Decoding the Diamond Language of Bridgerton Season 4
Learn all about the visual secrets behind the Bridgerton season 4 costumes and the diamonds that help tell the tale, straight from Emmy-winning designer John Glaser.
(L to R) Michelle Mao as Rosamund Li, Katie Leung as Lady Araminta Gun, and Isabella Wei as Posy Li in season 4, episode 1 of Bridgerton. (Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2025)
It should come as no surprise that, since premiering on January 29th, Bridgerton Season 4 is already Netflix’s most-watched show in the world. Four episodes have been released, and on February 26, the remaining four will be available, providing one with the perfect amount of binge time. The series, created by Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers, has been a must-watch since it debuted on Netflix on Christmas Day in 2020 (the perfect culmination of fantasy and romance when audiences needed it more than ever).
Though some shows start to get a bit fatigued by Season 4, Bridgerton is an exception with its exciting new storyline that gives us a deeper glimpse into the lives of the household servants who keep those colossal mansions and estates running (and put on all those darn parties) so their employers can spend all day prepping for (and obsessing) over “The Social Season.”
Meet the Expert
- John Glaser is an Emmy-winning costume designer best known for Netflix’s Bridgerton.
- As head costume designer on Seasons 3 and 4, Glaser has helped define the show’s signature blend of Regency-era aesthetics and aspirational fantasy, earning acclaim for his imaginative use of color, silhouette, and adornment that bring characters and their stories vividly to life.
- He was also nominated for a Costume Designers Guild Award for his work on Season 1 of Bridgerton. His career in television and film spans decades, with credits that include Gotham, Person of Interest, and Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts.
This season dares to ask, what if one of the members of high society fell in love with a common maid? Yes, it does remind us of a certain beloved fairytale, but with a Bridgerton twist of heightened emotion, complexity, and sensuality.
As always, the storylines and performances are always intriguing (even without our beloved Jonathan Bailey), and we are especially excited to see the characters of Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) and Eloise (Claudia Jessie) get their time in the spotlight, as well as new scene stealers like Yerin Ha, who plays Sophie Baek. Still, one of the main reasons people keep returning season after season is to devour the opulent costumes and jewelry design, showing off the incredible Regency era fashions.
Inside Bridgerton’s Jewelry Design Process
Only Natural Diamonds was lucky enough to speak with John Glaser, the Head Costume Designer for Bridgerton, whose team won a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Period Costumes in 2025 for the season 3 episode “Into The Light”. Glaser, who also worked in the costume department on the Shondaland series, How To Get Away with Murder, as well as the Assistant Costume Designer on the films My Best Friend’s Wedding, A Perfect Murder, and Mighty Aphrodite. In Bridgerton, diamonds are never incidental; they are visual shorthand for love, lineage, and status. Glaser unpacks this and more in our conversation on Season 4 below.
The Historical Influence Behind Bridgerton Jewelry
OND: Your work on Bridgerton has helped define the series’ visual identity. How do you balance historical influences with the show’s signature aspirational and romantic aesthetic? When designing for this series, how much do you immerse yourself in real Regency-era fashion versus artistic interpretations from paintings, literature, or modern fashion?
John Glaser: At the root of the romantic fantasized look of the Bridgerton costume world, there are always accurate historical references – those being what were available in 1813-1820 – paintings, etchings, fashion plates, and the written word. From these references, we curate more modern interpretations of Regency dress, from movies and photos, along with past and present runway shows.
For the costume design team, it is a delicate balance to not recreate the period exactly, but never abandon it completely. Always mixing a potpourri of historic research – from 1820 to the modern day – into what we hope to be the Bridgerton look.
The Symbolism Behind the Diamonds in Bridgerton
OND: Jewelry — especially diamonds — plays such a symbolic role in the series. How does understanding the cultural significance of natural diamonds in the Regency era inform your decisions for character adornment?
Glaser: There is one basic rule we follow: that a diamond is a symbol of enduring love, wealth, and social status. So we use them sparingly: mostly on the Bridgertons, as this family represents all three of the above.
OND: Regency-era jewelry often carried meaning — from love tokens to social standing. Do you and your team ever embed narrative subtext into pieces like tiaras or necklaces to reinforce character arcs?
Glaser: Discreetly, there have been several times we have embedded specific meanings into a character’s jewelry choices. We tend to avoid doing this too often, so as not to lead a loyal fan and viewer down an inaccurate storyline. Queen Charlotte uses the phrase “Diamond of the Season”, for example, to describe the premier debutante of the year. So we need to restrain ourselves from having Lorenzo Mancianti, our master jewelry craftsman, from creating a piece that’s too dramatic: drawing attention to the chosen debutante and giving away the storyline too soon.
How the Bridgerton Team Selects Its Dreamy Jewels
OND: In a show that uses jewelry not only as adornment but as narrative shorthand — for example, signaling romance, status, or transformation — how much input do you have in selecting pieces versus collaborating with jewelry designers and prop makers?
Glaser: We have a jewelry design workshop headed by Lorenzo Mancianti. All pieces of jewelry start with a talking point from the script and the costume design team, and become a finished piece from his workshop. It’s a pretty straightforward, collaborative process.
OND: This season includes characters with more eclectic looks at events like the masked ball. How do you ensure the principal characters’ costumes remain cohesive with Bridgerton’s world while still feeling fresh and surprising?
Glaser: In the case of the Masquerade Ball, there are always some subliminal references to the character embedded in their costume. And as always, the core of the ball was based on some historic reality and expanded delicately into the fantasy Bridgerton look, but never beyond.
