Join Barbara Kloos, Historic Collection Curator at Cosprop, her assistants Sage Foley and Annie Lloyd, and Keith Lodwick curator of the exhibition Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop, as they take an intimate look at a selection of historical garments from the John Bright Collection.

The in-house dress archive allows designers and Cosprop’s staff to connect with the physical world of the characters they dress for film, theatre and TV. It holds around 8000 items of historical clothing and has grown organically with the business as ‘retired’ original stock costumes and donations were put aside for preservation, alongside purchases from antique dealers. It is used to study shapes, materials and techniques but also to remind us that human beings once lived and breathed in these clothes. Key items of the collections are viewable via the Heritage Lottery funded website and have been available to the public since 2016.

Keith and Barbara will discuss how these garments have informed the development of the costumes featured in the Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop exhibition, allowing participants to get up closes and view the construction internal and hidden details. This event, limited to 20 people, provides the perfect opportunity to ask questions and view historic garments, sketches and photos not usually accessible to the public.