TV & Movies
The Bridgerton Creator Revealed Colin & Penelope’s Taylor Swift Song
The couple appears to be in their Reputation era.
Like the Regency fashion or the passionate, swoon-worthy declarations of love, music is an essential part of what makes Bridgerton the phenomenon it is. In addition to the show’s dreamy score, orchestral covers of modern pop songs help tell the characters’ love stories — like the Duomo rendition of Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams,” which perfectly encapsulated Daphne and Simon back in Season 1.
Might there be more Swift songs on the way for Season 3? There’s certainly reason to be hopeful: Bridgerton creator Chris Van Dusen is a self-described Swiftie — and in a recent post to his Instagram story, he shared that he plays specific music from Swift’s catalog “on a loop” while writing the show. “In my mind every couple has always had their own TS theme/anthem/era,” he explained on Aug. 3. Daphne and Simon, of course, connect to “Wildest Dreams.” Kate and Anthony, he continued, are “Enchanted.” And what about Penelope and Colin, who will be taking center stage in the highly anticipated Season 3?
Buckle up, Swifties: It’s the fan-favorite “Dress” off Reputation.
Van Dusen paired the “Dress” reveal with the curious eyes emoji, which we can only hope is a hint that the song might play during Season 3. (Please!!!) The Bridgerton creator also added an “#IYKYK” to the end of his story post — and indeed, if you’ve read Colin and Penelope’s book Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, then you do know.
Mild book spoilers ahead, but the couple’s book begins with Colin and Penelope’s first meeting years before the events of Bridgerton. Ahem, as Dr. Swift sings in “Dress,” “Flashback when you met me / Your buzzcut and my hair bleached / Even in my worst times / You could see the best of me.”
Later in the novel, Colin and Penelope sleep together for the first time — and Colin does, of course, help Penelope slip out of her gown. Aka, “Only bought this dress so you could take it off.”
“Dress” would be an extremely fitting choice for that passionate scene, but it also applies to Colin and Penelope’s love story as a whole. As Swift sings in the chorus, “I don’t want you like a best friend.” Colin and Penelope are Bridgerton’s resident friends-to-lovers romance!
Like the rest of the album, “Dress” also describes a relationship where one partner has a thorny reputation — which definitely makes sense for Penelope’s secret gig as Lady Whistledown. “Even in my worst lies / You saw the truth in me.”
The next line, “And I woke up just in time,” seems to work well from Colin’s perspective — after ridiculing Penelope in front of his friends in Season 2, he’ll certainly need to wake up to the fact that, well, he loves Penelope.
While Van Dusen didn’t officially say “Dress” would be on the Season 3 soundtrack, his post is an exciting development for #Polin fans. After all, he works with the show’s music team to curate the playlist for every season. “I chose all of these songs for very specific reasons,” he told Netflix last year. “Each one is incredibly powerful and deeply emotional in its own special way.”
Plus, in the case of “Wildest Dreams,” the song Van Dusen associated with Daphne and Simon did end up on the show — so it feels very possible that “Dress” does the same.
