Inside Queen Charlotte’s Georgian Jewelery Fantasy

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“We kept running out of jewelry,” says costume designer Lynn Paolo, the mastermind behind the silky, shimmering ornate costumes. Queen Charlotteis highly anticipated Bridgerton The first part was finally delivered on Netflix last week. Because, as we all know, it takes a ton of diamonds to adorn a royal family, as well as pearls, sapphires, rubies and emeralds (as confirmed at the coronation last Saturday).consider Bridgerton MO, which focuses on pop culture decoration, and fun–If you ignore boring historical facts, the stones will undoubtedly pile up.

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And yet another challenge? Bridgerton A completely fictional world spun from Julia Quinn’s early ’80s novel. Queen Charlotte Based loosely on a real person – she’s already a staple of the former as a gossipy, over-the-top-haired monarch, but now with her own nuanced backstory – the show. has entered the canon of modern television storytelling. The young lives of legendary queens in history. For Paolo and co-costume designer Laura Flecon, it was necessary to find a delicate stylistic balance between maintaining its signature irreverent charm while also being a nod to the past. “On one level we tried to stay true to the time, but on another level we wanted to reinvent it,” says Paolo. “we, Bridgerton So we came up with the idea of making the palette more like an Impressionist painting. ”

Women, richly dressed and decorated, Queen Charlottecourt.
Liam Daniel/Netflix

However, she admits that the bijou needed to be more “appropriate”, not only in its fine Georgian detail, but also in its volume. “We are dealing with the royal family here, not just the famous Dong family,” she said. This meant that jewels, real or costumed, had to be created, procured and commissioned for the suites, parures and stomachers to be pinned to the bodice or studded in the hair. They found fine pearls in Germany, had their costume tiaras made in Italy, and even threw away their own hair for mourning jewelry.

They also looked to Emily Sutloff, Larkspur & Hawk, a brand that brilliantly celebrates Georgian lapidary craftsmanship. Her work with quartz infused a modern sensibility into the 18th-century practice of foil-backed stone and was already so perfect for Charlotte’s aesthetic that Paolo and Flecon simply had to delve into her archives. had.

Queen Charlotte of Larkspur and Hawk Riviere (Ria Amateifio, India).
Liam Daniel/Netflix

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“It was like a wheelhouse,” says Sutloff. “When I saw their first mood board, I was like, ‘This sings to me. I knew what I had, what my spirit was.”

Satoroff’s love for Georgian gems predates the founding of Larkspur & Hawk in 2008. Her previous life was an antique jewelry dealer specializing in that era. After spending years teaching her clients to foil, her transition to design was a natural one. “She’s inspired by the 18th century in the sense that I respect her 18th century, but I’m not literally recreating it,” she says. It reflects the philosophy of the 18th century. Bridgerton/Queen Charlotte universe.

Larkspur & Hawk founder Emily Sutloff.
Andres Oyeula

Foiling is just one example of the kind of innovation that characterized Georgian British jewelry. Take funeral jewels, for example. Queen Victoria may have popularized the concept by wearing a sweet memento of her deceased loved one’s hair tied up, but Princess Charlotte’s time also saw Giardinetti rings and was equally popular. This period was also a period of exploration and discovery. “Brazil opened mines and made more stone readily available,” Satoroff says. “Diamonds and pearls were absolutely popular, but so were garnets, emeralds, rubies, spinels and corals.”

And jewelry has become much more democratic. There was the invention of paste (the glass baubles of the time still cost thousands today) and other innovations such as the use of cutting steel. Even Candlelight: “You might think that candlelight will be around forever, but candles were improved in the Georgian era to allow evening events for royalty as well as wealthy members of society.” she says. Input: Evening Bijou.

This shows that jewelery lovers might find it especially fun to watch. Queen Charlotte. And to those who challenge the Impressionist interpretation of this work? “People might say it wasn’t literal, it wasn’t physiological, it should have been,” Sutloff says. “Thanks to the craftsmanship, I hope you can see that it was actually a Rivière in many ways. , fully related to the Georgian era.”