Unveiling the Marvel of Queen Charlotte’s Bridgerton Swan Wig: A Two-Year Tale of Intrigue and Creativity
Queen Charlotte has some iconic looks throughout the seasons of Bridgerton. But I cannot and will not get over that moving swan wig in the final episode of part one of season three of Bridgerton. How on earth did they do it?? Was it heavy to wear? I need to know everything.
Well luckily for us both Queen Charlotte’s actress, Golda Rosheuvel and also the wigs team have shared how the iconic look was made.
In an interview with People, Golda called it a “genius moment of beautiful crafting, storytelling” and said: “That took two years in the making for it to all be signed off. Cause it’s certain departments that have to be involved in making that. There’s a battery pack that has to be made, there’s wires that have to be connected.”
Talking about the wigs team’s vision, she said, “They always wanted to make a wig with machinery, but what that was evolved through the two years, and we eventually ended up with what you see onscreen.”
But “It’s not that heavy,” she admitted, sharing that “the mechanism isn’t in the wig.”
Emma Rigby, the wig designer for the show, also posted a reel on Instagram showing the making process of the wig including the mechanism that makes the swans move. I am hooked!
Speaking about the Bridgerton Queen Charlotte swan wig in the caption, she said: “I never expected this wig to pop off like it has but it’s so nice that something that has required so much brain power, hours of love, trial and error to be noticed.
“When Erika first told me her design I legit panicked and didn’t know how I was going to pull it off. I’ve never been properly taught how to make cages, just hoped that whatever I was making was light and sturdy enough but throwing in mechanics aswell 🤯 it was a challenge.
“I first made the platform inside the cage to hold the carousel and to work out where the back weight would be on Golda’s head before making the outside ‘egg’ part. Erika had the carousel 3D printed and sprayed it gold before putting in the petals and swans.
She added: “As I was dressing the wig our very talented hair and makeup artist Lara Prentice painted the back drop to sit behind the swans which is beautiful in itself. We also got a lovely gold bejewelled tree from costume to finish off the look.
“When we got Golda ready for her scenes, I carried around batteries to set the swans on and off in between takes which was built into her dress, costume kindly made a little pocket into the back of her dress and a wire ran through the back ringlet so you couldn’t see the connection.
“To complete the look we also placed little battery tea lights inside the wig to light up the swans. Trying to angle these to avoid the swans was quite difficult.”
