From A Room with a View, to Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones and Peaky Blinders, you can currently explore some of the most famous costumes from film and television, at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London.
Cosprop has changed the way that costume is designed and created. Founded by Oscar and BAFTA-winning costume designer John Bright OBE in 1965, the legendary costumer specialises in period costume for film, television and theatre. Based in London, the company has now expanded to employ fifty staff, providing authentic, high quality period costume for hire.
Through his work as a costume designer, a costumier, maker, advisor, collector and historian, John Bright’s intelligence and eye for detail is in thousands of film, television and stage productions.
“Actors walk in with just a script and the name of their character,” says John Bright. “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.”
Cosprop is synonymous with dressing iconic characters in award-winning films and television. Their handmade, beautifully crafted work includes outfitting Helena Bonham Carter in A Room with a View, Meryl Streep in Out of Africa, Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey, Colin Firth as Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, and Leslie Manville in Mrs Harris Goes to Paris.
Now, London’s Fashion and Textile Museum is hosting a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition featuring many costumes never seen in public before.
“We entered Cosprop as ourselves and walked out as the person we were playing.”
Helena Bonham Carter CBE
This exhibition is a celebration of sixty years of Cosprop’s creativity and a unique opportunity to see behind the scenes of this celebrated costume house. Through stunning costumes, accessories and sketches, the visitor will learn the design and making process from script-to screen. Leading costume designers and actors will share their thoughts on favourite costumes, showing how Cosprop brought these magical moments to life.
Alongside the huge array of costumes, the exhibition also reveals how pieces are created, with displays of mood boards, swatch books, sketches, illustrations and final designs, and more.
Offering an in-depth look at the creative process behind many favourite film and TV productions, as well as the technical skill involved, accessories, including hats, bags, jewellery and masks will also be on display.
The exhibition is accompanied by the book The Costume House: The Inside Story of Cosprop by former V&A film curator Keith Lodwick, a writer, curator and theatre and film historian. The richly illustrated book, available from the company’s website or bookshops, celebrates sixty years of Cosprop, and includes a foreword by Dame Judi Dench.
Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop opens today, Friday 26th September 2025 and runs until 8th March 2026, at the Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3XF | £12.65 (Concessions may apply) | Book Tickets Here
The Museum is open Tuesdays – Saturdays, 11.00 – 18.00 (last entry 17.15) | Web: fashiontextilemuseum.org
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The Costume House – the inside story of Cosprop: From a Room with a View to Game of Thrones
By Keith Lodwick | ISBN: 978-1399994002 | AmazonUK Affiliate Link
The Costume House explores some of the most celebrated film and television series in history, from Merchant Ivory to Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, and Peaky Blinders. Featuring interviews with leading costume designers, directors, and actors, and never-before-seen costume designs and photographs, this book is an unprecedented firsthand insight into costume design and making, and their significance to stage and screen worldwide.
“Cosprop is a magical place that is an important part of the nation’s rich cultural heritage,” says Dame Judi Dench in her introduction. “This book should be essential reading for lovers of costume drama and for aspiring costume designers and makers. The industry as a whole should value this document as a glimpse into what excellence can be achieved in one lifetime, with the right balance of vision and modest ambition.”
Keith Lodwick is a writer, curator and theatre and film historian. He is the former Curator of Theatre and Screen Arts at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. At the V&A, Keith was the assistant curator for the major exhibition Hollywood Costume (2012). He curated the touring exhibition Vivien Leigh: Public Faces, Private Lives and cocurated Censored: Stage, Screen, Society for the Theatre & Performance Galleries.
With a career spanning over six decades, John Bright OBE founded Cosprop in 1965, and over the past sixty years, despite the huge change in film and television production, he has remained a constant figure providing a link between authentic period dress and costume design for stage and screen.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Art and Illustration, Books, downthetubes News, Film, Other Worlds, Television
Paul Birkbeck art for Jackanory and Zig Zag re-offered today by auction house Ewbank’s
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