"We entered Cosprop as ourselves and walked out as the person we were playing." – Helena Bonham Carter
The genre known as "costume drama" has been an absolute mainstay of the entertainment world, in the theatre, in film and on television, since time immemorial. In latter years, we've lapped up the likes of Great Expectations, The Duchess of Duke Street, A Passage to India, A Room With a View, Out of Africa, Poirot, The House of Elliott, Howard's End, Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth, Sense and Sensibility, Downton Abbey, Peaky Blinders and Gentleman Jack - and original costumes [many of them never exhibited in public before] from all of these (and much, much more) were on show at the ever-fascinating Fashion and Textile Museum, in the exhibition Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop that we went to see en famille on Saturday.
Cosprop was founded by Oscar and BAFTA-winning costume designer John Bright in 1965, and ever since then his company's peerless work has appeared in thousands of film, television and stage productions.
We should let the clothes speak for themselves, really...
Costumes worn by [l-r]: Dame Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville in Downton Abbey; Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth; David Suchet in Poirot; Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle in Pride and Prejudice.
"Actors walk in with just a script and the name of their character. They walk out with that character fully formed in their mind, having brought him or her to life through the angle of a hat, the fabric of a coat or the feel of a pair of shoes." – John Bright
Costumes worn by [l-r]: Helena Bonham Carter and Dame Maggie Smith in A Room with a View; Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean; Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler in Onegin; Leslie Manville in Mrs Harris Goes to Paris.
"It’s a beautiful exhibition where you will want to take in every perfect little detail, and has been arranged so you can see the costumes from several angles." - Lucy Sutton-Long
Costumes worn by [l-r]: Meryl Streep in Out of Africa; Vanessa Redgrave and Emma Thompson in Howards End; Kiera Knightley in The Duchess; Suranne Jones in Gentleman Jack.
By the end, we were utterly boggled by the sheer array of items associated with films and TV series we loved! The most gorgeous ones of the lot were, however, from some less familiar productions.
[l-r] A pair of embroidered jackets worn by Basil Henson in War and Peace (BBC, 1972); evening gown worn by Natasha Richardson in The White Countess; fancy-dress costume worn by Uma Thurman in The Golden Bowl.
Simply wonderful. So pleased we caught this on its last weekend before the exhibition closed.
