picture of this where it's the the
• 18:11
  embroiders are like on one table while caution standing there,
• 18:15
  you know, it was everybody just working together to make that
• 18:17
  gown. Right.
• 18:19
  It was definitely worth all the effort, but when it's all said.
• 18:24
  And done. My favorite character hasn't
• 18:26
  always will be Lady Danbury. And I was.
• 18:29
  So excited to see. That she also got her own origin
• 18:31
  story in this show. I think probably my favorite.
• 18:34
  Part. Lady Danbury has always had such
• 18:37
  a cool sense of style. She loves a high collar and a
• 18:40
  good hat. But this is exciting because we
• 18:42
  got to see what she was like when she was younger.
• 18:44
  Too, which is slightly different and how he evolved.
• 18:47
  So Laura. What was it like designing the
• 18:49
  costumes for the younger Agatha Danbury?
• 18:53
  Well, again, Arsima is just a beautiful, wonderful human.
• 18:58
  So getting to have her play the part of Agatha was amazing.
• 19:04
  We really went for the color story with Agatha's costumes.
• 19:10
  You know, Lord Danbury, his favorite color was gold and so
• 19:14
  we put her in a lot of gold and gold and metallics.
• 19:19
  Well, you know when until he until he passed and then once he
• 19:23
  passes. And she goes through her
• 19:24
  mourning period. You're gonna really, you start
• 19:26
  to see her embrace the purples and the deeper, darker colors.
• 19:32
  But really, that's how we got get to the Lady Danbury of the
• 19:37
  Bridgerton, wearing the purples and the Burgundies.
• 19:40
  MMM. Interesting.
• 19:42
  There's such a great character. I mean, I could watch her all
• 19:45
  day long. She needs her own show.
• 19:46
  Too after all this just. Keep that mind.
• 19:48
  Tell Shonda for me. Speaking of Lady Danbury, I love
• 19:54
  a good ball. And Lady Danbury always knows
• 19:56
  how to throw a ball. I was obsessed with the pastel
• 19:59
  pallets, all the costumes. I'll be honest, I'm not a
• 20:02
  jewelry person, but even myself was like, this is insane.
• 20:06
  It's so good. So Lynn, how did your team bring
• 20:09
  the scene together? It's I've been talking about
• 20:13
  this quite a bit because I am a jewelry person.
• 20:15
  I'm obsessed by jewelry, you know?
• 20:17
  You might have converted me a. Little bit of a freak and this
• 20:21
  is a very jewelry heavy period. I mean we're talking you know,
• 20:26
  bracelets, necklaces, earrings, but then we're also talking, you
• 20:29
  know, jewelry on the bodice of every single dress and then in
• 20:33
  the hair adornments as well. And Nick Collins are the head of
• 20:37
  hair and makeup. The head of the department was
• 20:39
  such an amazing, amazing partner in this because I would call and
• 20:44
  say, OK, we'll do, we'd send her a picture.
• 20:46
  We're doing this color dress. OK, I'll do a pink wig.
• 20:49
  I'll do a yellow. I'll do this with, could you
• 20:51
  send me, you know, 10 things. And we would send her trays and
• 20:56
  trays and trays of jewels and Pearl strands and for every
• 21:01
  single character, including all the dances and the background
• 21:03
  artists. And then we'd get to set, You
• 21:06
  know, we'd send her feathers with, you know, rhinestones and
• 21:09
  whatever. We'd get to set and just watch
• 21:11
  her create magic. She was an amazing partner.
• 21:15
  So I will tell you the story that we kept running out of
• 21:19
  jewelry. We literally kept running out
• 21:21
  because we couldn't repeat anything.
• 21:24
  And we had this big room and we had three safes.
• 21:27
  And then. Just all these shells just for.
• 21:30
  And one day you would walk in and you think, Oh my God, this
• 21:33
  amazing jewelry. It's fantastic.
• 21:35
  We'll be fine. And then I would turn to Laura
• 21:37
  and go, yeah, it's all gone, Laura.
• 21:41
  And what are we going to do? Who's who can we hire to make
• 21:44
  more jewelry? And it was, it was sort of
• 21:46
  desperate to the point where the production manager couldn't
• 21:49
  believe that we were ordering more and they just couldn't
• 21:52
  fathom that we kept. Lynn, take it easy on the
• 21:54
  jewelry I know. They were really getting a
• 21:56
  little worried about us. It's such a good scene, though,
• 22:01
  the music, of course, and all the.
• 22:02
  Colors the jewelry. I mean, I wish.
• 22:05
  There was just a whole. Episode of just them dancing.
• 22:07
  I would definitely watch that. It's just.
• 22:09
  So good. Jack does such a good job and
• 22:13
  those dancers, man, and especially that ball.
• 22:16
  We had a couple of the dancers come up to us and say, can I
• 22:19
  take this home? I'm so.
• 22:21
  Sorry. Not quite.
• 22:24
  That's funny. Good try.
• 22:29
  We certainly learn. Much more about the Queen
• 22:31
  Charlotte's husband King George in this series.
• 22:34
  Like the Queen I have a soft spot for.
• 22:36
  George, he's clearly going through a lot and.
• 22:39
  I would say his dress is actually a bit toned down and I
• 22:42
  think that's because he has a lot more important things going
• 22:45
  on. That's moment like being king,
• 22:47
  dealing with this illness. Of course when there's an event
• 22:50
  he'll dress up ceremonial he'll be there, but when he's at home
• 22:54
  he's he wants the garden. So, Laura, how would you
• 22:57
  describe George's style? You you nailed it.
• 23:00
  That's exactly, um, he wasn't just George he wanted.
• 23:04
  To just be George and but because of as he said what was
• 23:08
  the accident at birth or something, he is the king.
• 23:11
  And So what we did was you know whenever he had to be in the
• 23:15
  public eye it was very embroidered, very embellished he
• 23:19
  you know but anytime he could be at home or not.
• 23:23
  In the public eye he we he, we put him in much simpler jackets
• 23:28
  and sometimes not a jacket at all and sometimes it was just a
• 23:31
  a shirt and A and the the trousers.
• 23:34
  So we really wanted to show that he wanted to be more simple and
• 23:39
  really just embraced his love for farming and astronomy and
• 23:45
  the sciences. And that's true in in real life
• 23:48
  he loved all of those things, so he tried to convey that in his
• 23:51
  dress. Yeah, such a I kind of fell in
• 23:54
  love with him, I'll admit. And in Lynn there is so many,
• 23:58
  you know, menswear type costumes.
• 24:00
  You know, we have Brimsley who works with Charlotte day in and
• 24:03
  day out, all the people that. Work at the palace.
• 24:06
  So what was it like? Just kind of design all the
• 24:08
  costumes for the palace as a whole.
• 24:11
  It was, you know that I'm so glad you asked that question.
• 24:13
  You're so smart because I think most people aren't going to
• 24:17
  notice that. But.
• 24:19
  Brimsley and Reynolds who are my personal obsession.
• 24:21
  Like I am determined to find out what happened to Brimsley and
• 24:24
  Reynolds. I love them.
• 24:25
  They're amazing. They're amazing together.
• 24:28
  When they touch hands among my heart.
• 24:32
  If people really notice and really look at their customs,
• 24:35
  you'll see that Reynolds has George's initials and cast into
• 24:41
  the buttons. So all of the all of the livery
• 24:45
  and the people at queue. On every single button you'll
• 24:48
  see George's initial and then on Brinsley's customs, which is
• 24:53
  supposed to be Buckingham House, every single button has
• 24:56
  Charlotte's initials. So there were tiny little
• 24:59
  details like that while we had the buttons cast for each
• 25:03
  household. And that that goes for every
• 25:06
  household you see on the show. You know, the ledgers had a
• 25:09
  specific pallet for their staff. So every single house that you
• 25:14
  go to, all those people in the background, we made all of that.
• 25:17
  You know, all of the poor Laura had a horrible livery incident
• 25:22
  with the red velvet for Buckingham Palace, but still not
• 25:27
  be mentioned after I just said that.
• 25:29
  But Needless to say, she fixed it and it was amazing.
• 25:34
  The red, the red wool arrived, right?
• 25:37
  Oh my God. I won't press on it, but make
• 25:40
  sure you tell me after Laura. Well, final.
• 25:47
  Noticing. Thank you.
• 25:48
  I mean it's I don't think. People realize that you're not
• 25:51
  just getting, you know, these costumes off a rack.
• 25:53
  Right to build out this. Entire palace.
• 25:55
  This is part of your process. It's not just Queen Charlotte,
• 25:58
  it's every single person. And they have these buttons.
• 26:01
  It's just so much detail, which is why I think costume
• 26:04
  designers. So.
• 26:06
  Essential final. Question to both of you.
• 26:09
  Thank you. What?
• 26:11
  Do you hope the audience will take from the show?
• 26:13
  And what did this experience mean to you?
• 26:15
  I'll start with uh, how about then?
• 26:18
  I I, I do hope that people watching this will understand
• 26:22
  this little slice of history a little bit more.
• 26:24
  I feel like our show as opposed to the, you know, the Bridgeton
• 26:29
  world, does really touch on the sadness of King George.
• 26:34
  That it wasn't just about his madness and losing the colonies
• 26:37
  that you know what a struggle it was.
• 26:38
  And also. You know, the tragedy of them
• 26:41
  losing their granddaughter. I just, I just do hope that it
• 26:45
  convinces people maybe to read a little bit about this time in
• 26:47
  history. It's such a fascinating time.
• 26:50
  And for me personally, well, first of all, getting to work
• 26:52
  with Laura as a team was amazing, But also continuing my
• 26:57
  relationship with Shonda, I'm on another Shonda show right now
• 27:01
  and getting to work with her as closely as we did with Queen
• 27:04
  Charlotte because. It was a labor of love for her
• 27:07
  and she wrote every episode, so that was that was really special
• 27:11
  for me. I I would like the audience to
• 27:16
  just enjoy, enjoy the beauty of the scents and enjoy the beauty
• 27:22
  of the costumes and the hair and the makeup and hopefully they'll
• 27:25
  see that all of the. Hard work that all of the teams
• 27:30
  and the crews, I mean we had over 200 people on our just our
• 27:35
  costume crew, you know and this the how much of A labor of love
• 27:40
  it was for all of us. And I just hope they enjoy it
• 27:45
  and love the story because like Lynn said should this Shonda
• 27:49
  wrote every episode and it's such a beautiful story and she
• 27:53
  told it in such a beautiful way so.
• 27:56
  But I also want them just to sit back and enjoy it's beauty.
• 28:00
  Well, I could say that you too, definitely.
• 28:02
  Nailed it. Because I found myself crying,
• 28:04
  laughing, screaming. It was fantastic.
• 28:08
  And I know everyone's gonna love it.
• 28:09
  Thank you. Costume designer Lynn Palo and
• 28:12
  Laura Fracon, thank you so much for joining me.
• 28:14
  It's been such a joy. Thank you, darling.
• 28:16
  Take care. Thank you.
• 28:18
  Bye. Bye.
• 28:33
  What's up, costume nerds? This is Spencer, cohost and
• 28:36
  roducer. Of the Art of Costume Blogcasts.
• 28:39
  I love the simple things in life.
• 28:40
  Free parking, air conditioning and a nice comfortable hoodie if
• 28:44
  you feel the same way that I'm here to let you know that if you
• 28:47
  wanted to. Support our show.
• 28:49
  You can head over to the Art of costume.com/pod store.
• 28:52
  There you can buy awesome blogcast merch through T public
• 28:55
  such as T-shirts, hoodies. Coffee mugs and stickers.
• 28:59
  We even have a baby onesie for all those baby.
• 29:01
  Costume designers out there to get your merch.
• 29:04
  Head over to the Art of costume.com/podstore.
• 29:08
  Thank you for all your support. Spencer Such a good interview.
• 29:33
  Such a good interview. It's so fun.
• 29:36
  I fell in love with Lynn and Laura.
• 29:38
  They are so cool and I was just like an instant big fan of both
• 29:42
  of them. I mean, I always have been, but
• 29:45
  in that moment I was a super fan.
• 29:48
  I loved it. I also loved that, like, I think
• 29:50
  one of my favorite parts of that interview was I'm talking about
• 29:53
  like the livery for all the different households and all
• 29:56
  like. So like the initials for like
• 29:59
  King George's and the Queens, and like all the little
• 30:02
  differences, I was like, oh, that's that's so good.
• 30:05
  It's so cute. And yeah, it brings like a lot
• 30:09
  of emotion to the series too. Just it's amazing how costume
• 30:13
  designers are adding so much of the story with like subtle
• 30:15
  little notes that maybe you might not even notice.
• 30:18
  Yeah, and I was really taken by the use of jewelry.
• 30:23
  Yeah, as I said to Lynn and Laura, I'm not really a jewelry
• 30:26
  person, but this show, I was blown away by the use of
• 30:29
  jewelry. And because it's everywhere,
• 30:32
  it's literally everywhere in this show.
• 30:34
  And I'm like, when they started talking about the fact that they
• 30:36
  were like running out of jewelry, cuz they couldn't use
• 30:39
  the same stuff twice, I'm like. OK, that makes sense.
• 30:42
  Yeah, like I get it. Look, they're pros.
• 30:46
  And to me, there's no way that Lynn and Laura aren't gonna be
• 30:50
  nominated for an Emmy by the time this comes out.
• 30:52
  Maybe it already happened, but like, this is a shoo in for me.
• 30:56
  It's such a good show. Absolutely.
• 30:57
  It's so good. Oh my gosh.
• 30:59
  And yeah, so when I recorded this interview, I hadn't seen
• 31:02
  the last two episodes because I watched Queen Charlotte before
• 31:06
  the show even came out. So it was like a sneak peek
• 31:09
  moment. My time.
• 31:12
  I didn't have time to watch them all.
• 31:14
  Yeah, like I've since watched it, since that interview.
• 31:16
  Finished it and the finale is just so good.
• 31:20
  Also episode 5, the 1:00, where they're talking about their
• 31:23
  gardens. Like the entire episode.
• 31:27
  Such a good episode. I am obsessed with it.
• 31:30
  I love Violet Bridgerton and Lady Danbury.
• 31:33
  They're just such great characters.
• 31:36
  It's so good. It's so good.
• 31:37
  And then I loved. I loved the end.
• 31:40
  Uh, when her, her son and his wife comes to be like, ohh,
• 31:44
  you're finally gonna have a legitimate grandchild.
• 31:48
  And they lay underneath the bed and like have a ohh stop it, I'm
• 31:52
  gonna cry again it. Was so adorable and I was like,
• 31:54
  ohh, my gosh 'cause they're talking about Queen Victoria.
• 31:58
  Right. So then I literally went to like
• 32:00
  PBS and started watching Vic. So if you need something to
• 32:07
  watch after Queen Charlotte Everton Story, go to PBS and
• 32:13
  watch Vic. OK, well I definitely have to
• 32:15
  check it out, yeah. Has Jenna Coleman.
• 32:18
  She was one of the Doctors companions, so everybody go
• 32:22
  watch it. Oh, that reminds me, Can we talk
• 32:24
  about Catlin Stark being the evil mommy she was?
• 32:28
  Upsetting me. I I can believe that.
• 32:33
  Yeah, I mean, she was brilliant by the way, but very upsetting.
• 32:38
  I mean, so, like, so good. Well, I think I'm totally with
• 32:40
  you. I think.
• 32:42
  I won't say I enjoyed the show more than Bridgerton, but I
• 32:45
  definitely didn't enjoy it less, if you know what I'm saying.
• 32:48
  Yeah. I think the difference between
• 32:51
  this and Bridgerton, this was like much more heartfelt.
• 32:54
  And I I just feel like the stakes for all the characters
• 32:58
  were a lot higher. Whereas like in Bridgerton it's
• 33:02
  like. Let's just be real.
• 33:03
  We. Watch it for the horny vibes.
• 33:05
  That's why we watch Bridgerton. Yeah, for the horny vibes.
• 33:09
  For the brilliant costume design, set design to be like,
• 33:13
  oh, if only I could go back to Regency era London and be a
• 33:18
  wealthy aristocrat. Even though, like, it would
• 33:20
  totally not be that cool. Well, with that, Elizabeth, I
• 33:27
  think we should play. Our favorite game are you?
• 33:29
  Ready. I am ready.
• 33:31
  Hit it, Daniel. The one costume to rule them
• 33:36
  all. All right.
• 33:42
  I think I shall go first my one costume to rule them all.
• 33:47
  I thought was going to be a Lady Danbury look, and honestly, if I
• 33:50
  gave myself probably another 15 minutes to think about it, I
• 33:53
  could switch up my mind. But I actually landed on this
• 33:56
  look from the 5th episode and I can't really find many great
• 33:59
  pictures of it, but it's one that young Charlotte wears when
• 34:04
  she leaves Lady Danbury's estate to go basically pick up George
• 34:10
  and be like, hey, we're done with this, cut the shit.
• 34:14
  It's this like beautiful, like pink dress.
• 34:16
  But she wears this incredible Cape over it, which as Lynn and
• 34:20
  Laura said, they love capes and so do I.
• 34:23
  This is a top tier Cape that has like a iridescent taffeta look
• 34:27
  to it. Yes, has like.
• 34:29
  Shades of like Raspberry and gold to it.
• 34:32
  It's just when you watch it move on camera, it's so beautiful and
• 34:35
  for some reason I was just so. Like struck by this costume.
• 34:39
  And I can't stop thinking about it.
• 34:40
  I do really like this look as well, especially what's under it
• 34:44
  because it's like. This is like her when she's very
• 34:47
  much just like, I don't know what's happening and I don't
• 34:49
  like it and it's almost like her, like Incognito look, but
• 34:53
  it's still like you're the queen.
• 34:54
  Like, what do you think you're doing?
• 34:57
  Yeah, that was a wild episode. So wild.
• 35:01
  I love it. My one costume to rule them all
• 35:04
  is also a Queen Charlotte look. It is her wedding gown, like you
• 35:10
  said. It's like her being just
• 35:12
  rebellious, like right from the start.
• 35:14
  It's beautiful. It suits her so well.
• 35:18
  And it's just like she's like, yes, I'm here to be myself and
• 35:22
  to be a good queen, I guess because I didn't want this in
• 35:25
  the first place. It's such a good one and it's
• 35:31
  like in the 1st 1015 minutes she's like what we're not going
• 35:34
  to do is abide by your rules like pretty early on, you know?
• 35:38
  Yeah, it wasn't like the show the great that we love, you
• 35:43
  know, where it's like 3-4. Seasons of herpe like.
• 35:46
  I don't know. Should I?
• 35:47
  Can I? No.
• 35:48
  This was directed right away. Like what we're not going to do
• 35:51
  is that. Yeah, Elizabeth, this was such a
• 35:55
  good show. I just loved it so much.
• 35:57
  I kind of want to rewatch it. And I hope that Bridgerton
• 36:00
  season three is right around the corner, because every time I
• 36:02
  watch a Bridgerton show, I instantly feel the need for
• 36:05
  more. Yeah, disappears for a while and
• 36:08
  it kind of like fades away and as soon as I get a little taste,
• 36:11
  I'm like instantly addicted again.
• 36:12
  Right cuz like they just released like some images and
• 36:15
  I'm just like I need this like. Yeah, it's coming.
• 36:19
  I need this. I also need Penelope and whoever
• 36:23
  the Bridgerton boy is, I need their story to be resolved.
• 36:26
  I think it's Colin, right? Colin.
• 36:28
  Yeah, it's Colin. It's Colin.
• 36:29
  But honestly, I really hope they include more of Violet
• 36:34
  Bridgerton and Lady Danbury. Like now that they've given it
• 36:38
  to us in like little pieces in Queen Charlotte, I'm like, I'm
• 36:42
  not ready to give that up yet, please.
• 36:44
  Although I'll be honest, like, I think since it's like really
• 36:48
  going to like focus on Penelope, I think we're going to get a lot
• 36:50
  of her mom's back story, which. I think will be interesting.
• 36:55
  I think that'd be very interesting.
• 36:58
  Portia, right? Yeah.
• 37:00
  Yeah, I'm you know I like me so Porsche, so I'm ready for.
• 37:03
  It I love that actress. We have to watch Rome at some
• 37:06
  point. She's incredible in that.
• 37:09
  Put it on the list we should we need like a sound effect for
• 37:12
  whenever we add something to our infinite list.
• 37:16
  Just a little check marker, like a scribble sound.
• 37:18
  We'll do Daniel. Or a Ding.
• 37:22
  Well Elizabeth, that was such a fun episode, but we have even
• 37:26
  more fun coming up in our next episode.
• 37:29
  We are going to be talking about The Crown, a incredible show on
• 37:34
  Netflix that everyone watches. Everyone's obsessed with it and
• 37:38
  we're going to be joined by a extremely incredibly talented
• 37:44
  legendary icon costume designer, the Emmy award-winning costume
• 37:50
  designer Amy Roberts and. I'm so excited for you all to
• 37:54
  meet her. I got to talk with her on the
• 37:56
  phone, so you'll hear a little bit into that conversation.
• 37:59
  And I don't think I'll ever forget that phone call.
• 38:02
  Honestly, it was pretty impactful in terms of what we do
• 38:06
  here. So I loved it.
• 38:07
  I I can't wait to listen to it, Spencer, your interviews are
• 38:12
  always so amazing. So I'm like, I'm ready for it.
• 38:15
  Oh, thank you. And if you would like to give us
• 38:18
  your Queen Charlotte or the Crown thoughts, you can leave us
• 38:23
  a voicemail at 626-515-1826 or e-mail us at
• 38:29
  theartofcostume@gmail.com. If you need like a little extra
• 38:36
  content from us in between episodes, you can follow us at
• 38:42
  the Art of Costume Pod on Instagram.
• 38:44
  At the Arctic Costume on TikTok if you need some merch you can
• 38:48
  head to the arcticostum.com Podstore.
• 38:52
  And if you really loved what you heard and have the time to leave
• 38:55
  us a little five star text review on Apple Podcast and or
• 38:59
  Spotify, we would really, really appreciate it.
• 39:02
  Until next time, stay cool. Nerds.
• 39:07
  Yeah, it's hot. It's hot this.
• 39:09
  Summer, Yeah, I make cool. As in stay out of the sun.
• 39:13
  And wear sunscreen. Yeah, wear sunscreen.
• 39:17
  If you're somewhere with smoke, stay inside.
• 39:19
  Smoke oh man, I need to wear sunscreen.
• 39:24
  Just being in the studio right now, It is hot hot.
• 39:27
  Yeah, I'm sorry anyways. Anyway, thanks all for listening
• 39:32
  talk. Have a great week.
• 39:38
  The Art of Costume Blogcast is hosted and produced by Elizabeth
• 39:42
  Joy Glass and Spencer Williams. Our audio engineering and
• 39:47
  editing is done by Dan White. Follow us on Instagram at The
• 39:52
  Art of Costume Pod or visit The Art of Costume blogcast.com for
• 39:57
  all Blogcast updates. If you want to support the show,
• 40:00
  go to theartofcostume.com/pod Store for more.
• 40:05
  Customer views, deep dives and interviews Head over to The Art
• 40:10
  of costume.com, A blog dedicated to highlighting the best in
• 40:15
  costume design.