The Secrets Behind Sophie’s “Sexier” Bridgerton Uniforms

Spoilers ahead for Bridgerton Season 4, Part 1.

Those who’ve watched the fourth episode of Bridgerton Season 4 have likely spent the past few weeks haunted by three words: “Be my mistress.” However misguided Benedict Bridgerton’s (Luke Thompson) proposal was, his faux love triangle dilemma isn’t entirely his fault. Despite his initial connection with the masked Lady in Silver (Yerin Ha), he’s also drawn to housemaid Sophie Baek — and the subtle tweaks in her clothing are partly to blame.

Much like at Lady Bridgerton’s masquerade ball, where Sophie’s silver-clad outfit stood out among a sea of costumes, her series of maid uniforms popped among the rest of the servants’ garb. Take her Cavender House attire, where she first caught Benedict’s eye (as herself). “Cavender House is where all the rough boys were, so we made [her clothes] a little sexier,” costume designer John Glaser tells Bustle of the same look she wore to head to Benedict’s cottage, drenched in the rain.

The rest of the costume department, which included George Sayer, assistant designer for womenswear, and Dougie Hawkes, associate costume designer, employed the same tactics when Sophie later found employment at Benedict’s family home. Sayer says, “In Bridgerton House, because that uniform was already established, we had to do a very, very subtle change.” And it had to do with the ensemble’s décolletage.

It wasn’t just Sophie’s outfits that were designed with more restraint this season. Below, the Bridgerton costume design team chats about Penelope’s updated Lady Whistledown wardrobe, along with the special details behind Sophie’s fashion, as well as Benedict’s artist aesthetic.

Sophie’s silver dress is such a pivotal costume. It had to stand out and really catch Benedict’s eye. What was the process of getting this dress to be just right for this moment?

John Glaser: Well, the script called for a silver dress, and silver can be dark silver, pewter silver... But we went with the clearest, lightest silver — almost like aluminum. She’s the only person at the ball that has on that clear, clean color. And lots of layers so that the light would capture the textures; lots of rhinestones, sequins, and anything else that would catch the light.

George Sayer: The other thing for the silver dress is that this season is kind of a Cinderella story, and we didn’t want to go for the traditional Cinderella-shaped dress because it felt like it had been done before. So we wanted to pare it back; make it super, super sparkly; but keep to an early Regency shape.

Makes total sense. I want to talk about her maid uniforms. Did you make any changes so that it’s different from the other housekeepers’ attire?

JG: Yeah, she starts off in Penwood House — which is more old-fashioned and slightly more uptight — that’s a high-neck job with an old, staid, and classic uniform. It’s the most restricted and severe, with a little lace collar.

The Cavender House is where she meets Benedict, so that when the rain hits, it would expose her skin and her bust line, and then the décolletage.

GS: As a Cavender maid, we wanted her to wear a fuchsia negligee underneath so that when she was in the carriage and she got wet, it would look sexier. That’s why it’s a lower cut maid’s uniform with that chill fuchsia.

In Bridgerton House, because that uniform was already established, we had to do a very, very subtle change. So again, we subtly changed the neckline for her.

We also need to discuss Benedict's clothing, because he’s going through this huge character change. He used to be such an anti-marriage, free-spirited, artistic guy. This season, he’s like, “Maybe I do want to settle down.” How does that reflect in the clothing that you chose for him?

Dougie Hawkes: We’re always going to see that sort of artistic, almost pre-Raphaelite look to him because it suits him. It not only suits Benedict, it suits Luke Thompson, the actor, and I wanted to get that sort of looseness through with him. He’s found someone that rocks him from first sight, and then the story obviously builds from there.

When we see him in Episode 3, he’s in his own zone, he’s in his My Cottage situation, which is his space with his servants that he feels comfortable with, so I wanted to loosen him up there. So I follow that field of artist still, the open shirt, the relaxed, comfortable space, and less is more with that.

In Shonda Rhimes’ Inside Bridgerton book, it reported that there were as many as 7,500 pieces of costumes, including 1,800 dresses, made for Season 1. How does that compare to Season 4?

JG: What happens is that the clothing that was made in the first season, some of it is discarded, some of it goes into archives, and a lot of it gets stripped down and reused again. We also take all the day players and even principal clothing, strip it down and use it again, re-embellish it so that you don’t know it’s the same items, but we do try to reuse things.

This season, we made over 200 women’s dresses just for the principals, so it adds up quickly. By the time we’re done, we’ll be up to 3,000 or 4,000 pieces. We also invested in a lot of menswear this time. A lot of vests, a lot of pants, a lot of coats. It truly is a lot of pieces.

DH: As the script changes and the time signature goes on, we’re moving on to different times, so we have to change with that, too.

JG: We slowly are changing the silhouette more toward 1820.

GS: But that’s Season 5.

My last question is about Penelope’s evolution. Now that she is out as Lady Whistledown, how has that impacted her style?

JG: Her fabrics are not as romantic as they were in her glow-up season. A little more traditional now, but there aren’t layers of different tulle and things.

GS: It’s been toned down a bit. She came into her own during her season; she found a style she was happy with when she and Colin got together, so to push her too far in another direction might have gotten confusing. So it’s more that she’s happier in her skin.

This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.