Constructing Costume Histories: Illuminating the Value and Heritage of Costume Making in Britain

In the archives at Cosprop Film Costumiers in London lies the original Mr Darcy shirt from the 1995 BBC production of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. A conventional linen shirt of the early nineteenth century, its simplicity belies its cultural potency. As perhaps the most iconic British costume in recent history, it is instantly recognisable, acting as a global ambassador for the quality and expertise of the British costume industry. This sector employs thousands of skilled workers across a diverse range of production specialisms, from ballet to pantomime and television to opera. Despite the celebrity status of Mr Darcy's shirt, however, Cosprop - the place where it was made - remains almost unknown beyond the inner circles of the British costume industry.
Costumes made in Britain attract international admiration and attention, but how they are made, where they are made, and who makes them remains mysterious. It is a behind-the-scenes activity to which limited attention has been paid and therefore about which little is known or understood. Notwithstanding this, British costume making is a thriving and highly-skilled field populated by a range of world-leading specialists who are committed to achieving the highest standards of costume production.
Constructing Costume Histories shines a spotlight on the world of the costume workroom to illuminate the value and heritage of costume making in Britain. In collaboration with makers at five sector-leading project partners, it will document, preserve, and promote the specialist skills and history of British costume production through the creation of the first audio-visual and written account of the sector. In this way it will bring a new dimension to our understanding of the value of costume making in Britain and its global significance.
Combining interviews with archival and object-based research, the project will critically situate costume making in Britain within academic and public consciousness. This will be achieved in three ways: i) a series of short films illuminating the histories and legacies of costume making at each project partner, launched alongside an educational event celebrating the costume making sector; ii) an academic article that will propose a lexicon for costume making as a practice, establishing an English equivalent to the distinctive French vocabulary which sustains respect for haute couture; and, iii) an edited collection uniting academic analyses with contributions from makers that represent traces of their practice, producing the first history of costume not from the perspective of the actor or the designer but from the workroom itself.
The project will be led by a PI and Co-I with complementary expertise and a successful existing relationship. Veronica Isaac (University of Brighton) brings a decade's experience of working with the costumes held by the former Department of Theatre and Performance at the Victoria and Albert Museum, together with specific expertise in the history of costume. Jade Halbert (University of Leeds) specialises in the histories of manufacturing in fashion, concentrating on oral histories and other first-hand accounts. Her research is focused on recovering the unwritten histories of making with emphasis on the transmission of manual expertise across a range of production environments, from the factory to the home.
The project partners reflect the range of making practices and traditions that have determined and sustained the high standards for which the British costume industry is renowned: The Royal Opera House (capacity for specialisation and excellence for opera and ballet); Cosprop Film Costumiers (authenticity and attention to detail in film and television); The School of Historical Dress (commitment to expertise, teaching, and research); Leeds Playhouse (plurality of expertise in costuming diverse performance types); and the staff and students at LIPA (creativity and sustainable future-forward making practices).