The Tudors Costumes: Henry VIII - Season 4
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For Season 4, Joan Bergin, the costume designer was asked :What did you especially enjoy about designing the costumes for Henry VIII? "Well his was an extraordinary journey – I would say unrivalled in film or TV - in costume terms because it begins with a concept of him as a kind of rock star of his time. You know, this young man, everybody was affected by him and that it was the dawn of a new Camelot. And we took him right through to the state he is at the end of season 4 which is a sour, decaying, disillusioned and disappointed king. And the actor (Jonathon Rhys Meyers) is unusual in that you have someone who both looks so good in these costumes, but also has such an understanding of clothes and that helps enormously. This year has probably been the most interesting in costume terms because we had to find some way of showing that Henry was older although the actor is still 32 years of age and slim. So we built up this system of padding from 1 to 5 and then we added a lot of furs and lots of gold so that the opulence masked the disillusionment. We grew him into a look that demonstrated that he really wanted to show the power of his kingdom until he became seriously ill which is historically true. The set designers have reduced his world to a wonderful gothic black and gold and purple which is opulent, but you have to strain to see him in it and I went with that very much for the costuming. So it was like somebody who put on fine clothes but was no longer interested in them. But the greatest thrill for me was making the costume for the famous Holbein portrait that everyone knows of Henry VIII. I think everyone thought that we would deliver a version of it, but what we delivered was every exact detail, so that when he walked onto the set the gasp was very wonderful! We even made the jewellery to match the portrait. It was just wonderful. How did you dress the final scenes that end the season and the show? The final great moment is the reappearance of Henry’s wives so I went for the whole gothic look, black and big veils. They appear in costumes that we haven’t seen before; I thought it was important to have a particular look to have them as almost a separate poster for the last 2 episodes to show him as old. He got the most wonderful makeup from an LA makeup artist to show him old. " |