'Bridgerton' Star Simone Ashley Said Her Corset Caused Immense Pain

The beautiful Simone Ashley joined the 'Bridgerton' cast in the second season, but the journey wasn't as easy as fans think. The actress opened up to Glamour UK about the obstacles she had to overcome to fit the role perfectly. 

One of them was putting on a corset. While playing Kate Sharma, Simone admitted that wearing a corset was a harrowing experience. "I think I tore my shoulder at one point!" She mentioned. Keep scrolling to see other things she had to say. 

The star also mentioned that her role as Kate Sharma in season two required her to learn several skills that she had no experience in before. Some of the skills included shooting, horseback riding, and ballroom dancing. 

While these were quite difficult to master, the 26-year-old insisted that the most challenging part of being transformed into the typical Regency-era woman was the corset-wearing experience. 

Putting on the costumes was exciting for her, "That was… interesting," she said as she talked about Kate Sharma's wardrobe on the show, but she could barely deal with how much pain and discomfort it caused her.

Wearing the corsets also affected her eating habits. "I realised when you wear the corset, you just don't eat, "Simone explained and added, "It changes your body. I had a smaller waist very momentarily. Then the minute you stop wearing it, you're just back to how your body is."

Not only did the corset cause pain for the star, but it also made her sick. Since it was her first time trying on that clothing style, she mentioned that she fell ill on the first day of shooting season two. She had no idea that the corset would prevent her from eating properly.

She noted that on her first day, she remembered thinking, "'OK, the first day as a leading lady, got to eat lots of food, be really energized.'" "So, I had this massive portion of salmon, and that's when I needed to be sick, basically because I was wearing the corset," she continued.

The costume designer responsible for season one was Ellen Mirojnick, and she reportedly created over 7500 pieces with her team. One of her most essential colleagues was the popular corsetier Mark Erskine Pullin ( a.k.a Mr. Pearl), who masterminded the historically accurate half-corsets.

The focus on the corsets in the Regency-era was to draw some attention to the woman's chest area instead of her waist, like the ones that reached a woman's torso in the Victorian era. However, they were very limiting and hard to wear. Mirojnick confirmed this by noting to Refinery29 in 2020 that "A corset will never be truly comfortable." 

Sophie Canale will be heading the costume designing in season two, as she was a previous assistant designer to Mirojnick on the first season.

With the release of the first season of "Bridgerton," several fans were inspired by the costumes, and the desire for particular outfits, especially corsets, reportedly increased. The trends inspired by the show were generally called Regancycore among fans.

The show was so influential that it remained the most-watched original Netflix series in 2020 (until it was overthrown by "Squid Game" in 2021). A few weeks after the show's premiere, corset vendors and retailers, including Corset Story and Etsy, reported that there was an increase in corset-related online searches and sales.

Fans definitely can't wait for the second season's release and for the Regancycore outfits and corsets to be back in style. The show's second season will return on March 25th.