Sixth Form students in costume drama

Sixth Form drama students were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the BBC’s wardrobe in a recent visit to the corporation’s Costume and Wig Department. The students explored one of the world’s largest commercial ranges of contemporary clothes covering every possible age of fashion, from authentically recreated Neolithic garments to Roman armour, as featured in Gladiator, to period costumes and vintage high fashion from the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties.

In addition to looking through collections for recent productions of The Tudors, Atonement and Life on Mars, the BBC’s costumiers gave an insight into how a film’s wardrobe is put together, from the initial brief down to the historically accurate detail and precise look of the leading characters’ costume and hair. The students also discovered that top fashion designers are frequent visitors to the department, drawing inspiration from period pieces and using the growing stock of designer collections housed within the costume department as a fashion library.

Commented Derek Walker, Drama Teacher who accompanied the trip: “The size of the wardrobe was quite amazing as was the talent of those who work there, who sometimes have just a matter of days to pull together accurate costumes for an entire cast. The catalogue of every kind of uniform from across the country and across the decades was breathtaking.

October 07