My Brilliant Career is a period piece with some real modern zest. Based on the Miles Franklin novel, the storytellers behind the new adaptation bring the past and present together with not only ease but great style. In depicting the beginning of the 20th century in Australia, costume designer Mariot Kerr tells the story of change in her costumes.
Not only change, but wealth, society, and trailblazing. In the protagonist, Sybylla Melvyn (Philippa Northeast), Kerr found a character perfectly suited to her instincts and taste as a costume designer. “I’ve thrown in quite a few of my personal favorite bits of jewelry, some crazy sunglasses, 1950s sunglasses from the 1950s, which looked like dragonflies,” she told What’s On Netflix. “There’s only big bits of me in there. I love style, I love individual style, and I love the fact that a project like this just really means you can add so many more layers to the characters, give them personality quirks.”
Kerr – who designed perhaps one of the greatest seasons of TV ever made, The Leftovers season three – recently told us about some of those quirks and their history in My Brilliant Career.
For 1900 Australia, where does research begin?
I suppose actually I’m quite grounded in that period. I think the difference between Australia and a lot of the more so-called perceived fashion capitals at the time is that we were so isolated. Everything took a long time. Even if you followed the latest fashion magazines, traveled to Europe a lot, traveled to New York for the latest fashions, you’d always be that little step behind.
If we were looking at it like a historical drama, our characters would’ve been much more dressed in 1890s clothing. But because we were lucky enough to have that period possible aspect to the design, it meant that we had a lot more freedom. We could take it into more visually enticing places. Overall, because our characters were so forward-thinking, we naturally ended up more of an early Edwardian rather than a late Victorian look overall.
We could add layers to our characters, layers of details, pull out our character quirks, play with it a lot more.
My Brilliant Career. Genevieve O’Reilly, Anna Chancellor, Kate Mulvany, Christopher Chung and Jake Dunn in My Brilliant Career. Cr. Ian Routledge/Netflix © 2026.
What were some cultures outside of Australia you were drawing from?
It was particularly around Augusta’s house, because she’s so eccentric, she’s so educated. She’s a delightful character, and Kate Mulvany embraced all our crazy ideas for her because in our story, her sister-in-law has Chinese heritage. So, we’re able to get a few beautiful little Asian brooches in there, fabrics. At that time, she would’ve been well-traveled. And it’s a few decades after Japan was opening up and all that amazing East meets West in fabrics, designs that influence. So, that’s very much reflected in Augusta’s costumes and how that in turn comes over to Sybylla when she’s under Augusta’s guidance.
When you read Sybylla on the page, a writer who’s rock and roll for the times, what were some of her characteristics that inspired the fabric and layers you wanted for her?
She’s so beautifully subversive. A part of the inspiration behind some of her looks were even how modern fashion designers interpret historical costumes. There’s a few secret little nods in there to some of my favorite designers like [John] Galliano and Simone Rocha. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go quite as punky as Vivienne Westwood, much as I would’ve liked to.
Even at the beginning, she’s got such a strong costume journey. When she’s at home in Possum Gully, obviously her mother wants to maintain the standards she grew up with, but she doesn’t have the means. She’s probably trying to get Sybylla to maintain standards, maintain what’s conservative, what’s customary for a young lady, because that’s how women were very much judged by their appearance in that time, and now too. But we had a little theme going like her sister would beautifully repair all the clothing by hand when it was wearing out all the hand-me-downs.
But on Sybylla’s with big punky stitches, quite rebellious, quite subversive. It’s how she wears the clothes even when she gets to grandmother’s. She’s dressed beautifully by gorgeous Aunt Helen. She doesn’t want to be all buttoned up. She wants to be unbuttoned. She wants corsets undone, just loose, comfortable, free.
What were some early discussions or lessons in the fittings with actors?
I must say too, that Pip is the most wonderful patient person in the world to work with. I lost count of how many costume fittings she would’ve had. But it’s really interesting to see how all the actors transform in front of your eyes. Christopher had never worn high-waisted trousers before, but when he put on the suits that we custom made for him, his whole posture changed. He turns into a gentleman from a different era.
Especially with period costumes, it’s the undergarments that really inform that because people, I think, think of corsets as something that just sucks you in and makes your waist tiny. But it actually really affects how you hold yourself, which is why if you have certain undergarments, and they don’t have to be traditional corsets, just something to remind you how to stand, how to reflect the silhouette of that period.
My Brilliant Career. Costume detail from My Brilliant Career. Cr. Ian Routledge/Netflix © 2026.
I was wondering, how much does a corset affect the whole body and how an actor moves?
Absolutely. If you do the full corset, like traditionally a corset throws in your waist by at least two inches, but our corsets weren’t like that. In fact, partly because we’re filming quick television, we came up in the workroom with what we call an instant corset. Instead of being very stiff coutil fabric with boning, it’s actually a modern sportsnet, enough to remind you to hold yourself a certain way, enough to maintain the silhouette that makes a period look good. But it meant you could get in and out of it quickly.
So if the assistant directors are hurrying you along to get into the next costume, it makes life easier. But for some of the garments, I made a beautiful evening dress for Sybylla that needed rows and rows of ruffles on the petticoat. We tried it on and Pip loved it, but we realized that she couldn’t possibly dance in it.
We had to modify the design because you have to be practical for filming. And Philippa is so brave the way she can embrace these costumes and still manage to jump onto a horse, fall on her face in the mud, jump into carts. You have to really learn to almost relearn how to be physical in some of these costumes.
Is that always a process on period pieces?
Yes, it absolutely is. It affects the guys too. I remember one of Jake’s first fittings, Frank’s much more conservative than Harry and much more English, sort of fitted out to go and do the job of managing a farm and just putting some of the really high collars on it. Because of course the collars weren’t sewn onto the shirts, they were starched, and some of them were just so stiff that you had to hold your neck a certain way. Even the way you project wearing some of those collars was something you have to learn.
My Brilliant Career. Christopher Chung and Ines English in My Brilliant Career. Cr. Ian Routledge/Netflix © 2026.
So much of costume designing, especially in a period piece, can visually tell a story about community, class, and society. How did you want costumes to reinforce all of that?
Absolutely. It goes down to accessories as well. If you look at the Caddagat household, the difference in the fabrics, accessories that someone like Mrs. Bossier would wear as opposed to Betty, they’re in the same house, but they just come from very different social groups. Just the quality of the fabric, the amount of detail on Mrs. Bossier’s outfit. For her, we did power dressing, we called it Edwardian power dressing, because she really is the boss. We used to refer to her as “the boss” on the costume bus. Those huge, what they call the legs-of-mutton sleeves. Huge shoulders. But she’s always got pearls and beautiful little cameo brooches.
Well, Betty, she’s also very strong in her own way, and she’s very feisty and sassy when Mrs. Bossier isn’t looking over her shoulder. She has much simpler fabrics, but she still presents herself really well. With her means, we’d like to think that she was clever and used to make her own clothes for her because she’s aware of her appearance.
But then once again, Augusta is a totally different class. She can afford ridiculous silks, laces, and satins. By chance, one of the first fabrics I found sourcing in Melbourne was an organza with beautiful sequin butterflies and dragonflies on it. And then a couple of weeks later, I was in London and I found a beautiful headpin with a golden dragonfly. And then I was looking through this bizarre box of costume jewelry that I’d inherited from my slightly crazy, beautiful great-aunt and uncle. I had all this weird insect jewelry.
I love those.
Yeah. It’s sort of like maybe little Easter eggs to look out for all of Augusta’s little insect bits and pieces all over the show and her fabrics, her accessories. But we really embellished her costumes, to play on her wealth. Because of her wealth, she wasn’t judged by society the way other women at the time would’ve been. And Kate’s just very happy to embrace everything, explore how far we could go with that. We had a standing joke with her. Every fitting she’d say, “Oh, this is the most beautiful dress I’ve ever worn.” And we’d say, “That’s what you said last week about the other one.”
But I remember she and I came into the room where my finishers were, and we’d bought a beautiful brocade for her in London. And then I had a lace that I really wanted to add a big collar, but it looked a little bit flat. So we walked into the finishing room and three of them have tiny little paintbrushes with a few little horse hairs on each, and they’re actually embellishing the ridge of the lace. They’re painting it with a light gold paint that just made everything glow. So she just looks so warm and expensive and yeah, elevated. Great.
My Brilliant Career. Genevieve O’Reilly and Kate Mulvany in My Brilliant Career. Cr. Ian Routledge/Netflix © 2026.
Insect jewelry, first off, what a great inheritance. I feel like we’re always used to seeing them in gothic horror movies, but was insect jewelry ever really popular?
Absolutely. It would’ve been. It’s just as a holiday after I finished this show, I went to Taiwan and there’s an incredible art museum there and with a lot of Chinese jewelry, particularly. I mean, I was probably focused on the late 19th century. I took so many photos of beautiful hair clips with dragonflies and butterflies. They really were in vogue. Maybe we’ll bring them back through this show.
Victorian jewelry especially can be so bizarre. Some of the mourning jewelry that you’d wear when a loved one had died. There’s so many different layers to that. I have a small, strange selection of that as well. Actually, Augusta’s housekeeper wore some of those because it seemed fitting for her character.
How important to your process is taking in as much of the world as you can?
Especially when I’m starting a project, I immerse myself sometimes in the time. I’m a history nerd. I’ve got a degree in history before I studied fashion, so it’s sort of like a natural passion of mine. I love looking at art as well. Another little Easter egg look out for is some of the frocks inspired by John Singer Sargent, also some Australian artists as well.
Because we did take that step away from reality, we enhanced reality. Sargent was a great influence because when he painted a portrait, it was more how he interpreted what the subject was wearing as well. It’s not a true stitch-to-stitch drawing. I think we did that.
We looked at some Sargent portraits and enhanced them even further by using modern fabrics, beautiful weaves with metallic light going through them, which on camera reflect the light so beautifully. They’re almost almost like a modern interpretation of that painterly effect that he managed to achieve.
My Brilliant Career. Miah Madden and Sherry-Lee Watson in My Brilliant Career. Cr. Ian Routledge/Netflix © 2026.
Given your history background and your career, do you have a favorite time and place for costumes?
Oh, to be honest, I get excited when I think about whatever I’m working on. I immerse myself with whatever I’m working on. But I do actually love both the 1890s and the 1990s fashions. I don’t know whether it’s a bit of looking ahead to the new century, just a change in the psyche of the time.
What’s particularly interesting about this era, even speaking more historically and not how we stretched it, is that to us nowadays it looks really restrictive. But to people then, it would’ve been much freer when you consider the huge bustles, crinolines, a much more restrictive corsetry of the last few decades of the 19th century. By this time, women were running around playing tennis and lightweight corsets and skirts that actually stopped at their ankles instead of trailing meters behind them.
Sybylla in her journey is so open to experiencing life and new experiences. I love her different looks, how her own looks evolve, her own style evolves. I think she would’ve got really excited and probably appalled at having to put on corsets and white lacy dresses and be presented to society. But I think it’s all exciting and something that the characters, the actors could explore, and we could explore alongside them, guiding them along the way.