For costume designer Emma Fryer, working on ITV’s new drama The Lady was utterly “joyous”.
Her experience on the series was made all the more enjoyable by the show’s “amazing” star Mia McKenna-Bruce, who leads the cast as Jane Andrews, Sarah Ferguson’s former dresser who was convicted of murdering her boyfriend in 2001.
“She’s a star that’s in the making to become an even bigger star,” Emma says of the 28-year-old actress, who is quickly becoming a household name thanks to starring roles in Netflix’s Agatha Christie drama, The Seven Dials Mystery, and the coming-of-age drama, How to Have Sex, for which she won the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2024.
She’s also set to play Maureen Starkey, Ringo Starr’s first wife, in Sam Mendes’ upcoming quartet of Beatles films, which features a stellar line-up including Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan and Saoirse Ronan.
“She’s got such a lovely energy about her and was just great to be with. She was on set every minute of the day,” reveals Emma, who worked closely with Mia on the four-part drama, which also stars Game of Thrones actress Natalie Dormer as the former Duchess of York and Downton Abbey‘s Ed Speleers as Jane’s boyfriend and murder victim, Thomas Cressman.
© James Pardon/Left Bank/Sony Pictures Television“She’s got such a lovely energy about her and was just great to be with. She was on set every minute of the day.”
“It’s such a collaboration,” says the designer. “It is a dramatised account inspired by real events, but from my point of view as a costume designer, it’s so important that we find that character together and that [she’s] really happy and feels that the clothes are right for the character that she’s also creating.”
Costuming a true story-inspired drama
Spanning three decades from the 1980s, the drama follows the extraordinary life of Jane, a working-class girl who, after responding to an advertisement in the magazine The Lady, became the former Duchess of York’s dresser at Buckingham Palace. But after nine years of moving amongst Britain’s highest social circles, Jane lost her job and went on to meet charismatic businessman Thomas Cressman, whom she was convicted of murdering in 2001.
“We were in the 80s, 90s and ended up in the early 2000s,” says Emma. “To costume three decades is always a wonderful and joyous thing to do as a costume designer.”
© Jonathan Ford/Left Bank/Sony Pictures TelevisionEmma is no stranger to costuming lavish period dramas, having worked on series like The Great, a satirical comedy about Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, Netflix’s 2022 adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and ITV’s A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story.
She created over one hundred looks for The Lady, inspired by fashion trends of the 80s and 90s, such as Laura Ashley clothing, as well as real photos of Jane and Sarah, the latter of whom Emma thinks influenced Jane’s style evolution.
“To costume three decades is always a wonderful and joyous thing to do as a costume designer.”
“In terms of real photographs of them together, there’s very much a picture of them in matching blazers, but there was a very clear colour palette thread as well,” says Emma, who sourced the 1980s outfits from costume houses and the more contemporary looks from high street shops.
© James Pardon/Left Bank/Sony Pictures TelevisionEmma, who grew up in the 1980s, particularly enjoyed designing costumes set in that period. “I loved the eighties in terms of the Duchess’s world, with the shoulder pads and the power dressing and the block colour. There was a very sort of playfulness about it.”
The importance of remaining ‘respectful’
But when dealing with subject matter based on true events, Emma says it’s important to be considerate of the real people involved.
“I’ve done jobs like this before, like the Ruth Ellis story, where they’re difficult stories to tell on a certain level, and there are elements that you have to be incredibly respectful about in terms of certain characters,” says Emma, who aligned Jane’s colour palette with her journey in the rags-to-riches tale, from her working-class beginnings through to life as a royal aide, her tumultuous relationship with Thomas and her murder conviction.
“Jane starts off as very much a working class girl that ends up in a completely different world that she’s unfamiliar with,” explains Emma. “Then we jump into the vibrant eighties world and then at the end, with her relationship with Tommy, the colour palette was very much restricted. It went quite dark and it really was a very different palette to the one that we started off with when we see her working in Buckingham Palace for Sarah Ferguson.”
© James Pardon/Left Bank/Sony Pictures TelevisionThe show’s release comes during a difficult period for the royals, with both Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson linked to the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, but for Emma, “it’s all about the clothes”.
When asked about the timing of the drama’s release, Emma says: “I feel that’s something else. For me, it was embracing the wonderful worlds of the different decades. That’s what the deliciousness of the job was for me. It was an incredible journey that I went on with both those characters.”
The Lady airs on ITV1 and ITVX on 22 February.
Read the full article here
