“Dearest, gentle readers..” .. how costume dramas, cult films and series spawn a splurge of nostalgia retail

So, Portugal’s iconic fine bone china brand Vista Alegre has announced a deal with Netflix to launch a new afternoon tea set inspired by the popular Regency Netflix series Bridgerton.

The Vista Alegre Bridgerton Collection has been developed in partnership with Netflix and Shondaland, the production company of screenwriter Shonda Rhimes, according to a statement released by the brand.

The new product line seeks to bring the visual world of the series to the table and brings together a Portuguese brand founded in 1824 with a television production launched in 2020 (and is now already in its fourth season).

Designed and produced by Vista Alegre, which returned to profit in 2025, the collection includes a charger plate, dinner plate, dessert plate, teapot, sugar bowl, milk jug, tall cake plate, a set of two teacups, and a three-tiered cake stand. According to the brand, it is already available in stores and online.

The English Regency inspired Vista Alegre afternoon tea set

Vista Alegre’s creative director, Alda Tomás, states that the original flowers from the series have been reinterpreted using the brand’s traditional porcelain painting style.

“The compositions were developed by VA Studio, drawing inspiration from both the visual universe of Bridgerton and 19th-century decorative compositions, while simultaneously introducing subtle contemporary proportions, reflecting the series’ own balance between period elegance and a modern sensibility,” she says in a statement.

It’s actually not a new trend. Primark for starters has had its own affordable version of a Bridgerton-inspired tea set for sale in its stores.

And Google searches for “tea” reached an all-time high in the United States as the period drama took hold.

Online site Etsy experienced a 110% increase in searches for tea sets when the show launched in 2021, on the previous year.

A genuine first quarter 19th century fine bone china English Royal Derby tea set

“Searches for ‘afternoon tea at home’ increased, and along with it, ‘cream tea recipes,’ ‘tea sets vintage’ and ‘victorian tea sets.’” Their top term? “Elegant tea sets,” which has been up 65% year-on-year.

Jane Austen film and television adaptations from the mid-1990s to the mid-noughties created a significant and lasting demand for Regency-era items, often termed “Regency-core” fostering a “heritage industry” that marketed the aesthetic of the early 19th century.

The popularity of these productions drove interest in Regency-inspired fashion, home decor, and tourism, and continues to do so to this day.

 

Let them wear Manolos!

Still from the film Marie Antoinette showing customised Manolo Blahniks

In the past Sex and the City made Manolo Blahnik famous. Little Women set a rage for ‘prairie dresses’.

Manolo Blahnik also designed the custom, luxurious pastel silk mules, satin slippers, and ruffled Rococo heels for Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette. These shoes, particularly the embellished bows and ribbon designs, became famous for their role in the film’s iconic, lavish fashion sequences, with some styles later reissued in a capsule collection.

Even Mars Incorporated produced M&Ms in cerulean blue in tribute to the film!  

And the Devil Wears Prada saw online searches and subsequent sales of items of clothing, particularly knitwear, in cerulean blue (a colour most people had never heard of before the film – but is anywhere between mid-tone sky blue to cobalt blue -, while the fashion houses Chanel and Prada hardly suffered from the film’s exposure.

Tea in five minutes, Elizabeth!

And last, but not least, who could forget the famous Royal Doulton fine bone china tea cups and saucers “with the hand-painted periwinkles” made famous by England’s most famous and much beloved snob, Mrs Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet) in the classic 1980s comedy series ‘Keeping Up Appearances’.