'Wolf Hall' Costume Notes: Tudor-wear Fit for Royalty & Relations

Mirrors! Lights! Camera! Action! It’s time for another spin through the lookbooks of Wolf Hall's second season, The Mirror and The Light, in search of the most remarkable costumes. This week's column will cover Episodes 2 through 4 ("Obedience," "Defiance," and "Jenneke") of everyone’s deservedly favorite costume drama, taking us through several pivotal moments on Thomes Cromwell’s (Mark Rylance) way all the way down. 

Funnily enough, Cromwell isn’t anywhere close to being included in this round-up, but he doesn’t dress to be noticed. 

My pick for Episode 2’s Costume of the Week can only be Henry VIII’s quasi-Turkish masquerade costume, which I think of as Orientalist, But Make It Fashion. From the turned-up toes of the slippers to the voluminous turban, these are luxury pajamas for the man who might, at a moment’s notice, need to perform at the center of a saucy little dance ensemble. Henry Tudor (Damian Lewis) stands ready to serve! The yardage alone is extravagant, and the yardage of this particular fabric is almost shocking. The theatre kid energy emanating from this ensemble could power the electrical grid for Hampton Court Palace and the entire City of Westminster. It’s so intense that I’ve wondered for days if some of Henry’s general malaise could have been alleviated by being permitted to pursue a career on the stage. We’ll never know about that, but what we do know is that this getup is, as the kids say, a serve. 

The doublet is made of a metallic fabric that shifts from depths of the sea green to gold as the light moves across the great billows formed by the leg o’mutton sleeves that gather at the elbow into a tight cuff, buttoned down to the wrist. In marked contrast to the sleeves, the bodice is reinforced to be very stiff and features dark gray jewels (perhaps faceted glass) arrayed over embroidery in maroon, gold, silver, and the same green-to-gold as the sleeves. Taken all together, it’s visually reminiscent of a Persian rug pattern. 

Below the doublet is a massive, eight-to-ten-inch maroon cummerbund-style sash leading into the pantaloons. The metallic fabric from the doublet appears again, this time in wide vertical stripes, alternating with matte fabric. These are in a balloon shape to about the knee and are then fitted down to the maroon slippers; all the better to see the king’s gams and his fancy footwork. Henry dances very well in this scene, and though he must sit with his chronically painful decaying leg up immediately after the performance, we get a tantalizing and rather melancholy feel for what a lively and attention-grabbing partier the younger King Henry would have been.

It’s hard to make it look relatable, being married to one of the most powerful men in the world and one of Western history’s worst examples of adult-onset toddleritis (in some circles better known as Acting Like Veruca Salt), but who among us hasn’t had it up to here with feeling bad about not completing a significant project? I can say from personal experience that putting on a cute outfit to keep my inner snarling monster at bay is a helpful strategy. 

I hope it was for Jane, too, because she looks fantastic in her Real Housewives of St. James’s Palace gown.

The gown’s deep shade of purple is the star of the show here. Yes, for once even gold takes second place in comparison with the color of royalty, even though it’s present in near-overflowing abundance. The stomacher festooned with a large, symmetrical design in gold so she catches the light with each step. The richest possible colors and the finest silk, velvet, and metallic weave fabric; the touches of snowy white lace at her cuffs and neckline, which is encrusted with pearls and amethysts – all of it combines to make Jane look resplendent. She might be too conditioned to meekness to appear formidable, but this gown gets her about 75% of the way there if she had a mind to embrace it. 

Episode 4 introduces us to Jenneke (Ellie de Lange), the daughter Cromwell never knew he had, who is visiting from Antwerp. Her entire look, from the net shaping her hair into a crown to the front-lacing bodice of her gown, announces her as an International Woman of Mystery. The impression is cemented by her Flemish accent and direct way of speaking. 

Jenneke is a no-nonsense woman who lives, if not in wealth, then in considerable comfort. Her rich brown suede gloves and robe – celadon green with a complementary gray collar – are a great example of quiet luxury. It looks like woven wool, so it lacks the swishy sound we get with all of the silk gowns popular at court, but it drapes so elegantly that we know it’s not made of cheap stuff. Her gown is similarly understated, in a slightly darker green with intermittent tallish stripes in camel on the skirt and a creamy linen chemise. 

The trim at her collar and cuffs is a woven band of camel and green – again, nothing too fancy, but beautifully made. I’d have made her look my pick of the episode just for its marked contrast with the English court style, but it goes the extra mile by being interesting in addition to visually distinctive.

Across these three episodes, I also have two Honorable Mentions to highlight: poor Queen Jane’s postpartum night clothes, and Gregory Cromwell’s (Charlie Rowe) whole deal. We see the increasingly ailing queen in a lovely white linen gown and cap with scarlet floral embroidery at the cuffs and crown, and then as a stripe running down her sleeves. I find the cap particularly poignant, as I imagine she already knew she was unlikely to survive to see her son live, but put it on anyway because that’s what queens do. 

For his part, Gregory (whose outfit is above with Jenneke) deserves a shout-out for being one of the only men who does not adhere to a monochromatic wardrobe. His sleeves are not quite as voluminous as the king’s, but otherwise mimic his style. In this episode, he’s sporting a doublet in sky blue and not-quite-gold brocade. Again, it's not flashy, but it's noticeable and noteworthy all the same. 

Wolf Hall: The Mirror & the Light airs on most local PBS stations and streams on the PBS app weekly on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. All episodes are available for PBS Passport members and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel to binge before their on-air broadcast.