The Women Of ‘The Gentlemen’ Dress More Powerfully Than Ever in Season 2

When costume designer Loulou Bontemps returned to “The Gentlemen” for its second season, she knew there was a delicate balance to strike. The costume designer wanted to stay true to the visual language she had established in the Netflix series’ first season, while allowing the characters—and their wardrobes—to grow up with it. "Season one was like the child, you know, our baby," she explains. “Season two was a little bit more mature, like the adolescent.” It is recognisably the same world, but with considerably more confidence. And nowhere is that evolution more apparent than in the wardrobes of its women.

The highly anticipated second season expands the world of Guy Ritchie’s crime saga quite literally. We move beyond the grounds of Halstead Manor and the streets of London to Italy after an opportunity presents itself for Eddie (Theo James) to expand his empire and settle down. Business meetings at lakeside villas, al-fresco parties, and a wedding fill the eight-episode season, giving the characters ample opportunity to lean into what Bontemps calls the "Mediterranean influence," building romantic, intentional looks. "There are so many special occasions," says Bontemps. “It’s quite different to season one as I  really got to show off the women's wardrobe and all of these looks are very intentional with where the character is at in their life.” 

Susie: A London Girl Abroad

No wardrobe carries more weight this season than Kaya Scodelario's Susie Glass, who Bontemps dressed in more than 25 costumes across just the first three episodes alone. The goal was to show a Susie who's in a very different position than in season one. She has more money to spend, and she is increasingly comfortable navigating her complicated dynamic with Eddie (Theo James) and the family business. Bontemps wanted to reflect that evolution without turning Susie into a mere clothes hanger. Her wardrobe has grown alongside her wealth, but her defining quality remains her instinctive sense of style. “I remember Tom Ford getting interviewed and he was saying how he doesn't like it when he sees women wearing head to toe what he'd put on the catwalk,” Bontemps explains.

“Susie is always about style rather than fashion,” Bontemps continues. “She's dressing to look unique and not look like anybody else. Her wardrobe is just endless; it is huge and slowly gets more and more higher in value, but she’s still staying true to that London girl.” For Bontemps, that translated into combining designer with vintage or smaller British brands such as Planet Loving Company, which is behind the sumptuous oxblood velvet smoking jacket Susie wears in episode two. 

Similarly, her jewellery becomes increasingly spectacular. For one scene, she is “dripping in” Hoorsenbuhs diamonds, with Bontemps borrowing pieces from the jewellery brand, similar to the way she loans out Rolex and Patek Philippe watches from private collectors for the male characters of the show.

In Italy, Bontemps introduces a distinctly Mediterranean influence to Susie’s wardrobe. The costume designer describes her as “playing dress up” in the new setting. For their first meeting with Cico (Michele Morrone) in Lake Maggiore, she suits up in a pale butter yellow blazer worn over an open-knit top and paired with flowing wide leg pants—so far, so Susie. But as she spends more time in Italy, she leans into a certain level of theatricality. There’s her bold leopard print look, which Bontemps used to position her as “the mistress of the business,” to show her discontent with the direction things are headed. At Eddie and Bella’s (Benedetta Porcaroli) rehearsal dinner party, Bontemps takes this a step further, dressing Susie in a vibrant green Roberto Cavalli silk dress that turns heads—including Eddie’s who she takes aside to delicately question whether he thinks he’s making the right decision. “She's kind of arriving a little bit like a snake, trying to suss out what is going on here, because she doesn't trust it,” Bontemps says. The following day, at the wedding itself, Susie shows up in white—an unmistakable breach of etiquette that was entirely unscripted but “very intentional” on Bontemps’s part. “She doesn’t need to say anything; she just shows up like that and her point is made.”

Bella: Mischievous Mediterranean Energy

If Susie’s wardrobe exudes power and control, Bella brings to the series something more playful and deliberately in flux. Bontemps wanted the Italian countess to embody a certain Mediterranean ease: a passion for family, food, conversation, and enjoying life. Her wardrobe is consequently less guarded, while still designed to make an impression.

When Bella seeks Susie out at her office at her brother’s boxing club, Bontemps deliberately put her in an all-red look. That's intentional to confuse the audience a little bit, to make her look like a warning sign,” Bontemps says. At that stage, it isn't clear whether Bella can be trusted—or exactly what she wants. Her wardrobe softens as the romance with Eddie develops. For a double date with Eddie, Susie, and Susie’s new beau Joe (Tyler Conti), Bella wears a soft, silk blouse with just enough buttons left open. “There’s this mischievousness to her, and Bene just brings that to life in every outfit she puts on.” 

Bontemps carried this thread through to Bella’s night-before bridal look in which she dressed her in a sequined, calf-length, and completely sheer cream dress. Originally lined, Bontemps decided to cut away the inner slip and pair it with lingerie to make it a much more daring wardrobe choice. “It completely changed the dress, and she looked absolutely incredible,” Bontemps recalls. ”That was our sort of naked dress moment for Bene because her character has this little history, and it starts this fight at the party, so it felt appropriate to put her in that dress for that sequence.”

Lady Sabrina: Anything But Predictable

Eddie’s mother, Lady Sabrina Horniman (Joely Richardson) gets perhaps the most joyful sartorial evolution of all. As the dowager duchess of Halstead, she is every bit the upstanding member of British aristocracy when at home, but season two offered the opportunity to step away from her usual tweed-and-riding boots aesthetic. Richardson herself, Bontemps says, was keen to avoid predictability in Sabrina’s vacation wardrobe. That meant feathered headpieces, elegant statement dressing that, as Bontemps recalls, inspired a stream of compliments from locals on set. "She wants to push the boundaries, and she doesn't want to be predictable," Bontemps says, and Italy gave her the occasions to prove it. 

More importantly, she sees Lady Sabrina as a chance to push back against the idea that glamour has an expiry date. “There's this awful sort of rumour that when you get to a certain age, you can't have a beautiful wardrobe,” Bontemps says. “And I think that's absolutely bollocks.”

Aisha: A Mysterious—And Brief—Addition

Another new face for season two is Aisha (Maya Jama), a friend of Susie’s who enters the frame for a shooting weekend in the first episode. For the “Love Island” host’s character, Bontemps deliberately wanted to do something unexpected and dressed her in an exaggerated pussy-bow dress for her arrival at Halstead Manor. Later, she changes for the shoot into the traditional garb.

“I’'ve had so many comments about her wardrobe just from the trailer,” Bontemps laughs. “People aren’t used to seeing Maya Jama in a flat cap, but I really wanted to have some sort of mystery to her and not be too showy-offy of her figure and her silhouette.” Bontemps says there could be more to explore with the character in future seasons, which comes as good news, given that the show has already been greenlit for a third season.  “It’s wonderful just to have another woman in the mix, you know, with the whole gang in this man’s world.”