Dangerous Liaisons creators Harriet Warner and Colin Callender have explained the significance behind the costume choices on the show.

Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy about their new series, which serves as a prequel to Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel, the pair explained how they believe the period dress reflected the “constraints” which women at the time lived under.

“You can’t run in those clothes. You can’t take a full breath. So you’re always slightly weakened,” Warner said, adding that the clothes’ restrictive nature was used as another tool to control women’s lives.

“It was a way to just control women – to dress them beautifully.

“They’re great to look at for a male world. But one also that made them vulnerable in so many ways.”

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Callender agreed, recalling how Alice Englert’s (who plays Camille) experience wearing the tight costumes on set deepened with understanding of her character.

“This notion of constraint, and the way these women lived in a constrained way – there was a very interesting manifestation of that,” he said. “So she [Englert] worked virtually every day. And she was wearing clothes of the period. And those include really tight corsets, tied really tight, to the point where sometimes they can’t breathe.”

Callender continued: “Alice really felt –…