‘We entered Cosprop as ourselves and walked out as the person we were playing.’ – Helena Bonham Carter
Cosprop has changed the way that costume is designed and created. Founded by Oscar and BAFTA-winning costume designer John Bright in 1965, legendary London based Cosprop specialises in period costume for film, television and theatre. Through his work as a costume designer, a costumier, maker, advisor, collector and historian, Bright’s intelligence and eye for detail is in thousands of film, television and stage productions.
This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition features many costumes never seen in public before. 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. Cosprop is synonymous with dressing iconic characters in award-winning films and television.
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.
Costume Couture, will be accompanied by a beautiful, richly illustrated book celebrating sixty years of Cosprop, written by former V&A film curator Keith Lodwick, and with a foreword by Dame Judi Dench.
‘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
This exhibition is accompanied by the book The Costume House: The Inside Story of Cosprop by Keith Lodwick – COMING SOON!
Image credit: A Room with a View (1986), Helena Bonham Carter and Julian Sands © Merchant Ivory / Goldcrest / Kobal / Shutterstock
About the curators
John Bright OBE is an Oscar and BAFTA award winning Costume Designer and founder of the internationally renowned Costume House Cosprop.
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) and he curated the touring exhibition Vivien Leigh: Public Faces, Private Lives. Keith has contributed to a wide range of publications including The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Film and Television Costume Design (2025), George Hoyningen-Huene (Thames & Hudson, 2024), DIVA (V&A, 2023) and Studies in Costume and Performance (Bloomsbury, 2021).
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In place of a permanent display, the Fashion and Textile Museum hosts a diverse programme of temporary exhibitions, displaying a broad range of innovative fashion and textiles from designers and makers around the world.
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