Bringing Noele “Nolly” Gordon back to the telly

Annie Hardinge, who was a huge fan of Crossroads as a child, is the costume designer for the ITVX drama Nolly, which tells the story of the soap’s matriarch Noele Gordon, played by Helena Bonham Carter. Hardinge worked closely with the latter to craft Gordon’s distinctive looks: “Helena gave me her slant on how she wanted to play Nolly and I took that on board when creating her looks.

“Nolly was a larger-than-life personality and Helena and I wanted this to be reflected in her flamboyant personal style. We kept using the word ‘swishy’ to describe her — silk dresses in bold prints that moved when she made her entrance.

“She was a very elegant woman and always looked very well put together. It was also interesting to dress Nolly ‘down’ for the scenes at her home where she was alone and rather sad… without her audience.”

The research process took weeks to land Gordon’s on- and off-screen style. It involved rewatching old episodes of Crossroads and televised interviews, reading books about the series from the 1970s and 80s, and finding photographic references for all the Crossroads characters, as well as the actors. After breaking down the scripts, Hardinge created a “look-book” (right) of reference photos and drawings for Nolly and all the main characters, which was especially helpful when differentiating Nolly from her Crossroads character Meg Richardson (later Mortimer).

“Nolly’s wardrobe was more flamboyant and theatrical, and Meg’s outfits were much simpler and more controlled, as befits the owner of the Crossroads Motel.” Bonham Carter attended lots of fittings, as most of Nolly’s costumes were designed from scratch, while Hardinge additionally sourced some vintage pieces online, and also hired a few. She was responsible for re-creating the wedding attire of Meg and Hugh Mortimer (John Bentley), where Gordon wore a “beautiful duck-egg blue voile dress and matching picture hat”, and her return to Crossroads in her on-screen daughter’s Venice honeymoon, where she wore “a cream silk voile dress and veil”, and Nolly’s theatrical outfits for Gypsy, as well as her dancers and the backstage crew. Hardinge adds, “We wanted to put our spin on how she looked rather than just copy photographs. Helena and I wanted to elevate Nolly’s look, but still make her look believable.”

Nolly is on ITVX, and will air on ITV1 later this year