Queen Charlotte has been serving up a signature beauty look ever since she swanned onto our television screens in Bridgerton. That’s right, dear reader: Over-the-top, higher-than-high, extravagantly designed wigs. “I lose the most sleep over Queen Charlotte’s looks,” says Erika Ökvist, the Netflix show’s hair and makeup designer. “But in a good way!”
Fans of the show can see why. Queen Charlotte, who is played by Golda Rosheuvel, doesn’t simply have hairdos—in every scene, her hair is styled into something new and unique. Past looks have included a periwinkle bouffant accentuated with a pearl necklace, caramel comb-out with peacock feathers and bows, or clouds of curls with a bird cage perched atop. “I’m just the vessel, really,” says Rosheuvel, who has played the adult queen in both Bridgerton and the limited series Queen Charlotte. “I’m honored to be so. I never think they can top what they did before… and then they do.”
Ökvist shares that her process for designing Queen Charlotte’s Georgian wigs is complex. “I start with historical pictures, books, and museums. Then, I start to add in modern influences to whittle it down to the queen we know and love.”
Florilegius/Getty Images
Florilegius/Getty Images
Florilegius/Getty Images
Florilegius/Getty Images
Of course, it’s hard not to compare the looks to one of the Queen’s contemporaries also known for her extravagant coiffure, Marie Antoinette. “Queen Charlotte was actually a friend of Mary Antoinette’s and I reckon they would have tried to outdo each other. Queen Charlotte won by her swan wig, surely.”
Queen Charlotte hasn’t been portrayed frequently or this in depth in modern media—in 1994’s The Madness of King George, Helen Mirren played a much more subdued version of queen with a classic white powdered wig. But is Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton, not PBS.
“We are sticking to the bells and whistles on this show,” Ökvist says. “Though we have been inspired by history, we are not a historical program.”