We all love a flawless costume moment—the kind that makes you want to pause the screen just to admire the tailoring. But what we don’t see often enough are the moments when the clothes absolutely betrayed the actors wearing them. Whether it’s a split, a tear, or a humiliating pee-related situation, wardrobe malfunctions remind us that sometimes, the real drama isn’t in the script—it’s stitched into the seams. These 12 stories are proof that fabric failure waits for no one.
1. Jonathan Bailey’s Bridgerton Breeches Gave Up in the Duel
Regency-era elegance is all fun and games until your trousers turn against you. Jonathan Bailey, a.k.a. Anthony Bridgerton himself, found that out the hard way while filming a fencing scene on a wet, grassy morning. He lunged forward with all the romantic bravado one expects from a period drama—and his pants lunged in the opposite direction. “It’s all captured on camera,” he later told Grazia UK, recalling how he suddenly realized that four separate cameras were filming his mid-lunge wardrobe betrayal. One dramatic scream later, the whole crew got a lot more than they bargained for. Imagine trying to act like a dignified viscount while your breeches scream, “Oops, all crotch.”
2. Alison Brie’s Girdle Disaster on Mad Men
Playing a woman in the 1960s comes with a lot of tight-fitting historical context, especially when it comes to lingerie. For over a season on Mad Men, Alison Brie remained unaware that her vintage girdle, akin to old-school Spanx, was intended to be worn without modern underwear. The result? There was a tragic bathroom incident that involved a public stall, a hover-pee gone wrong, and the slow horror of realizing that nothing had made it out of the way in time. “I peed all in it. It’s everywhere,” she admitted to Seth Meyers. And because it was one of those chaotic production days, there was no time to change. She simply dried herself with toilet paper, pulled herself together (literally), and filmed the scene. Emmy-worthy? Definitely. Hygienic? Not so much.
3. Olivia Newton-John Had to Be Sewn Into Her Grease Pants
You’d think the most iconic pants in movie history would at least zip up. But nope. When Olivia Newton-John first tried on Sandy’s skin-tight black leather pants for the final Grease scene, the zipper was already busted. The costume team, not wanting to risk damaging the vintage fabric, took the most hardcore route possible—they just sewed her into them. No zippers, no buttons, just commitment. Remember the scene where she confidently enters the carnival? Now imagine doing that while knowing there’s no quick escape route for snacks, drinks, or, you know, bodily functions. Fashion is pain, and Sandy lived it.
4. Eddie Redmayne’s Magical Pants-Ripping Moment
There are few things more surreal than watching Eddie Redmayne mime an “Erumpent mating dance” in Fantastic Beasts, but just when you think it can’t get weirder—his pants split. Mid-gyration. During a cold night shoot. “My arse was on show for everyone to see,” he told British Vogue with all the grace of a man trying to seduce a CGI rhino while flashing his crew. Honestly, it might have been the most realistic magical creature moment in the whole film: the spontaneous appearance of a full moon. But it seems the suit being too tight was on purpose, or so he said in this interview.
