Hidden details in Cressida’s iconic red dress reveal a lot about her Bridgerton character

If there’s one thing for certain during this season of Bridgerton, it’s that Cressida Cowper has been serving non-stop looks.  Between her comically oversized sleeves to the hidden meaning behind her hair in her final scene, all of her outfits are chock full of symbolism.

In episode six, Cressida Cowper decides to take matters into her own hands and pretends to be Lady Whistledown in a move that would make even Dan Humphrey’s proud. Such a bold move needed an equally bold move, and she wore a stunning red revenge dress, which the designer described as an “F U dress.” Very iconic. But of course, there’s far more to this dress than first meets the eye.

 

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In an interview with Variety, Bridgerton clothes designer John Glaser described the meaning behind the iconic red revenge dress. He explained: “It’s translucent, so it’s not giant, heavy. It still has mystery to it. You’re not really sure where it stops, where it starts and you’re not really sure if it’s a red dress.”

And whilst Cressida’s sleeves were usually almost comically oversized throughout the season in order to create the illusion of her having “armour”, due to the design of this dress the sleeves remained their normal size. But John still felt like viewers needed to feel like she had an element of being protected and created this with the addition of a huge bow on her back. This works on two levels, firstly the back is often the most exposed element of the body someone would want to protect. Secondly, by falsely declaring herself as Whistledown, Cressida is is quite literally putting a huge target on her back.

Cressida has felt out of control all season, but John describes this moment as one where she’s taking the reins, adding “it’s like an F-U dress when she walks in.” She served stone cold revenge and you know what, she looked great whilst doing it.

Bridgerton season three is available on Netflix now –  For more like this article on Cressida Cowper and all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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