What it’s like to dress the sets of period dramas – from the expert behind Bridgerton, Hedda and more

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A shorter version of this article first appeared in TopMob magazine.

Jillian Drujon is a highly sought-after set decorator specializing in fabrics. She provides curtains, tents, banners, and bedding for major Hollywood films and TV shows. Her impressive resume includes work on popular productions like Bridgerton, King Arthur, Blade Runner, Men in Black, and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Drujon runs Draper Emporium with Paula Maestro from a studio in northwest London. There, she teaches traditional drapery skills and creates unique fabrics for film and television, including projects like Maleficent and Mission: Impossible. Most recently, she designed the textiles for the film Hedda, starring Tessa Thompson, which is a modern take on Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.

Here Drujon tells RT why her role is about so much more than providing curtains for productions.

As a film critic, I’ve seen a lot of incredible sets, but I recently learned about the fascinating, and surprisingly low-profile, world of a drapesmaster. It’s a skill I discovered started early for me – growing up in Massachusetts, I was stitching at school, and by 17 I had my own industrial sewing machine! It began with making a Scrabble bag for my competitive Scrabble-playing mom, which led to small contracts. Moving to London at 19, a contact got me work on Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, building the spaceship interiors, and that really launched my career. The funny thing is, even people in the film industry often don’t realize this job exists! ‘Drapesmaster’ sounds like it’s just about curtains, but it’s so much more – flags, soft furnishings, all sorts of fabric work. Honestly, my toolkit is pretty minimal: a sewing machine, good scissors, a tape measure, and maybe a pen and staple gun. It’s amazing what you can create with so little!

I usually start working with the set decorator about eight weeks before filming begins. We give the art department advice on things like color, how see-through a fabric is, and how much they need. We’re quick to suggest they discard anything that won’t work – like very stretchy materials! We also know some fabrics, like linen, just won’t look right on set because they wrinkle so easily. We prefer working with materials like silk, cotton, flax, velvet, canvas, and wool – or lightweight polyester voile. For example, the flags in Gladiator II were made with the same silk, cotton, and flax fabrics they used originally. We did a lot of detailed work, including appliqué and cut-out designs.

Getting the fabric we need is a big undertaking, particularly since Brexit, so we rely on a dedicated sourcing team. It can involve reviewing large quantities – sometimes up to 500 meters – and waiting weeks for delivery. After filming, we occasionally receive leftover fabric, but for large franchises like Harry Potter and Marvel, it’s carefully stored. For ongoing series, they often reuse materials, making small adjustments like changing trims or resizing pieces.

For the Prime Video series My Lady Jane, we created a number of props, including a “thunderbox” – a padded toilet used in the 16th century. I likely won’t be making another one of those! We also made a pillow designed to look like it was being used to smother a character. To allow the actress to breathe, we carefully cut out the center. Interestingly, the art department often requests “Oxford pillows” for Tudor-era projects, even though they didn’t exist until the 1860s! They’re quite difficult to construct, but if I gently point out historical inaccuracies, the art department is usually willing to listen.

While working on “The Great,” I created a papoose – a baby carrier – designed in the style of the 18th century. It was a strange experience when they actually put a real baby inside! I recall actor Nicholas Hoult joking that the baby wouldn’t enjoy being so tightly wrapped and carried, especially because it would likely get very hot. He was right – being encased in leather and strapped to a stranger wouldn’t be comfortable for anyone.

We create a lot of sets for spaceships – it seems there isn’t a ready-to-assemble option for space! These sets are often highly detailed and unique. For example, on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we completely covered the inside of the Millennium Falcon with upholstery, working with unusual shapes. We even built some tents using fibreglass.

I really enjoyed working on the set of the movie Chevalier, a biopic about Joseph Bologne. We filmed in a beautiful baroque theatre in the Czech Republic – one of the few left in Europe. My partner and I created custom-dyed drapes to match the theatre’s 18th-century style. It was such a historic place that we had supervisors watching us carefully to prevent any damage, but we still managed to leave our mark on the set.

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2025-10-24 09:46