“When people asked me,“ What would be what you want to do? “, It has always been to make a rom-com with work title,” “Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy” Costume designer Molly Emma Rowe told Indiewire during a new interview. “So to do the Rome-com with them was really … I was like, “Ok, the manifestation of it went really well, I have to say.”
Yes, bridget is back – and In a more melancholy offer than the previous three parts. There are still plenty of slapstick (Bridget is older, but she is still related messy) and romantic confusion, but the life of bridget has not been smooth since she was reunited with Mark Darcy at the end of “Bridget Jones’ baby.”
Now four years widow is bridget is at a crossroads when film Starts until she chooses to do more than survive. She will live! She quickly meets two new romantic entangles – the younger Roxster (Leo Woodall) and her son’s new school teacher, Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor) – and returns to work, where she still mitigates, but largely feels more foundation.
Picking up a beloved character in the fifties is a big task, especially one that the audience fell in love in the mid -1930s. But Renée Zellweger’s central performance keeps the film on track – as well as Rowe’s suits, which detects a piece with what came earlier while establishing both the current identity of the bridge and the new men in her life.
Indiewire talked to Rowe about his work with the film, found the boundary between sexy and fun and made sure that Bridget did not lose its iconic short skirts.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Indieview: Congratulations to the movie. I saw it yesterday, and I switched between crying, cackling and gay gisping every time Leo Woodall went on the screen.
Molly Emma Rowe: Okay, so we did good.
Of course, I want to talk about Bridget’s clothes. But let’s talk about the men first, because you have to help create Leo as Roxster and Chiwetel Ejiofor like Mr. Wallaker. And what was it like to come with Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) is at this time in his life, sartorially speaking?
It was very interesting to me. Daniel was not in the third film, so we have 20 years from when we last met him. I really wanted to talk to Hugh, first and foremost, and understand Daniel Cleaver from his point of view and why he wore what he wore. A tailor named Richard James made Daniel’s suits for the first two films. Richard is no longer a tailor, but my tailor found me very kindly a tailor who used to work with Richard. His work was always very slim and sexy and cool.
We wanted to make sure Daniel felt up to date. And Richard always got his shirt to stand, which is the type of piece that the collar then comes out, very deep. So when Daniel has three buttons that are regulated, the collar still stands quite proud and frames the face. Hugh kindly lent me a couple of his shirts from the first films. So (my shirt) Dima and I could see what the little tricks were and recreate them for Hugh.
And then there is Roxster in the white shirt and the jeans, wet. What went to choose these garments?
With Roxster it was about creating something very timeless that would feel youthful. It is a very type of James Dean type of t-shirt and jeans, but it is quite difficult to get these things right, so there was very of t-shirts and very of jeans until we got the right fit for Leo. With the white shirt, my assistant designer Lauren spent one day at the pool with Leo and tested white shirts. (Laugh) I think she had a nice day at work.
Life is so unfair.
I didn’t even have to go! But we really wanted to repeat the very famous Mr. Darcy “Pride and Prejudice” scene, of course. There are lots of Easter eggs of all kinds, with dialogue, with jokes, with clothes. Like the first time we meet Bridget in the film, she wears a green dress and land shows up. We wanted it to remind you, she wears a green dress at baptism when they meet in the third movie. And New Year’s Eve, she wears a small headband with silver, which is to remind you when she is full of karaoke in the first movie. So it is really subtle little bridget-ys there that felt quite important, and I think that (Roxster’s wet shirt) was definitely a kind of extra. We really wanted to find something that held but did not look through. Again, it is much more difficult than it seems to get the right thing. But it was a Paul Smith shirt that does exactly the right things.
Yes, because if it is too transparent it stops being sexy and it becomes a joke.
Yes, exactly. And I think that throughout the movie we really wanted to use clothes in an authentic way so that they were not caricatures or jokes. It is not right if he feels comical at that moment.
Roxster’s clothes are youthful but not young. And it is so important when you see him stand next to Bridget that he looks younger but not young.
Yes, I think so because then it is too much. It is interesting because with Bridget I was very, very keen to make sure that Bridget felt like Bridget. And for me, with all my research that goes back over the films, Bridget’s short skirts are the most bridge. And I was, “Yes, ok, she’s in the fifties, but why shouldn’t she?” You know, I’m in the mid -forties and I wear shorter skirts than I’ve ever done.
What I think you did so brilliantly with the bridges costumes is that there is still the feeling of chaos, but there is. The layers, the patterns – it happens so much visually, but it is all coherent and still feels just the right side of discontinued.
To hear you say it makes me very happy. It makes me think that we in a way achieved what we intended to do. We didn’t want anything to distract from what is happening. And Renée is very, very, very sure of who Bridget is and what she will wear. I can’t really put words into words. It’s a feeling and it just works or not. And it was very important to me that I respected the work (of) the previous three costume designs.
So there are things that are back (from previous movies). Bridget wears its gray hood belt coat, which comes from the first movie when she goes to Turkey Curry Buffet. She wears her plum scarf from the same scene. Pajamas. There is the transparent gold top with the mini skirt that we had to recreate, which was essentially one of the most difficult work, because none of us could find out what it was actually damn about. (Laugh)
Where did you buy Bridget’s clothes? Was it tailor made? Vintage?
It was a mixture. One thing I did when I met Renée and understood her process a little more, I went to Hampstead and wrote a list of all the stores there. Bridget and Mark live in Hampstead in the story, so in principle we went shopping in the broadcast stores and charity stores in Hampstead. So if there was something super interesting or a label or something similar, Bridget could have gone to the charity shop and bought it because that was what we did. It was a authenticity that meant that I might be able to get it past Renée.
There is a real melancholy for this movie that I am not sure people expect, and much of it comes from having this character in our lives for so long, see how she has developed and what life has thrown at her.
Michael Morris is such an incredible director. The way he handles grief is so – my dad died when I was quite young, so I pulled my experiences pretty much. I remember my mom used to wear a lot of her clothes, so we did it with a bridget. When she goes to Hampstead Heath, she wears a shirt that was Markus that we monogramed with MD. She wears this type of oversized gray cashmere which is really Bobbly, and it is like her comfort blanket as we say was Markus.
We have to talk about Mr. Wallaker.
We have to talk about Mr. Wallaker because I love him so much.
He is so snapped in a completely different way than Mark Darcy.
It was something I was very, very aware of. This character could definitely not be something like Mark Darcy when it comes to me, costly. It tried to find a line where he felt snappy or serious enough, but that there was a warmth that we could understand the children were a little drawn to him.
I thought a lot about our school teachers and the type of stereotypical school teachers from our past. My English teacher was very tweedy and cords and similar things. So I took it, and then I thought a lot about my friends who are a teacher now. So he’s good looking and smart. All his clothes were tailor made by my tailor, Chris Kerr. Everything is made for Chiwetel specifically, and then it meant that I could choose fabrics that were really nice herring legs with oranges, and he wears this overcoat at the end, which is like a green and black check. I really wanted him to have personality and style, so he wears denim shirts during his suits and such things. I don’t think it’s super kind of statement-y, but it kind of gives his character elsewhere, I think, from someone we have seen with bridget before.
The transparent top, I think, can be your triumph. I really assumed it was from the archives.
My God, I spent a whole flight back from LA, and I was like, “right, I’ll sit here for 10 hours.” And I literally only saw that scene and freeze it framed it and ran back. I was like, “I have to find out what the hell this is.” I mean, I still don’t have. That top probably came from Topshop, and who knew it would be so iconic?
“Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy” now flows on peacock.
