Wardrobe secrets of Downton Abbey, Peaky Plinders and Hollywood’s biggest stars revealed

For 60 years, the world’s biggest film, television and theatre stars have been visiting an unremarkable-looking warehouse in north London, crossing its otherwise non-descript threshold to be transformed into their latest character.

From the Hollywood legends Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and Johnny Depp to the casts of the British productions Downton Abbey and Peaky Blinders, Cosprop, the costume house, has been helping actors to embody their roles through its clothing for 60 years.

As the actress Helena Bonham Carter once said: “We entered Cosprop as ourselves and walked out as the person we were playing.”

To celebrate its milestone anniversary, the world-famous company has put some of its best-known creations on display in a new exhibition, Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop, which opened in September at London’s Fashion and Textile Museum. The museum recently hosted a discussion with the designers Jenny Beavan and John Bright, who worked on Merchant Ivory classics such as Howards End and A Room with a View.

HELLO! visited Cosprop’s headquarters to meet the exhibition’s curator and watch the team at work as they prepared for the show, which brings to life the stories behind some of their most famous creations.

Among them are Helena’s Edwardian dresses from A Room with a View, Meryl’s belted wedding suit and embroidered silk hat from Out of Africa, Nicole’s period gowns from The Portrait of a Lady, the velvet robes that Cate wore to portray Elizabeth I in Elizabeth and the red silk and velvet dress that Nastassja Kinski wore after her character murdered her lover in the 1979 film Tess.

Film fans also will be able to view the swashbuckling costume worn by Johnny in Pirates of the Caribbean, one of Colin Firth’s outfits for his role as Mr Darcy in the BBC series Pride and Prejudice, one of Dame Maggie Smith’s Downton Abbey gowns and a 1930s dress worn by the late Helen McCrory in Peaky Blinders. 

A who’s who of A-listers

Other film and TV classics that feature include Napoleon, Victoria, Sense and Sensibility, Little Women, The Danish Girl, Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Mrs Harris Goes to Paris.

A who’s who of A-listers have come through the company’s doors over the years, the costume supervisor Mia Walldén tells HELLO!, including Johnny, whose character Captain Jack Sparrow was developed during a fitting with the award-winning British costume designers: John Bright, who founded Cosprop in 1965, and Penny Rose. 

“John and Penny helped to create that character in the fitting,” says Mia. “That often happens. Because John was trained as an actor, he really has that kind of understanding of how they work as well. Quite often when people come in for fittings, they start off with just shapes and then they come out as the character.

“Actors are here all the time. Helena comes quite often, Cate Blanchett was in a couple of weeks ago and Hayley Mills was here the other day.”

Keith Lodwick, who has spent a year curating the exhibition and who has written a book to accompany it, adds: “It’s quite an organic way of working. A character develops through the costume and almost forms in the fitting room, and the actor has to become a new person. 

“Although we think of them as characters, the actors think of them as people and this new person they are going to become, and the costumes are their clothes. The character has a journey throughout the narrative and the clothes reflect their personality at various points.”

Cosprop houses hundreds of thousands of costumes, which hang on racks in the company’s two-storey warehouse, where labels bear the names of some of our favourite films and TV series. Those to be displayed at the exhibition will be on their original mannequins, which were modelled on the individual actors for whom the costumes were made.

In total, there are more than a million items stored and painstakingly labelled at the warehouse, including a rack of 1885-89 day dresses and 1920s petticoats, shelves full of shoes and hats from different eras, costume jewellery and accessories, as well as boxes of odds and ends, such as pieces of braid and fringing in an assortment of colours. Items are borrowed regularly for use on film and TV sets and at theatres.

‘Greatest hits’ only

More than 40 people work on-site, organising the costumes and accessories, booking them in and out and making new ones. There is an on-site milliner, a dye specialist and six resident costumiers and tailors, who work in collaboration with costume designers. Some outfits are reused and repurposed so that nothing is wasted.

To bring authenticity, they opt for natural fabrics including wool, silk, cotton, satin and muslin and use the same methods as those of their predecessors at various times in history, often turning to original vintage clothing as a reference. The warehouse is fumigated regularly to guard against moth infestations.  

“Everything we have is either original or a copy and we try to stay as true as possible to the period we represent,” explains Mia. “Our stock is either bought or has been made in the workroom for a specific production and character. Then, when that production is done, it comes back into stock and we use it over and over again.”

Keith, who previously worked at the V&A, has narrowed down Cosprop’s huge collection to just 85 items for the exhibition, which will also tell the stories behind the pieces.

“We wanted to include costumes that people recognise, with each one telling a story about how it’s created, designed and made, but also what that particular production says about what was happening on TV or in film at that particular moment,” he explains. “It was quite a challenge to whittle it down to the ‘greatest hits’ because we’ve left quite a lot out.

 “Everything is kind of a classic, from Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice, which is still talked about 30 years later, to Dior gowns being remade for Mrs Harris Goes to Paris. That’s all part of the story.

“Most people have never heard of Cosprop, but everyone will have seen its costumes on TV or in a film, so I want this exhibition to be a celebration of a company that most people don’t know but have seen on screen. When you look at everything Cosprop has contributed to, it’s kind of mind-blowing.”

Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop is at the Fashion and Textile Museum until 8 March