– Damian Inhabits the Costume –
by Staff | PBS Masterpiece | April 24, 2025
In Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, a character’s success is measured in silks, stitching, and the symbolism of a regal headpiece. In an interview with MASTERPIECE, costume designer Joanna Eatwell talks about dressing the Tudors from the inside out, channeling 16th-century portraiture, and which actor most fully inhabits her meticulously crafted designs.
MASTERPIECE:
Can you talk about your research and process for the costume design in Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light?
JOANNA EATWELL:
Research is almost my favorite part of the job. I liken it to when you look at a painter; they understand the form to begin with, they understand the rules, the parameters, and the boundaries. And I think with period costume, you must understand the rules. You have to understand what it is that dictates the shape [of a costume], who that person is wearing it, and the context in which they exist. Then you can abstract.
And in Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, we were given the greatest gift ever. And that is Hans Holbein and his court paintings. …Holbein did primarily paint the court, because portraiture was incredibly expensive to have done. And he did a couple of pet portraits of Henry’s servants. And from those, we can get liveries, the King’s guards, we understand how they worked. But he paints fabrics. He’s extraordinary. And I think we’d be lost without him.
For me, by understanding the rules, then you can make [costume] decisions. And people may not guess them on a conscious level, but they flow with the story. And that’s what I love. I’m a history nerd. … I’m at peace with period drama [costuming], because I love art, and I love working things out. …We’re not reinventing anything; we’re kind of recreating reality. We’re trying to create a truth.
MASTERPIECE:
Please say more about “recreating reality.” I understand there’s a technique called Original Practice.
JOANNA EATWELL:
Yes, it originated at the Globe Theater, which is a recreation of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, under the [leadership] of Mark Rylance, when he was the director. In costume terms, Original Practice means that as far as is practical, and within the constraints of budget and schedule and what’s available, you use fabrics and techniques in a way that is as close to the time as possible.
And [with costumes] you start from the underpinnings underneath, and you must get that shape right. If you don’t get the underpinnings, which is the barrel corset, the petticoats, the shift, if you don’t get the underneath right, it doesn’t matter how beautiful your gown is, it will never have the correct shape. So, you build from the inside, out. For me, it’s always about creating silhouettes. I like to make a good, strong silhouette.
Mark is obviously great, because he understands Original Practice. … And getting dressed in the morning was part of his process. Throughout, his garments are front fastening, which means he’s able to dress himself. And he understands that everything’s tied together—there are no fastenings here of zips [zippers] and press studs [snaps] or any of that nonsense. It’s all tied together with what we call a Tudor knot, and he understands all of that.
MASTERPIECE:
How did the Tudor wardrobe signal a person’s status or identity?
JOANNA EATWELL:
Something that’s important in the Tudor period, something that we took advantage of, are sumptuary laws. And sumptuary laws came in about 200 years before but reached a zenith during this period. [These laws] dictate what fabrics you can wear for your status, what colors, and what furs. It’s a lot about trade as well and hierarchy. But if I [were to] approach you and you me, and we’re an illiterate society, we need to know which one of us doffs our cap to the other first. And I’ll know, if you’re wearing blue, that that puts you at a certain height in society. And if you’re wearing cloth of silver or cloth of gold, you’re clearly royal, along with purple. And that’s purely down to sumptuary laws, which are fascinating.
Black was one of the most expensive dyes—that’s why Cromwell wears black. Apart from silver and gold and scarlet, black is really expensive. And then if you look at his servants, they wear gray. And the reason for that is, that black is the first dip in the dye. And then as the dye gets absorbed, the next dip is dark gray, and then all the way down to a light gray, which is why we give his servants light gray costumes. They have a light gray outfit, because it’s the logic of the dye.
MASTERPIECE:
How do Mark Rylance’s costumes reflect Thomas Cromwell’s evolution since Wolf Hall Season 1?
JOANNA EATWELL:
Mr. Rylance, our lovely Mark, had such a journey through the story and through costume. The very first time we saw him in Wolf Hall [Season 1] he turned up in a middle-class outfit of wool … his original costume is a wool plastron-fronted [starched shirtfront] piece. Cromwell’s now bigger, he takes up more space. His [fur] surcoat, his robe is much bigger, as his status has risen. And you look at the surcoats and think, “Oh, my God. Is it too big?” But once they get it on and start to move through those wonderful old country houses, they fit. They’re the right scale.
One of the things that brought Cromwell down was that he was wearing the wrong fabrics for his status. He was a lowly butcher’s boy. He came from Putney. [Yet] he wore velvets, he wore silks, he wore furs. He dressed according to his position in the court, the way the king had raised him up, but it inflamed the nobility, it really upset them—like Norfolk, who was old school traditional. This upstart man came in wearing these fabulous clothes, having the king’s ear, and behaving like a noble. And he wasn’t. He was the butcher’s boy from Putney. … And he would have known [what he was doing]; that really is at the heart of Cromwell, I think.
MASTERPIECE:
Henry’s silhouette has certainly changed since Wolf Hall: Season 1. How did you address that?
JOANNA EATWELL:
In Wolf Hall [Season 1], Henry was much a much younger soul—he was athletic, he was playful, he was in love. Everything was very optimistic. Whereas in the [sequel], it’s all much more stately. Consequently, I’ve broadened his chest, I’ve broadened his shoulders. … It’s huge shoulders that then go down to these delicately turned legs, which gives us that classic inverted triangle. I can’t tell you how much I love this shape and how much I enjoy watching actors for the first time putting this on. It opens up their chests, with the beautiful doublets. [They] put on the next layer and the next layer, and then these surcoats with the huge sleeves. And they take up such a lot of space, and they can swagger, and it’s so masculine. … Suddenly, they feel like the peacock.
You’re building, you’re scaffolding, really; we’re building a monarch. It’s cut and it’s construction. And it’s the choice of the appropriate fabric. It’s so hard to find these period appropriate fabrics with the correct weave, with the correct Tudor emblems woven into it. … We use a lot of church fabrics, because the church is one of the last places still using these sumptuous cloths of gold.
I have to say, Damian is wonderful to work with. There isn’t an actor on this show who hasn’t enjoyed putting on the costumes. It’s such fun, it really is. But Damian, he inhabits the costume.
MASTERPIECE:
Tell us about the red dress Kate Philips wears that appears directly inspired by a Holbein portrait of Jane.
JOANNA EATWELL:
Yes, that’s Jane in her English gable hood, wearing the pinned front bodice. … Her sleeves are hanging; they’re great long trumpet sleeves. And then you pin them back with a brass pin. They’re really lovely, really elegant. And yes, this gown is taken from Holbein’s portrait of her. But you can see up the side of her bodice there, little pins at the front. Little gold pins that [secure] the actual bodice on. That’s how it worked and it’s ingenious. I think historical costume is ingenious. There’s great logic to it. I love it.
MASTERPIECE:
What sort of costume change does Princess Mary go through when she’s finally invited back to Henry’s court?
JOANNA EATWELL:
The thing with Mary, when she’s banished, she’s wearing what we call poor black, a faded black. It’s wealthy clothing, but it’s very faded, so poor black. When she comes to court, she decides she will do everything she can to show she’s a princess. She lives large; she’s gambling.
There’s a scene where Cromwell talks about her debts. Mary spent an absolute fortune to impress the court. … So, we lavished. We lavished brighter colors on her than perhaps others, because she is young, and she was making a point. The harsh red. And she is wearing the headwear there, the English gable of her mother, Catherine of Aragon. Slightly old-fashioned. … Interesting character: it’s a shame, really, [the series has] come to an end. It’d be nice to carry on further with [her].
MASTERPIECE:
How does Anne of Cleves’ clothing reflect her nationality and status?
JOANNA EATWELL:
This time, we have outside influences coming in— both Anne of Cleves and Cromwell’s daughter, Jenneke, come from different parts of Europe. We had to then branch out, because fashions change hugely in different parts of the world. We looked at [the 16th century German painter] Lucas Cranach the Elder for Anne of Cleves.
In conversations I had with Peter Kosminsky, the director, we were very keen to get a real sense of the foreign with Anne of Cleves; there had to be something that Henry could react to, and the entire court. For example, in Henry’s [reign], we go between just two different styles of [ladies] headwear. Anne Boleyn wears the French hood, and then Jane Seymour adopts the English gable. Anne of Cleves was literally like an alien that entered with this headdress and this dress … which is an open front gown with lacing—very different from the English court gown, which has a bodice pinned on. And this dress was made of real cloth of gold. [It all gave] Henry something to react to.
MASTERPIECE:
If there was one facet of clothing from this period you’d like to see make a comeback, what would it be?
JOANNA EATWELL:
I love what we call the partlet. It’s a garment that [Cromwell’s daughter] Jenneke wears. A partlet, which is this little shoulder cape affair. Black and fur lined. Women wore that at this time across countries, it’s not just from Jenneke’s country and culture. It’s used in the English court as well. And I think it’s a dear little item of clothing, the partlet, just to keep your shoulders and your chest warm.
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