WHAT? Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop

WHERE? Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3XF

WHEN? Now until 8 March 2026

WHY GO? For the love of film. Lights, cameras, action! If any exhibition feeds into your fantasy for film, this is it. Costumes from memorable films and TV favourites are on show celebrating the revered costume house Cosprop, famed in the film world for dressing stars since 1965.
Based in North London, Cosprop, under its award-winning founder John Bright, is credited with creating period costumes for films as diverse as A Room with a View to Mrs Harris Goes to Paris and TV epics such as Downton Abbey and Peaky Blinders.
You name it and they are likely to have been involved — with stars like Helena Bonham Carter declaring, “We entered as ourselves and walked out as the person we were playing.”
Couture techniques are employed to create astonishing levels of authenticity using modern materials — it’s often impossible to distinguish whether the costumes are vintage originals or present-day replicas.
Ruffles, corsets, embroideries and lace, as worn by leading ladies like Cate Blanchett, Keira Knightley and Nicole Kidman, sit alongside menswear including the renowned Hercule Poirot suit immortalised by David Suchet in Death on the Nile.
It’s a treasure trove of fancy costumes, cleverly curated as scenarios — but take note to view the accompanying booklet so that each mannequin, actor and most importantly designer can be identified.

IN THE KNOW Behind every good costume drama, there’s the costume to add drama! John Bright was an actor, stage manager and designer before following his passion for vintage clothing led him to launch a small costume house — now the leading source of historically accurate costume. John Bright’s Cosprop supports a team of over 40 experts.