Bridget Jones put on in the fifties: the ‘Fazzled Englishwoman’ grows up

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Twenty years since the actor Renée Zellweger appeared for the first time in the film adaptation by Helen Fieldings literary bestseller “Bridget Jones’ Diary”, she has been for her fourth round as lovable, clutty figure that is looking for love. Although this time in “Bridget Jones: Mad before the boy” there is no longer a carefree young woman, but a widow in the 50s with two children.

Jones personal stylish, a quirky, at times poorly fitting wardrobe from short skirts, gap usage points, mumsy-knitted jackets, grandma trousers and long Schals-help in an unforgettable part of the pop culture history of the Noughties pop culture. However, this was not the intention of the costume designer Rachael Fleming.

When Fleming created the outfits for the first cast of Bridget Jones from 2001, Fleming tried to give Jones – whose diary detailed her romantic adventure, her weight, alcohol and cigarette consumption – a pragmatic, somewhat torn look that is for Much working women feels attracted. It is a perspective that now feels even more relevant in a shiny world in a shiny world.

Since then, the style has produced a microtrend, which was shaped as a “fazed English” aesthetics, which includes the kind of random stratification, which, due to the unpredictable weather of the country, can often be seen on the British people. Think of a tangled Kate Winslet in “The Holiday” or a confused Keira Knightley in “Love actually”. Such archetypes have also accidentally occurred on the landingways of luxury brands such as Chanel and Miu Miu.

The feeling of “authenticity” and “roots in reality” was crucial for Molly Emma Rowe, the costume designer for Bridget Jones’ latest Big Screen adaptation. “Bridget has a few nice clothes and she tries her best, but she always understands it a little wrong. There is always something a bit, regardless of whether it is the fit or the pattern or pattern or the color sales, ”she said CNN about a call.

In the new film, which will be released in the British cinemas and Peacock in the USA on February 13, in the costume or the racy tiger pressure underwear with nothing but a camisole and a cardigan when she is Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) chased in the snow. This time this type of “unpleasant situations” are simply not available, Rowe added.

Now that Jones juggles a career with parents, friendships and dating: “It’s a very emotional film,” said Rowe. “We try to bring Bridget back to life and help her navigate through her grief. It was important for us that their clothes did not challenge it when she found her way. ”

Jones’ wardrobe is enough for the character. Cocktail dresses and cozy twinets were exchanged for work-friendly blazers and cardigans over shirts, although Rowe kept some of Jones’ flirty personality by dressing them in pieces such as a mini skirt and being horrified with stockings. There are also many subtle, nostalgic references to previous films, such as an Emerald Green dress that Jones is fighting in the opening scene of the new film to stir up without Darcy – an allusion to her look in the third film if you reunite with Darcy .

With just 12 weeks to bring a wardrobe for the line-up, and only a few of Jones’ old clothes in the archives have recovered some historical looks, and the notorious Red Penguin-Print-Pyjama set (a version of the Pyjama top becomes a version worn by Jones on a school run in the new film). “The original no longer existed, so we had to create them again,” said Rowe. “We have tested a lot of red on the screen to make sure that after filming it would still look like the original red. This required hideing (the fabric), pulling threads and fracture buttons so that they had been worn and washed for over 20 years. ”

That was an important premise of the clothes worn by Jones: “Fashion is cyclical. You may find things that you wore many years ago that you will try again later. We did it Bridget, ”Rowe remarked. Many of the pieces wore in the film were made up of charity and consignment transactions such as Mary’s Living and Giving in Hampstead, the district of Nordlondon, in which their character lives. “Mark died four years ago and Bridget does not buy clothes. She fights to keep it together, which is one of the reasons why nothing (in her life) looks new, ”said Rowe.

Coping with grief and his subsequent influence on how a dress was another focus. Rowe supported her personal experience after losing her father as a teenager, a “confusing time” that changed the nature of her mother. “My mother wore a lot of his clothes during this time. I think it was as if you were grasping for a comfort ceiling. “This inspired the oversized bobly gray cardigan and the shirts that were monogrammed with Mark Darcy’s initials and the Jones carries continuously. For Rowe, it also added a nuanced perspective that was not part of the script: “We were able to create the idea of ​​what Mark Darcy wore with Bridget and the children at home, which they never see on the screen. “”

“Bridget Jones: Mad About the Junge” also follows the latest publications of films that concentrate on women in the fifties, such as “The Substance”, The Provocative Horror Comedy with Demi Moore as a former A-Lister-a-list Past on her flowering period and drawn to the potential advantages of a mysterious new drug and “baby girl”, an erotic thriller with Nicole Kidman as a high-flying CEO, which begins an illegal affair with a young internship. It is a welcome development after years of inequality in the representation of middle and older women in film and television (female characters aged 50 and over have a report 2024 of the Geena Davis Institute in cooperation with the next initiative)

If Rowe has a message for spectators, she hopes that she will “be authorized to feel comfortable in her weak points,” she said. “It is very inspiring to be a woman or to see this kind of films in the 50s.”