The specifics of nearly every facet of season six of The Crown are being kept close to the chest, including aspects of the wardrobe.
The final season of the hit Netflix series — which will be split into two parts, with part one premiering on Nov. 16 — will introduce five new cast members. Rufus Kampas and Luther Ford will portray young versions of Prince William and Prince Harry following the death of Princess Diana (played by Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana), set to be shown in part one, while Ed McVey will play Prince William as a young adult. Meg Bellamy has also been tapped to play Princess Kate Middleton during her college years, with newcomer Matilda Broadbridge cast as her younger sister Pippa Middleton.
Though the series ends in the year 2005 — six years before the Prince and Princess of Wales married — when asked whether Princess Kate’s wedding dress or Pippa’s highly coveted maid of honor dress, both created by English designer Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen, might make an appearance in any flash-forward scenes, head buyer and associate costume designer Sidonie Roberts tells The Hollywood Reporter, “I don’t think we can even talk about that. We would be giving too much away if we go there or not.”
Since season three, Sidonie has worked alongside costume designer Amy Roberts to bring the story of the British royal family to life through their clothing. The pair won an Emmy Award for best period costumes in 2020, and were nominated in the same category for their work on The Crown in 2021 and 2023. Here, they chat with THR about their unique experiences from season to season and what’s been most rewarding about reimagining the wardrobe of the royals as the series prepares for its final (two-part) debut.
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Amy, in a previous interview, you said each season has a flavor to it. What’s the flavor of season six?
Amy Roberts: Well, it’s an odd one because everything’s coming to a conclusion and in a way, I think there was no color palette in my head. It was kind of messy. And, actually, that’s like life, isn’t it? The only thing I’d say is, the queen hasn’t been in it very much, but she is in wow-y colors. It’s almost like she’s going out with a firework bang.
Sidonie Roberts: I also think that it focuses on how people have moved away somehow. You have Diana, who’s moved away; you have Kate Middleton and William. There’s a distance from the royal family and so maybe that makes it not feel disjointed, but perhaps that’s why there isn’t such a concise color palette. We’re not really allowed to say it, but you’ve got the loss of the Queen Mom. You’ve got the loss of Margaret. They’re falling away from what we know as that core.
Amy: You’re absolutely right; and the new youth is taking over with William and Harry. Suddenly their story actually becomes bigger, doesn’t it? I don’t know if we’re allowed to say that.
Sidonie: No, we’re not allowed to say. Your question is brilliant, but we’re not allowed to say any of it.
Were there any unique challenges coming into this final season after having worked on the series since season three?
Sidonie: I think it wasn’t easy and nor was it harder. It was just a different experience. You’ve got losses outside of what was going on filming and there was an odd atmosphere around it. There was a sense of loss. We were ending a job and there was the loss of Diana in it, and the loss of the real crown. So, it definitely had a different kind of air or atmosphere over it, which I don’t think was challenging, but it was interesting. It felt palpably different.
You don’t replicate many items that members of the royal family have worn in real life — Princess Diana’s revenge dress being one of the more talked about exceptions. How do you choose which looks you’ll replicate, and are there any exact replicas in this last season?
Sidonie: I love that you are the only person who said we don’t replicate that much. I love that that’s what you notice, because often people think we just replicate a load of stuff and obviously we don’t. Amy and me, since season three, have always been led by the scripts and we break down every single character and first think about their storyline individually and then how that kind of merges as one — how they relate to each other — and we’ll map it out of from there. So, with Amber Van, for example, or the wedding dress in season three. There are moments where we wouldn’t be able to do anything other than what was. It would be inappropriate, and people would get absolutely slandered. But because of how the scripts are written, it does this kind of ebb and flow. So, you have these public moments where Amy and I will do that. And what’s lovely is it builds, we build a trust with the audience and so when we go into those private moments, we are able to take them to our imagined version of something. And people trust us to come there because they know that we’ve educated ourselves in how they dress and how they are and what they do. But replicating and flights of imagination are interesting in different ways.
Amy: They balance each other out really. There’s a second of relief when you see, well, she has to wear a uniform there, so that’s easy. And of course, it isn’t. But the challenge is to get it right. And all those crazy people that know about uniforms so minutely, you just want to get it right for them really and stop all those letters flooding in.
Sidonie: Yeah, I think for us, when we get moments where we’ve not replicated something and we’ve done something of our own, and you get that awestruck feeling when somebody comes onto set, that, for us, I think, is our most rewarding moment because it’s ours, and it’s doing its job.
With season four, you talked about how coming into the ’80s and being a bit more contemporary made it easier to find items versus having to make as much of the wardrobe. Has that continued to be the case now as we’re in late ’90s and early 2000s?
Amy: With certain characters, yes, like Kate, William, and Harry; they’re young kids. But with our principal royals, the queen and Margaret, no, we still design and make everything for them.
Sidonie: Because by that point you’re maintaining a look. As Amy says with the boys and Diana, they warrant old clothes, pieces that are like an old friend that’s in the back of their wardrobe.
Amy: And it’s lovely to see. There are some lovely scenes where Harry and William are these young kids with their grandma. But I got into trouble because I put them in jeans and a sweater when they visited the queen. I think it might’ve been at Windsor. And I just thought: This is so great, this sort of different image. And Major David Rankin, our royal advisor, who’s just a gorgeous man, was absolutely horrified that I’d done that. He said, “They would never do that, Amy. They would always put a blazer and slacks on.” I said, “It’s too late. You’ve told me too late now.”
Sidonie: But also, what was interesting, because then Amy was obviously worrying about it — and he’s very generous as well — he said, “But, no, that’s pushing your story. That’s pushing the story that you want to tell of these two young boys. So, it works.” So, again, you’re not making a documentary. And he’s good about that, because he understands what it is versus what we’re doing is different. And there’s leeway and room and scope for our own interpretation on our own story.
What are you most proud of overall as the series comes to an end?
Sidonie: I’m the proudest of working with this one. That’s my proudest moment, working together for four years. Learning from the best.
The Crown releases Part 1 of season six Nov. 16, followed by Part 2 Dec. 14 on Netflix.
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