Shop the Best Looks From the Franchise

In “Mad About the Boy,” the fourth installment of the “Bridget Jones” franchise, a lot has changed in the 10 years since we last saw our blundering, endearing and endlessly relatable titular character canonically played by Renée Zellweger. She’s been widowed for four years following the death of her husband Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), she has two children and she is, against all odds, a real adult well into her 50s.

But the millions of adoring fans of the “Bridget Jones” universe, which began as a book series in 1996 before being adapted into the hugely successful movie franchise in 2001, will be happy to know that some things stay the same — including Hugh Grant as the impossibly charming bachelor, Daniel Cleaver. Other facets of Bridget’s life that endured with time: electric blue cocktails, penguin pajamas, red leatherbound journals, cashmere cardis, denim jackets.

For costume designer Molly Rowe, though, “It was always the short skirts.”

“She was always in skirt, skirt, skirts,” she tells Variety. “It felt like a very subtle but important opportunity to think about why wouldn’t a woman in her 50s still be wearing short skirts? We can’t meet her 10 years later and she’s suddenly in a lounge suit or long skirts and whatnot — that’s not Bridget.”

“It was an opportunity to say that we should all be wearing what we want,” Rowe continues. “Times have changed and we should be embracing clothing that makes us feel confident and happy and good about ourselves.”

Many of the most pivotal scenes in “Mad About the Boy” feature Bridget in the sartorial triad seen in the original movie poster and that has inspired many a Halloween costume over the years: skirt, cardigan, boots. We see her in variations of the ensemble while guest lecturing her son’s elementary class during their school’s career day, on a date with the much-younger Roxter (Leo Woodall) and on her first day back at her high-powered producer gig after a long hiatus.

But Bridget’s clothing help tell an even more distinctive story in the newest film, which sees her undergo a drastic evolution as she digs herself out of a pit of grief. “When we meet her, she’s trying to get through the day so it felt very important that there was nothing kind of new and unworn and pristine,” says Rowe, who sourced much of the clothing at charity shops and consignment stores across Bridget’s home in Hampstead in North London.

“Bridget has nice clothes, but there’s something always a little bit off about what she’s put together like she never looks super stylish,” Rowe says, adding that she actively avoided designer labels. “That would make her feel inaccessible somehow to the audience and that’s something that we would never, ever want to do. She has to remain all of us.”

Early scenes see her in gray joggers, oversized hoodies and, amazingly, those firetruck red penguin pajamas from the first film, which Rowe says “do not exist.”

“We had to recreate them, which was much harder than it maybe seems.”

The surprisingly arduous process involved buying loads of different fabrics and camera testing them to make sure “the red was the right kind of red.” They then had to ask the graphics department to make penguins, which they then printed onto the fabric before washing it multiple times to remove excess pigment. Finally, they removed some of the buttons to make it look “threadbare” and lived in.

“What’s kind of great is everyone just presumes those pajamas have just existed all that time which is obviously what we wanted but the reality is quite different,” Rowe says.

The fleece pajamas are one of many articles of clothing that nod at the previous three films, a few of which Rowe was able to actually source from the archives. One of Rowe’s favorites was the gray hooded coat that Bridget wears when she first meets Darcy at the while at the turkey curry buffet in the first movie.

“It felt really incredible, actually, when we opened that box,” Rowe exclaims. “There was a lot of screaming in the costume department.”

At the end of the day, it’s clear that even after death and a failed situationship, that the youthful 32 year-old Bridget we were introduced to in the first film is still here and ready to find love — mini skirts and all.

Below, shop through some of the best clothing inspired by “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy“: