(upbeat music) - We're meant to be set in 1769, so it is all absolutely accurate.

Everything made to measure, every wig, every everything.

- Honestly, the 1760s, 70s is my favorite period ever.

I just think the outfits are really wonderful.

The women looked amazing and the men looked amazing as well.

- There are no photographs of that period, obviously.

So it's artwork from the period that we use mainly to get an idea of what people would wear.

- I'll be honest and say that when you are told that you're doing a period drama, you sort of envision yourself looking very dashing in a nice frock coat and a lovely hat and wig.

And I look like this, which is, you know, it's made me a bit furious.

- We couldn't get anybody full-time to dress-make for us.

I'm a dressmaker, so I just thought, well, let's start making dresses - Literally incredible.

Like, they're just like handmade everything.

It's like, what?

- We ended up making all of Sophia's dresses and all of Lady Bellaston's dresses.

We got it down to about a dress every three days.

- All the costumes look very lived in.

They don't look like they're just thrown on us.

- The beauty of a period drama is how costume and makeup inform character and journey.

And I think it's quite clear with Sophia.

- The fabrics that Hazel used, they all have a journey.

They change with Sophia.

- You see her come back from Bath, and that's a whole other look.

And then she kind of goes into her country self, and then to London.

And yeah, I think it really tracks the progression of her character.

- For the ladies, we have stuck pretty much to what they would've worn then.

And what I did want to do was to use Irish Lemon.

- A sensible choice for traveling, yes?

- I think the costumes and the hair and makeup and seeing everything visually really helps kind of get grounded and get into it a lot more.

I could put on the jacket and I'd be like, Tom's here.

- We started off with Solly's outfit.

Although he was a member of Allworthy's family, he wasn't treated as well, as Blifil so he wasn't given new clothes and he had to make due with what he had.

And then we had Lady Bellaston, and she was the exciting one to make.

- Lady Bellaston is without doubt the highest status in the whole show.

- We couldn't quite decide how she should look.

Would we make her amusing to look at or should she just look really sexy or should she look hot, sexy, and amusing?

This is the underskirt for Lady Bellaston.

This blue dress sits over this and it just makes her absolutely enormous.

She just loves wearing it.

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