Bustling With 'Bridgerton': Cressida Cowper's Armor for the Discerning Regency Young Lady

Welcome to the final issue of Bustling With Bridgerton, a series celebrating and delving into the costumes designed for four of Bridgerton’s most interesting characters: Queen Charlotte, Eloise Bridgerton, Penelope Featherington, and Cressida Cowper. Between the releases of the season’s two halves, costume designer John Glaser, along with associate costume designer Dougie Hawkes and assistant costume designer Henry Wilkinson, sat down with Telly Visions to chat about the visual inspirations, character and story arcs that they drew on for each character’s looks as her position in the ton and their experiences with the mysterious Lady Whistledown ebb and flow. This week, we’re discussing Cressida Cowper’s (Jessica Madsen) increasingly voluminous and visually loud ensembles.

Previously, On Bridgerton

In the first and second seasons of Bridgerton, Cressida Cowper has been a classic Mean Girl: conventionally pretty, wealthy, and snobby. Her overt and covert nastiness towards the likes of Penelope and Eloise was generally overlooked, if Mammas even noticed it, because she’s conventionally pretty and wealthy, factors reflected in her wardrobe. Her gowns were in vogue but otherwise unremarkable – no bold colors or shade combinations, no truly out-there embellishments, just standard high-end looks for a high-end young lady on the marriage mart.