A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Jenny Rhodes-McLean On Designing Hair & Makeup For The Buccaneers Season 2
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21 hours ago
Hair and makeup designer Jenny Rhodes-McLean on glitter, fairy tale balls and Victorian paintings
While it’s been nearly two years since we saw The Buccaneers on screens for the first time, enthusiasm for Apple TV+’s hit Anglo-American period drama has certainly not died down. And for good reason. Teasing escalating storylines, complicated romances, beautiful costumes and whimsical beauty looks in its latest trailer, the show only seems to be getting bigger and better. ‘It’s all going on in season 2,’ confirms Jenny Rhodes-McLean, The Buccaneers’ hair and makeup designer. ‘More drama. Elevated looks. Evolving identities. And I think what’s so fun about season 2 is that there is such a vast array of looks and moods; nothing really looks the same scene to scene when it comes to hair, makeup or costume.’
We sat down with Rhodes-McLean ahead of the release of season 2 to talk about character evolution, balancing period and modernity and creating one of the show’s biggest scenes: the Midsummer Night’s Dream Ball.
Jenny Rhodes-McLean On Designing Hair & Makeup For The Buccaneers Season 2
Jenny Rhodes-McLean is no stranger to a period drama. In fact, the Emmy-awarded hair and makeup designer has worked on some of the biggest titles of the last 10 years – including The Great, The Serpent Queen and Netflix smasher Bridgerton (for which she won said Emmy).
But even with an impressive catalogue under her belt, Rhodes-McLean has a soft spot for The Buccaneers. ‘I think the show has its own identity – and it’s a strong identity. I love how it dives into rebellion. It’s what sets it apart from other period shows,’ she tells C&TH. ‘You can also really see that in the looks; the hair, makeup and costume. And I think that was what was really exciting for me. It has its own tone, and it stands apart.
‘The energy that the Buccaneers women give to the show is something quite different,’ adds Rhodes-McLean. ‘It’s about sisterhood.’
And, with season 2 now airing on Apple TV+, the hair and makeup designer is excited to see how audiences will react to the show’s visuals. ‘I think what’s so fun about season 2 is that there is such a vast array of looks and moods,’ she says. ‘We took inspiration from vintage Italian postcards, fashion icons like Grace Kelly, soft goth and even A Midsummer Night’s Dream [both the play and the 1999 film]. Nothing really looks the same scene to scene when it comes to hair, makeup or costume.’
It’s a heady blend of styles and aesthetics, but one that plays out beautifully onscreen – especially in episode 3, which sees the girls come together for Lizzy’s birthday. And what better way to celebrate than with a Shakespeare-themed ball?
Kristine Frøseth in The Buccaneers season 2 (c) Apple TV+
Let’s set the scene: a ballroom draped in hazy lighting, walls decorated in shades of green and gold, and vines spilling out of plant pots scattered across the marble floor. The theme is Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and women with glittering cheeks, curled hair and translucent wings can be seen chattering, dancing and laughing amongst the foliage – like fairies in the forest.
But despite their effortlessly beautiful, pixie-like looks, these girls didn’t just emerge from the forest – and the only real magic being worked here is by The Buccaneers team.
Rhodes-McLean explains that the scene took many weeks to put together, with hair, makeup and costume departments all coming together to make the the Midsummer Night’s Dream Ball one of the grandest occasions in the series. ‘A scene like this is such a gift to a creative,’ she emphasises. ‘When you do these balls in period dramas, normally they don’t take up much screen time. You’ll work on a ball for a couple of days, and then it will kind of be a blip in the episode.
‘The Midsummer Night’s Dream Ball, however, was the base for the whole episode, which was quite special for us. It meant that we really got to see all the different angles, the different shapes and the textures, and I felt like we really got to see the looks in detail.’
(L to R) Alisha Boe and Josh Dylan in The Buccaneers season 2 (c) Apple TV+
Collaborating primarily with costume designer Kate Carin, Rhodes-McLean worked on dreamy hair and makeup looks that would soon become scene stealers. ‘Kate is such a gift,’ adds the designer. ‘We were really on the same page throughout. We just threw everything we had at it.’
In our interview with Carin, she shared similar sentiments: ‘Jenny’s an incredible makeup designer. She’s very collaborative, great fun, comes up strong ideas.
‘We sat down together and went through each girl’s look, from their shoes all the way up to their hair,’ the costume designer recounted. ‘We really did that with every look on the show, but especially the Midsummer scene. In the end, we worked very tightly together to ensure that what came out of that jumble was something coherent and interesting and mystical.
‘We all discussed what colours we were going for so that we would end up with a painting, rather than individual looks. I wanted it to look like a really gorgeous Botticelli painting. It was just very dreamy.’
Aubri Ibrag and Jacob Ifan in The Buccaneers season 2 (c) Apple TV+
But it wasn’t without a lot of work. ‘It was weeks and weeks and weeks of work for my team,’ confirms Rhodes-McLean. ‘There were so many details, so much intricacy to build on – we spent weeks, for example, sewing tiny little beads into hair pieces and planning these dreamy silhouettes.’
And, as one of the more joyful settings in season 2, the designer wanted to make it special. ‘I wanted to celebrate that this is the last time they will probably be together in a naive, free, childlike way,’ she explains. ‘I wanted it to be nostalgic of the innocence of their friendship – like it was something they used to do as kids, and the ball reminisces on that. And so that as an audience we can regroup and realise how long they’ve been friends for.
‘That’s where I was drawing inspiration from: the idea that Lizzy’s birthday would take them back to their childhood. So we did individual braids for Lizzy [Aubri Ibrag], a larger bubble braid studded with beads for Conchita [Alisha Boe], an elegant low bun for Nan [Kristine Frøseth], half loose curls and half structured updo for Mabel [Josie Totah] and loose waves for Honoria [Mia Threapleton]. Just some nice childhood silhouettes that felt free – because this is a turning point in the show. The calm before the storm.’
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One element that might stick out for diehard period drama fans is the makeup, which the designer reveals was created via layers and layers of glitter. ‘When we first talked about glitter, I wasn’t scared by it – but it did really take me a minute to think, “How are we going to make this cohesive with the show and the time period?” We wanted to avoid it feeling jarring or too modern.
‘We were constantly trying to ground it in some period accuracy and what felt right for the characters – but we were also playing with modern trends and trying to mix it up to grab that modern audience. It was about making it feel fresh and fun, which is what the Buccaneers ladies are all about.’
So Rhodes-McLean did what she does best: she went into research mode. ‘A lot of thought, effort and research went into how we would ground the layering of the glitter,’ she tells us. ‘And the thing I drew the most inspiration from in the end was a John Grimshaw painting called Spirit Of The Night. It was painted in the Victorian era, exactly around the same time the show’s set.
‘John used these thin layers of paint, and he would sprinkle sand into them just to make them glow and glitter. It’s such an inspiring painting because it almost feels like it’s modern in that it shines off the page, like it’s been painted with glitter and gilded – but it hasn’t. I think that’s what’s so clever about it: if you catch it in the right light, the image takes on an ethereal, timeless quality. It shows you can really diffuse something into fitting into any period.’
John Atkinson Grimshaw, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
It took a little more time – and technical knowhow – however to actually create the final looks. ‘We used so many products, but in very, very thin layers. There was nail caviar, multiple different glitters and tiny, tiny, tiny, little beads that we set in a prosthetic plastic and placed on the cheekbones. We just layered all these beautiful products to help make [the characters] glow. Just for that ethereal look.’
Each Look In Focus
Nan
‘Nan is making up her own rules,’ she notes. ‘We definitely wanted to evolve her look from last season, and give her the chance to use her appearance to get people on her side and promote her power. And she leans into that rebellious streak to do it.’
And when it comes to the ball, Nan shines amongst the girls with a low updo and a crown of braids that pulls her hair away from her face and allows the gilded details around her eyes and temples to glitter under the low lights.
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Conchita
‘I adore Conchita, and I adore the journey that she’s on in The Buccaneers season 2,’ says the hair and makeup designer. ‘She’s really evolved into this strong businesswoman that’s really taken the family by the helm.
‘We definitely embraced her curls more this season, and did some really striking updos. And we elevated her makeup to look more powerful, more grand. People look at her when she walks into a room – she draws attention, like a social media influencer or, I suppose more in her case, a CEO. You look at her and you know she’s important.’
As the Victorian socialite of the group, Conchita’s ball look is much more maximalist, with a 3D gilded glitter mask accentuated with dry flowers as well as a waist-length bubble braid dotted with hundreds of beads and bejewelled flowers.
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Lizzy
‘Lizzy was really interesting for me,’ says Rhodes-Mclean. ‘I wanted her to have two separate looks, so that we felt confused about where she was going and who she was. She’s torn between heart and head. And I wanted to see those different sides to her.
‘We have kind of this whimsical, windswept hair kind of going on, and then we also have a very polished, politician’s wife kind of look,’ she adds. ‘The bows in the back of her hair were very symbolic this season of her trying to be the good girl and fit in. But we also used her hair to reference how quickly she could get tangled up in things. She was kind of losing her mind a little bit, so we let the hair get looser and more tangled and freer, like it had been blowing in the wind.’
Lizzy’s birthday ball is a glimpse at how her character clings onto the good girl image, with braided pigtails woven with ribbons and soft blue eye makeup and antique jewels dotted across her look.
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Mabel
‘With Mabel, the most important thing was that she felt more confident,’ explains Rhodes-McLean. ‘She was very much the baby of the group last season. And what was most important to me this time around was that she felt confident, that you could see that confidence radiating from her. I wanted her to look more comfortable in her own skin.
‘I felt like she was kind of hiding behind her hair last season,’ she continues. ‘She had these thick bangs and her hair felt a bit heavy, in a way that she was almost peering out from behind it. So I wanted to strip that back a little, make her silhouette with her hair slightly smaller. We then worked on adding radiance to her skin, so that we could make her shine, beam, glow like a woman in love – because that’s where she’s at.’
The hair and makeup designer tried to express this burgeoning evolution by giving her Midsummer Night’s Dream Ball look some duality. One side has a more a structured base – a delicate netted braid at the hairline, keeping everything in place – with wire flowers placed within the braid to resemble butterflies escaping a cage, as well as loose curls on the other side of the head. This is paired with a soft glam makeup look made up of golds, corals, peaches and pinks.
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Honoria
‘Honoria really blossoms in this episode, so it was fun to dive in a bit deeper with her character,’ reveals Rhodes-McLean. ‘We took loads of inspiration from the [1999 film] A Midsummer Night’s Dream – especially the Michelle Pfeiffer look.’
The team took a ‘less is more’ approach for the ball, with an emphasis on regal sophistication. (And the inspiration, the designer tells us, was Titania in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.) The result was a makeup look made up of soft golds, with pearl flowers settled on the skin, alongside long, loose waves and around 50 tiny beads woven into her hair.
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WATCH
The Buccaneers season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+, with new episodes dropping weekly. tv.apple.com
You can also get a glimpse of the hair and makeup created for The Buccaneers season 2 in the trailer, below:
