Rachael Dickzen

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

So I’ve gotten pretty obsessed with the musical Six lately, which is based on the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII. It’s set up as a girl group pop concert, in which the six women each sing the stories of their lives.

I’ve been dying for more information about the costumes in the show and haven’t been able to find a ton of information. The costume designer, Gabriella Slade, was nominated for an Olivier award for her work. In one article, she said:

“It was an amazing brief. There needed to be an echo of Tudor fashion, but obviously the contemporary influence of the pop industry. It’s an amazing thing to be able to infuse period costume with contemporary style. Lucy [Moss, writer] had ideas about which pop stars related to which queens. Catherine of Aragon is Beyoncé, Jane Seymour is Adele, Catherine Parr is Alicia Keys, Catherine Howard is Ariana Grande, Anne Boleyn is Lily Allen and Anne of Cleves is Nicki Minaj meets Rihanna.”

Other than that though, I haven’t been able to find a lot about her process or inspiration in designing these costumes. So I decided to look into the costumes myself. I’ll be directly comparing them to their historical counterparts and their modern pop artist inspirations.

These are all just educated guesses (based on lots and lots of reading and photo/portrait examining), but I am by no means a fashion or a pop music expert! If you have any contributions or comments, please send them my way - via the comments here, Twitter (@RachaelDickzen), Facebook (@RachaelDickzenAuthor), or email at Rachael.Dickzen@gmail.com. I’d love to hear what you have to say!

This is the second of several posts on the costumes in Six. The first post on the costumes of Wives 1-3 can be found here. The third will take a look at the alternates’ costumes! I also want to do a post looking at how the costumes evolved over time.

Historical Note: Spelling wasn’t standardized in Tudor times, so you’ll see these Queens’ names spelled a number of different ways.

Anne of Cleves, by Hans Holbein the Yougner, c. 1539. Oil and tempera on parchment mounted on canvas.

Anne of Cleves (Alexia McIntosh) in the West End production of Six, Unknown Photographer

Anne of Cleeves, ~1540s by Barthel Bruyn the Elder

Ich bin Anne of Cleves (Ja)
When he saw my portrait he was like- (Jaa)
But I didn’t look as good as I did in my pic
Funny how we all discuss that
But never Henry’s little-

Anne of Cleves (Queen from January -July 1540) has been one of the queens most maligned by Tudor Propaganda. Even today, if I refer to her, my husband asks “the one who looked like a horse” (he knows better, he just says it to mess with me because it’s such a common misconception). Here’s the thing: Henry saw a painting of Anne by Hans Holbein beforehand and liked what he saw. Holbein had been specifically instructed NOT to flatter the women in the portraits. If the portrait of Anne was indeed so inaccurate, would Henry VIII have then kept Holbein in his employment afterward? No. Thomas Cromwell lost his head over the whole Anne of Cleves incident; Henry certainly wouldn’t have kept around a junior-level painter (yes, he was junior, Holbein was never the highest paid painter in Henry’s employ. But he’s the one we all know several centuries later, so /shrug/) if he actually believed Holbein messed up so badly. In addition, everyone at the time said it was a good likeness of her.

So who was Anne? Anna von Kleve, as she was known in German, was the second daughter of a Duke in Cleves. Her father was heavily influenced by humanism and wanted to follow a moderate path toward reformation, but the family itself was unaligned religiously; her brother was a Lutheran and her mother was described as a strict Catholic. Anne was betrothed to the Duke of Lorraine at the age of 11. Though this betrothal was never fulfilled, it was later used as an excuse to annul her marriage with Henry. Henry’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell pushed Anne forward as a candidate because of her connections to Protestantism (her brother-in-law John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, was called “The Champion of the Reformation”).

Though Henry VIII later stated that Jane Seymour was his favorite wife and claimed to have mourned her fiercely, in reality, he started looking for a new wife pretty soon after her death. He sent Hans Holbein the Younger around Europe to paint pictures of numerous eligible women, including Anna and her younger sister Amalia. Holbein also painted Christina of Denmark, who famously said “If I had two heads, I would happily put one at the disposal of the King of England.”

There likely was one specific incident at the heart of Henry’s dislike of Anne. Henry was actually quite a romantic and fancied himself a chivalric knight, so in the tradition of courtly love games, he disguised himself, rode out to meet Anne early without any warning, and surprised Anne with a kiss and a gift. She had no idea who he was, didn’t know anything about this courtly love tradition, and was rather shocked and freaked out by the unknown man who tried to embrace her. She was polite, but didn’t pay much attention to him until he took off his disguise and came back in all his kingly splendor. The situation likely wounded Henry’s pride, and immediately after he tried to get the wedding called off, stating that he “liked not her looks.” It couldn’t be done without endangering their vital alliance with Anne’s family, so the wedding went forward, but the marriage only lasted about half a year (the “Flanders Mare” phrase used to describe Anne, by the way, didn’t show up in any contemporary evidence and wasn’t used in any descriptions of her until 1679).

Henry claimed the marriage was never consummated and Anne never said anything to the contrary. Henry asked for an annulment, Anne (who probably was thinking of what happened to Catherine of Aragon) consented, and in return, was given a generous settlement of numerous estates. She also was referred to as “the King’s Beloved Sister,” and was given precedence over all women in England save his own wife and daughters. Anne stayed in England for the rest of her life, outliving both Henry and his son Edward IV and living well into the reign of Mary I.

Historical inspiration: The portrait’s influence can be seen in the red color scheme and stripes present in Anne’s costume. The shape of the costume seems to pay homage to the Holbein painting as well; the crop top mirrors the belt at Anne’s waist and the puffed sleeves, gloves, and the arms peeking through emulate the length and volume of the dress’s sleeves. Even the high collar on the jacket and the criss-crossing straps on the chest seem to refer to Anne’s necklaces.

If you look carefully, this costume also features black fur, which may be a reference to Anne’s German background. Alternatively, it may just symbolize how cold it really was at the time; the English renaissance took place during a “little ice age,” after all. It was not uncommon for dresses to be lined with fur for warmth then. We know that canals and rivers (including the great Thames in London) froze frequently enough that “frost fairs” would be held on the solid ice.

Rihanna in the What’s My Name music video

Modern Inspiration: The Rihanna influence is pretty apparent. Rihanna has often worn crop top and short sets, stripes, and spikes. The West End actress’s pixie cut is similar to Rihanna’s ever-changing hair, which has been cut very short several times; you can see in the photo at the top of this post that the actress in the Chicago production has her hair done in a bun which keeps it similarly close to the head.

I’ve also read interviews that say Cleves is also loosely inspired by Nicki Minaj; I’ve included some Nicki pictures that show her in shorts and spikes, just like Cleves.

The song itself actually reminds me much more of Fancy by Iggy Azalea than any of Rihanna’s songs, but the background music, style, and vocal range of “Get Down” definitely share a lot of elements with Rihanna’s R&B style. The lyrics are absolutely packed with pop culture references. The chorus is based on the classic children’s rhyme of “King of the Castle” (which goes back to at least 1850), which adds a fun touch of playfulness to the musical. It’s also a classic hip hop song in its use of the braggadocio style to focus on how awesome Anne of Cleves and her life is. I feel like we don’t hear as many bragging songs about women as we do about men so contextually, it’s very empowering. She also drops her own name (the German “Anna of Cleves”) over the very end of the song, which is another hip-hop trope popular in braggadocio that has been more recently picked up by pop artists (see: 2 Chainz, Nicki Minaj, Usher, Britney Spears, Jason Derulo). This song also cleverly references Beyonce’s Formation (“Come on Ladies, let’s get in Reformation”) and Kanye West’s Gold Digger (“I ain’t sayin’ I’m a gold digger, but check my prenup and go figure”).

I actually didn’t really like this song in Six for a long time, as it didn’t seem to fit with the “telling the story of each wife” structure of the musical. While writing this post though, I read an internet comment that described “Get Down” as a celebration of Cleves’ annulment and freedom from Henry. THAT is a really interesting idea and I like it quite a lot, although I think it could have been made clearer in the song. The non-linear structure of the song means you hear a LOT about how happy her life is and how awesome she is before you hear about all the estates and money she got from Henry as part of the annulment, which explains /why/. Nevertheless, the song is really feminist, as Cleves takes back the narrative, so she’s no longer the “ugly wife” in the story, but the lucky woman who survived Henry and went on to live a happy, full, and rich life.

Accessories Note: Only two queens in the musical have crown-like spikes in their hair, Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves. This may be because their historical counterparts were royal /before/ marrying Henry VIII.

Nicki Minaj at the 2017 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards in custom Alexander Wang (Getty Images)

Nicki Minaj at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards in Frankie Morello

Portrait of a Lady, perhaps Katherine Howard, circa 1540, watercolour on vellum, by Hans Holbein the Younger

Katherine Howard (Aimie Atkinson), Photo by Idil Sukan.

Portrait of a lady, probably a member of the Cromwell Family (formerly identified as Catherine Howard), ~1535-1540, oil on panel, By Hans Holbein

Prick up your ears,
I’m the Katherine who lost her head
For my promiscuity outside of wed-
Lock up your husbands
Lock up your sons
K Howard is here
And the fun’s begun

Catherine Howard (Queen from July 1540-November 1541) was a member of the illustrious aristocratic Howard family and Anne Boleyn’s first cousin. Her immediate family however, was not wealthy and her father often had to beg for handouts from his rich relatives. Her mother had five children with her first husband and then had another six with Catherine’s father; as one of the youngest children, Catherine was likely not her parents’ top priority.

After her mother’s death when Catherine was about 5 years old, she was sent to live with her father’s stepmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, along with several of her siblings. Although it was common for noble families to send their children to be trained in other noble households, the Dowager Duchess’s household was somewhat notoriously lax and undisciplined. It is reported that the children there ran a little wild; several of the older girls there entertained male visitors in the girls’ dormitory at night, receiving gifts in return.

Catherine could read and write but was not as well educated as many of Henry’s other wives. She was apparently quite vivacious and giggly. At age 13, her 36-year-old music teacher Henry Mannox molested her repeatedly. Once she was moved to a different house at 15, she allegedly took Francis Dereham (who was at least 28), one of the Duchess’s secretaries, as her lover. They referred to each other as husband and wife and Catherine kept track of Dereham’s money for him while he was away on business. This relationship was apparently common knowledge among many of the Duchess’s maids of honor and attendants. However, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk put a stop to it when she discovered it.

Later, her uncle, the influential Duke of Norfolk Thomas Howard, obtained a place for her in Anne of Cleves’ household, where she served as a lady-in-waiting. Henry met her there and became a bit infatuated, claiming he had never known her “like to any woman” and giving her great gifts of land and expensive cloth. He called her his “very jewel of womanhood,” but the story that he called her “his rose without a thorn” is likely a myth. She married Henry less than a month after his marriage to Anne was annulled. We don’t know her exact age, but she was around 16-17 and Henry was 49, which was pretty elderly for the time. At this time in his life, Henry was obese and had developed very painful ulcers on his legs; he had a bad temper and often took it out on his councilors.

Unlike the baseless claims for Anne Boleyn’s “affairs,” Catherine Howard’s sexual activities both before and during her marriage are pretty well documented. She became involved with one of Henry’s favorite courtiers Thomas Culpeper, who called her “my little sweet fool” in his love letters. Catherine’s lady-in-waiting Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford (George Boleyn’s widow), apparently assisted with their secret meetings throughout a royal progress. At the same time, people who knew of the situations with Dereham and Mannox began to blackmail her for her silence; she may have appointed some of these to her royal household. Update: I have read into this even more in recent years since writing this post and the evidence for Catherine Howard’s adultery is actually much thinner than I previously realized. It was pretty common for people to write extremely flowery letters expressing over the top love to their friends at the time. Sure, it’s still more evidence than actually existed against Anne Boleyn, but that’s really not saying much.

It was really through behind the scenes rumors and gossiping that Catherine met her downfall. Allegedly, a fairly random man named John Lascelles tried to get his sister Mary to work for the Queen, but she refused, saying she knew of Catherine’s sexual activities when they both lived together in the Duchess’s household. Lascelles reported this to the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, who spoke to Mary Lascelles and Lady Rochford while pursuing a case against Catherine. His investigation turned up a love letter from the Queen in Culpeper’s chambers. Henry was probably unaware of the entire situation until he received a warrant of her arrest.

Catherine refused to admit that there was a precontract between her and Francis Dereham, even though that precontract would have terminated her marriage to Henry and possibly saved her life. She was imprisoned in Syon Abbey (which her ghost supposedly haunts to this day). Culpeper and Dereham were both executed; the noble Culpeper by beheading and the commoner Dereham by being hanged, drawn, and quartered. Catherine was later beheaded.

Historical Inspiration: To start off, there’s no evidence that Catherine Howard actually ever sat for a portrait and although many portraits have been identified as her traditionally, there are no authenticated versions. On the Tudor Trail wrote a really interesting blog post about it here. However, the two I’ve shared here are some of the most commonly attributed to be her, so if any inspiration came from a historical portrait of her, it was likely one of these.

However, I’ve had trouble finding really any historical elements or inspiration in this costume. Nothing seems to indicate any clothing or accessories from that period at all, except perhaps the somewhat square shaped neckline and the grommeting, which mirrors the beading in the portraits.

UPDATED 01/15/2020: Holy cow, how did I miss this until now? The open front skirt and the contrasting skirts around it are in retrospect, a pretty obvious style reference to the classic Tudor dress look where a kirtle (underskirt) was layered under a contrasting overdress. This isn’t too obvious in a lot of the six wives’ portraits, but you can totally see it in this portrait of Princess Elizabeth (future Elizabeth I).

Howard is the only main queen that has this style of skirt (Aragon does too, but hers blends in with the rest of her gold and black and isn’t a distinctly contrasting color), but a LOT of the alternate costumes have this look.

Ariana Grande on her 2015 Honeymoon Tour. Photo: Getty

Britney Spears at the 2003 American Music Awards Ron Wolfson/WireImage — Britney Spears at the 2003 American Music Awards.
Photo: Ron Wolfson/WireImage

Ariana Grande at the 2014 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Photo: Getty

Modern Inspiration: The overall feel of Catherine’s look and song seems to be sexy but really young and naive, which is reflected in the youthful color scheme, hairstyle, and accessories (chokers are very “in” right now). The contrast between the long sleeves and the crop top could be read to signify that she doesn’t necessarily want to be the “sexy” one, but as it’s the only way she’s ever gotten attention or power, it’s what she knows.

The bottom of the outfit is clearly based off of one of Ariana Grande’s signature looks. I could honestly have included about 5 more photos of Grande wearing a similar high-waisted hot pants + skirt flaps, as they are EVERYWHERE. Britney Spears has also been cited as an influence on this character as well; the top is definitely similar to Spears’ 2003 AMA outfit, particularly in the long sleeves, color scheme, and complicated neck decorations.

The hair is also quite clearly based off of Ariana Grande’s signature look. Grande had to bleach and dye her hair intensely for three years while playing a character on a TV show and apparently it really messed up her hair, so for a while, a ponytail was the only look that really worked for her. She continues to wear it that way pretty often. The high pony and pink tips emphasizes how young and naive Catherine was and how much that affected her decisions and life. Britney Spears also wore her hair in ponytails/pigtails a lot when she was very new in her career, so it also ties into the “pop princess” feel of Catherine.

“All You Wanna Do” is a classic pop princess song that sounds a lot like Britney Spears. In particular, it has a really similar melody “If You Seek Me,” and shares a similar theme of “everyone sees me as a sex symbol” (although the song from Six is much darker). It’s the one I’ve seen reviewers cite most often as one of their favorites, I think because it’s such a perfect match of song style to character. Many pop stars started out as young, naive teenagers just like Catherine Howard and quickly found themselves in over their head as they were endlessly sexualized by society and by the people around them. The end of the song also defies the expectations set out by the braggadocio beginning - “I think we can all agree I’m the ten amongst these threes…And ever since I was a child I made the boys go wild” with the overwhelmed and desperate “I thought this time was different, Why did I think he’d be different, But it’s never, ever different.”

Accessories Note: It appears from photos that the only two queens in the show with choker necklaces/choker style necklines are Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, who were both beheaded. True, their historical portraits also contained chokers, but if you look closely, you’ll realize that ALL of the queen’s historical portraits shows them wearing choker-like necklaces (I guess the look was just really popular then?), so the decision to have only Boleyn and Howard wear them seems pretty deliberate. The two women were also cousins and are the only queens to sport their initials on their necklaces. While Anne’s “B” is in her historical portrait, I think Katherine’s “H” symbolizes her familial connection to Anne Boleyn and their similar downfalls and deaths.

Katherine Parr, by an Unknown artist. Oil on Panel, late 16th century.

Catherine Parr (Maiya Quansah-Breed - West End)

Catherine Parr (Anna Uzele - Chicago) (Photo by Liz Lauren)

Catherine Parr, seventeenth-century copy of a sixteenth-century original

Five down, I’m the final wife
I saw him to the end of his life
I’m the survivor, Catherine Parr
I bet you wanna know how I got this far

Catherine Parr (Queen from 1543-1547) was Henry VIII’s last Queen and the last queen consort of the House of Tudor. She holds the record for the most-married English queen and had four husbands in her life.

Catherine was actually the daughter of one of Katherine of Aragon’s ladies-in-waiting, Maud Parr, and Katherine herself served as her godmother. She was highly educated and fluent in French, Latin, and Italian. She married Sir Edward Burgh when she was 17; he died four years later.

Her second husband, John Neville, Baron Latimer, was twice her age and a strong supporter of the Catholic church. He opposed Henry VIII’s first annulment and marriage to Anne Boleyn. However, when Catholic rebels rose against the king in 1536, they threatened violence unless Latimer joined them. Catherine and her step-children lived alone without Lord Latimer for many months, during which time they were taken hostage. The rebels ransacked their house and sent word to Lord Latimer that if he did not return immediately, they would kill his family. Fortunately, he successfully talked the rebels into releasing his family and letting them leave. Latimer later had to formally condemn the rebels and submit to the king’s clemency to ensure that he would not be found guilty of treason. This damaged Latimer’s reputation and forced the family to stay away from the royal court for many years; he was later blackmailed by Henry’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell and forced to do his bidding. However, after Cromwell’s death, the family was able to return to London. This is when Catherine became acquainted with her future fourth husband, Sir Thomas Seymour.

After the death of Lord Latimer, Catherine joined Lady/Princess Mary’s household, where she attracted the king’s attention. Although Catherine had become romantically involved with Seymour, when Henry proposed, she accepted. Henry then conveniently gave Seymour a job which moved him to Brussels. During their marriage, Catherine became close to all three of Henry’s children. She was also the second of Henry’s queens to rule as regent while he was away in France on campaign (the first was Katherine of Aragon).

However, Catherine held strong Protestant views that several Catholic officials viewed with suspicion. She sometimes debated religious issues with Henry, to the king’s annoyance. Though some of Henry’s officials tried to turn the king against Catherine and get her arrested, Catherine managed to see the arrest warrant beforehand and reconciled with the King by vowing that she had only argued with him about religion to take his mind off the pain from his ulcerous leg. The following day, an armed guard tried to arrest her while she was with the King, but Henry dismissed him angrily. In her life, she wrote and published three religious books: Psalms (anonymously) “Prayers or Meditations” (the first book published by an English queen under her own name), and “The Lamentation of a Sinner.”

Only six months after Henry’s death, Catherine secretly married Seymour (who had already proposed or made advances to Princess/Lady Mary and Princess/Lady Elizabeth because he was a gigantic cad). Seymour later was known to make several inappropriate physical advances toward the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth while she was living with him and Catherine; Catherine eventually had to send her away. Again, he was a gigantic cad. After Catherine died, Thomas Seymour tried to kidnap the young king Edward and shot his dog in the process. He was beheaded for this, naturally.

ANYWAY - back to the story at hand. King Edward VI (Henry’s young son) and the ruling council were not informed of Catherine’s marriage to Seymour for several months. Once it became common knowledge, everyone was pretty annoyed at the quick and secretive marriage; they were publicly censured and reprimanded by the ruling council and both the king and Lady/Princess Mary were vocal in their disapproval of the union. Somewhat surprisingly, given that she had not conceived during her first three marriages, the 35-year-old Catherine became pregnant by Seymour. However, she died a few days after giving birth to a daughter, Mary Seymour. Mary doesn’t show up in records past a certain point, which makes historians believe she died before she was two.

Historical Inspiration: Parr’s costume in Six has a few elements in common with her historical portrait; the inspiration is particularly obvious in the puffy sleeves, stripes, high collar, and highly visible shirt cuffs. The spiked hairband seems to emulate the beaded hood in the portrait. In addition, both actress’s hair is voluminous in a way that is loosely reminiscent of the feather on the hat in the portrait.

Catherine Parr is the only queen to wear pants in the show. This may refer to Parr’s forward-thinking, powerful views and her unusual outspokenness, as she’s literally wearing “the pants.” Additionally, Parr’s feather-topped beret in her portrait was of a style also commonly worn by men; I don’t believe any of the other queens are painted wearing any similarly androgynous style. I imagine the pants could also be pointing to that. The laces in the pants are probably a tongue-in-cheek reference to the lacings on renaissance women’s dresses and corsets.

I’ve shared both the West End and the Chicago versions of the costume here because I couldn’t find a good performance photo from the West End. As you can see, though the costumes are similar, there are a few key differences, most obvious in the amount of skin shown.

Modern Inspiration: Alicia Keys commonly wears pants and tops with voluminous sleeves. She’s also been seeing wearing stripes on numerous occasions. The blue in Parr’s costume could also refer to Alicia Keys’ R&B style, which stands for “Rhythm & Blues.”

The song itself “I Don’t Need Your Love” is stylistically very classic R&B, with smooth, lush vocals laid over synthesizer chords. The verses overall are more conversational and longer than in many of the other queens’ songs. The use of “boy” in the lyrics also is reminiscent of many R&B songs, particularly Alicia Keys’ “Diary.”

It appears that the beginning verse actually is speaking to Thomas Seymour, who Catherine loved; however, when the king proposed, she pretty much had to accept him, so her marriage to Seymour was delayed for several years. Thus, the first chorus of “I don’t need your love, no, no” is her trying to talk herself into letting Seymour go, the second chorus is her imagining what she’d say to Henry VIII if she was able to actually refuse, and the final chorus is her joining with the other queens to state that they are people in their own right who don’t need Henry or his love, which brings the musical toward its end in a strongly feminist way.

So that’s it for now! I plan to write future blog posts on the alternates’ costumes and on how the costumes have evolved and changed over time. : ) Thanks!