SMALL SCREEN style
A funny thing happened at the turn of 2021, during that hazy, lazy week between Christmas and New Year. With people from London to Sydney stuck in various stages of lockdown, holed up at home in their sweatpants and slippers, corset sales started to surge. Global shopping platform Lyst reported a 123 per cent spike in searches for the item, while lingerie brand Fleur du Mal cited a 30 per cent increase in purchases.
Historians of the future might look back on this time and hypothesise that worn-down couples were planning some frisky fun, an attempt to rekindle the spark that COVID killed. But they’d be missing an important piece in the puzzle. Because on Christmas Day, Bridgerton, the lavish Netflix period drama based on the best-selling novels by Julia Quinn, was beamed into our homes and set our hearts alight.
“We never could have predicted the impact,” says costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, marvelling that the show was watched by 82 million households in its first month. “The
