If you don’t adore Bridget Jones, I don’t want you in my life. The devotion for this character runs deep for those of us who fancy her, and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy reunites us during one of the most difficult moments of Bridget’s life. When we are faced with an emotional, seemingly impossible moment, we reach for clothes that help comfort us. If you feel like the world isn’t offering any solutions, a cozy, soft sweater or a comfy pair of pants are as effective as a tight hug from a lifelong friends. Costume designer Molly Emma Rowe extends her knowing, affectionate hand to our beloved Bridget when she needs it most.
Rowe was eager to board this new chapter of Bridget’s life, because, to put it quite simply, she loves the character. This sequel can lean into a more dramatic direction since we’ve been with her for so many years, but Rowe didn’t want to reach for easy callbacks just to have them included in the film. Everything has intention. In order to serve the story of Bridget Jones, Rowe had to ask herself some very fundamental questions.
“I am a huge, lifelong Bridget Jones fan,” Rowe admits. “I remember stealing my mum’s books when I was a teenager and reading Helen [Fielding]’s columns in the paper. When speaking with the director, Michael Morris, we both really referred back to the first film. I didn’t want to have any costume-y gags, and I didn’t want to be laughing at how Bridget looked at any time. Any time we reference, we do it very sweetly. Our first question to ask ourselves was how do we want Bridget to look? What is the essence of Bridget? I watched the movies over and over again, and, quite honestly, short skirts are Bridget. Or a tight, little cardigan with a mini skirt with her legs out. I wanted to harness those things so that her silhouette felt like the Bridget that we all love and recognize as well as honor every other designer who had created the character [Zellweger] along the way.”
Something that I love from Rowe’s designs is how we do see items from Bridget’s closet, but they aren’t in-your-face or too flashy. Bridget doesn’t seem like she would throw something away, because it went out of style. If you go into your closet, you will find pieces or items that you have held onto for years and years.
“I asked Universal for a list of what they had in archive and picked something from every movie,” she says. “It felt important to have a subtle nod to sustainability and how we should be reusing things. Fashion is cyclical, and, a lot of the time, something we loved 20 years ago will become cool again. Also, when you’re in deep bereavement or grief, you reach for things that are comfortable and nostalgic for you. When she goes to the Smug Marrieds for dinner, she’s wearing the grey, hooded coat that she wears in the very first time that we meet Bridget when she’s on her way to the curry buffet in the first film. It was very moving when I presented this idea to Renée, because she hadn’t seen this thing for over 20 years. Also, Mark has seen her in that coat, and Renée got a bit emotional when we talked about it. It took her to that place, I think, especially because we see Mark in the opening sequence of our film.”
The collaboration between Zellweger and Rowe was essential. She wasn’t just plopping items down and assuming that it would fit into Bridget Jones’ closet. It was built meticulously beween the actor who has played her for nearly two and a half decades and someone who has a lot of love for the character herself. One of the most refreshing things that Rowe tells me is that how she connects to the character may not be the way that Zellweger interprets it. The costume designer had to learn from and understand Zellweger’s point of view to gain an even deeper appreciation.
“One of the reasons why you love Bridget so much is that you see yourself in her,” Rowe says. “I have seen myself in Bridget Jones for someting like 28 years or so, but that’s not Renée’s Bridget. I need to find out who she wants without my own bias, so that was very interesting to sort that out. Renée’s thing was that Bridget had really nice clothes, but she’s not a brand person. Every single time that she puts something together, something is a little bit off whether it be the fit or the colors or maybe a clash of patterns. There is not a set of instructions for costume designers–it really can be about emotion or feeling–and we did a lot of fittings together. It was about trying to kind of buld this wardrobe out then that would help me put outfits together. I knew Renée would be fine with something becauser she felt that every piece in there felt like the character.”
Leo Woodall’s Roxster is like a Knight in Shining Button-Up Shirt. With his ease demeanor and loving attitude, it’s easy to see how Bridget could fall for someone so classically handsome and charismatic. Rowe’s costuming reminds me of a classic movie star like Paul Newman. Woodall’s character makes everything look effortless, but costuming him was anything but.
“He is the first character that we meet that’s mine in that we’ve never met him before,” she says. “One of the main factors for me is that he is of a very different socioeconominc background to most of the people in Bridget Jones. He’s a student, and he’s studying a lot as he works in the park. I wanted to find things that didn’t make them appear ridiculous together, but I needed the audience to belkieve in this romance. I leaned into thinking about timeless men, I suppose like Marlon Brando or James Dean. That kind of true Hollywood movie star feels like he’s always in jeans and a t-shirt, don’t they? It’s not as easy as that.
There has to be a relaxness about him that none of her other men have had and a kind of confidence and coolness in a completely different way. In Pride & Prejudice, Mr. Darcy famously comes out of a lake with a white shirt on, so my assistant, Lauren Macauley, spent a day with Leo [Woodall] at the pool trying different shirts. She would video hm in the water so I could see what they were like when they were wet, because I wanted it to be see-through but not sheer and it couldn’t cling too much. It was much more complex than you’d think it’d be.”
We talked a lot about how even though Roxster is eventually careless with Bridget’s heart, it’s easy to understand how she blooms around him.
“In a way, he gives her her confidence back,” she says, plainly. “He reminds her of how carefree she used to be, and we get to see old Bridget again. It’s not just about him being younger than her, but he’s kind and sweet, and Bridget is a very, very kind, sweet human being. When he, to use the buzzword, ghosts her, it brings up a lot of factors of the dating world–a world that Bridget hasn’t had to deal with for over ten years. I thought the script did an interesting thing in that it didn’t paint him as just being a dick to be a dick.”
So much of Rowe’s designs are filled with the idea of how clothes can make you feel. We give ourselves over to judging people for what they put on their bodies, but while we dress to impress, our most important audience should always be the person you face in the mirror. Talitha, played by Josette Simon, wears a lot of bold colors and unique silhouettes, and Bridget, when she doubts herself, should take some inspiration and confidence from how clothes makes her friends feel.
“Talitha was another character where we wanted to make a point that you can we can wear whatever we want at any age,” she says. “We did that with Bridget, for sure, but Talitha was a real powerhouse in the vein of no fucks given. Live your life anbd be who you want to be. Own it. All the cliches are true–age is just a number. Everything is intended to be a subtle comment on how there are no rules, and we need to stop judging each other as much as we should empower each other.
That’s why when she meets Roxster for the first time, I wanted her to be in a short dress and a denim jacket. One of my all-time favorite outfits of hers is when she goes on mini break with Daniel Cleaver, and she’s wearing a denim jacket. You can wear that when you’re three or when you’re one hundred. Most people have worn or gone back to a jacket like that–it’s such a statement. It was a nice way to feel classic and timeless. She doesn’t feel like she’s old in it, and she doesn’t have to feel like she’s young.”
I want to steal Daniel Cleaver’s eyeglass–his entire eyewear collection, if I were being honest. Talitha’s bright colors? Put them in my closet. What would Rowe snag for herself?
“Isla Fisher’s character, Rebecca, wears a ’90s, Comme des Garçons vintage tulle skirt with a 1986 Vivienne Westwood jacket from a Storm in a Teacup collection,” Rowe says. “That one is the coolest, because it’s got such an archive pedigree. I want the pussycat, black handbag that Bridget wears. I wear a lot of men’s tailoring, so I’d want Mr. Wallach’s double-breasted Christmas suit as well as Bridget’s pink coat from the holidays.”
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is streaming now on Peacock.
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