If you missed the June 19 conversation between legendary costume designers Deborah Nadoolman Landis, PhD, and Ellen Mirojnick—or want to revisit the talk or share it with a friend—the video is now live on the JASNA Southwest YouTube channel.
Landis, founding director of the David C. Copley Center for Costume Design at UCLA, moderated the enlightening discussion with her friend and colleague Mirojnick, who oversaw creation of more than 7,500 pieces and 5,000 costumes for the Netflix sensation Bridgerton. These award-winning costumers gave the audience a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creative, meticulous and inspiring work of bringing the costumers’ vision to life. We learned that online searches for Regency fashion spiked the month after Bridgerton first aired (with a whopping 357 percent increase in searches for tiaras alone!). We were treated to the mood boards created by Mirojnick in preparation to costume the production, and learned that she and her team of 110 were the first to build the series’ visual world, long before the production design team was assembled.
“Every costume was bespoke, even for the background actors,” Mirojnick noted. She shared her wide range of inspirations—from Orry-Kelly’s costume designs for Auntie Mame to nature, music and the shape of an automobile. She explained why the world of Bridgerton was a bonnet-less one, and how it can be less expensive to create costumes from scratch rather than buying already-made pieces.
Landis quoted director Jerry Bruckheimer, who once described filmmakers as being in the transportation business because they take people to new worlds. The JASNA audience at the June 19 event was indeed transported to the unique, confectionary world of Bridgerton.