The Costume House: The Inside Story of Cosprop from A Room with a View to Game of Thrones – book review

Film historian Keith Lodwick’s beautifully illustrated and educational book charts the success of costume house Cosprop and the influence of John Bright, the man behind it, on thousands of films and TV adaptations over more than half a century

The Costume House: The Inside Story of Cosprop from A Room with a View to Game of Thrones by Keith Lodwick, published by Yale University Press.

reviewed by NICOLA HOMER

The Europeans by the American novelist Henry James tells a light-hearted story about the influence of two visitors from Europe on their Bostonian cousins when they arrive in New England. The story behind Merchant Ivory’s 1979 film adaptation of the novel, which features garments by Cosprop, can be read in The Costume House, written by Keith Lodwick, a film historian and a former curator of theatre and screen arts at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. This 240-page coffee-table book, which accompanies the exhibition Costume Couture: 60 Years of Cosprop at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, is an excellent primer on costume drama. In the preface, the Oscar-winning English actor Judi Dench, crisply sums up the work: “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.” 

Behind the Scenes at Cosprop. © Paul Bulley

The book’s introduction explains how it all began. In 1965, John Bright used his savings to set up premises as a costumier in Primrose Hill, north London, and friends and relatives commissioned him to make clothes. Work then began to arrive from theatres. He appointed costume-makers, who developed their knowledge as they worked together. The timing appears fortuitous as a generation of designers were supported by an apprenticeship in the costume departments of British television channels. In 1966, Cosprop created its first costume for television, a wedding dress for the BBC’s 1967 adaptation of Great Expectations. Sixty years later, the costume house’s influence can be seen in thousands of film, TV and stage productions. Now, based in Islington, north London, the costume house holds a collection of more than 1m items of dress and accessories, and has become a place for study and research.

Out of Africa (1985), Costume for Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep). Costume Designer: Milena Canonero. © Cosprop - Jon Stokes / Julia Buckmiller.

The book comprises seven chapters charting Cosprop’s evolution, beginning with a focus on the redesign of costume drama from 1965 to 1999. It shines a spotlight on how character emerges through costumes, for example as seen in photographs of Meryl Streep in a dark cloak in The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981) and wearing a chic wedding hat that defines her in Out of Africa (1985). The book then moves on to look at Merchant Ivory films with images of authentic-looking period costumes from The Europeans and The Bostonians (1984), a comedy of manners with costumes designed by Bright and Jenny Beavan, which established the pair’s long-standing working relationship; and adaptations of Jane Austen novels, such as the film Sense and Sensibility (1995) and the BBC’s TV drama Pride and Prejudice, now being celebrated 30 years since it was first broadcast.

Sense and Sensibility (1995), Costume for Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman). Costume Designers: John Bright, Jenny Beavan. © Cosprop - Jon Stokes / Julia Buckmiller.

Lodwick then considers the golden era of TV costume drama in the late 1960s and early 70s, when television producers switched from black-and-white to colour broadcasts, and Cosprop built its collection and reputation. Yet he mentions a counterpoint as the 70s experienced economic instability. The author notes the impact BBC programming had on UK cultural life from then until the 80s. In 1974, the broadcaster commissioned Poldark, the epic set in 18th-century Cornwall, which engaged audiences. The BBC’s competitor, ITV, commissioned the popular drama Upstairs, Downstairs (1971-75), a progenitor of Downton Abbey (2010-15), the latter of which Lodwick explores in a substantial and richly illustrated text. There is also a fascinating chapter on costume for stage, focusing on the role of Cosprop in the theatre and opera industries, including The Cherry Orchard (1981), one of Peter Brook’s most significant productions, and Death in Venice (2007), Deborah Warner’s production of Benjamin Britten’s final opera, in collaboration with the English National Opera. The importance of the stage for Bright is clear in the description of his early days acting in repertory theatre after completing a four-year fashion course at art school, before he founded Cosprop. I asked Lodwick to share his opinion about any favourite stage costumes as the stage holds a special place in the career of the costumier. He said: “The film The Leopard (1963, costume designer Piero Tosi) occupies a special place for John, the costume design was a real inspiration for him.”

Howards End (1992), Costume for Ruth Wilcox (Vanessa Redgrave) Costume Designers: John Bright, Jenny Beavan. © Cosprop - Jon Stokes / Julia Buckmiller.

The author notes that he discovered many new things through his research, which he had not known before writing the book, including the scope and scale of the productions on which Cosprop has worked, “how central they were to the popularity of the BBC’s ‘golden age’ in the 1970s when the whole family tuned in on a Sunday evening to watch the ‘costume drama’.” He continues: “They worked on both the 1970s Poldark and the remake with Aidan Turner in the 2010s, so they have witnessed many novels and classic serials revisited and revived. Their work on Game of Thrones (2011-19) was also a discovery. Cosprop was not associated with ‘fantasy costuming’ so the fact they had created the costumes for the pilot and series one – establishing the look of the various factions – was really interesting.”

The book is a treasure trove of colour cinematography and Lodwick highlights important television, film and stage costumes. In his reply to me, Lodwick also said: “There are so many, but for me, the Merchant Ivory films of the 1980s and 90s raised the standard of the period adaptation on to a new level. These films were hugely influential and so the book was an opportunity to understand more about John Bright and Jenny Beavan’s design process and how Cosprop were central to their success. The stock at Cosprop and the making skills of the staff all contributed to the visual identity of these films – we watch the characters at the centre of the cinematic frame, so everything a character is wearing will tell us so much information about the person they are.”

Behind the scenes, creatives played a vital role in the success of the Merchant Ivory films, including the screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, as well as Bright, Beavan and the team at Cosprop. The costumier’s advice and the inspiration provided by the Cosprop stock appears to have been invaluable to the creation of The Europeans. In the book, the American film director James Ivory, who established a successful partnership with the Indian producer Ismail Merchant, says: “The Europeans was the first of the Merchant Ivory period adaptation to have a state-of-the-art approach to the film’s look and it was characteristic of all the rest to come.” Merchant Ivory are known for their adaptations of complex novels by Henry James and EM Forster, and for Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day.

A Room with a View (1985), Costume for Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter). Costume Designers: John Bright, Jenny Beavan. © Cosprop - Jon Stokes / Julia Buckmiller.

Bright provided a rich stock of Edwardian costume at Cosprop, which succeeded in bringing to life characters in an adaptation of Forster’s masterpiece A Room with a View (1985), cultivating a sophisticated image of the young Englishwoman Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter). The film won Bright and Beavan an Oscar for costume design in 1987. Lodwick writes: “The work of Bright and Beavan on A Room with a View drew high praise from their peers. The film built on the turning point of historically accurate clothing being reimagined and research being the foundation to recreate a period setting, which did not go unrecognised. Triple-Oscar best costume design winner and frequent Cosprop collaborator Anthony Powell remarked, ‘A Room with a View is in the same league as Death in Venice, it is like watching a beautiful vintage photograph of that period brought vividly to life. It lives and breathes with the wonderful performances and the eloquent script, the clothes are so true to the period that it will never date.’”

Lodwick explains how his knowledge of Cosprop changed through the process of researching the book, charting the historical development of costume design, ranging from the analogue to the digital era. “Working with the staff at Cosprop, I came to understand how the costume-making process works, how each department in the costume house collaborates with each other to produce a single costume, the length of time it takes and the attention to detail that is applied to every single project. Spending time in each room in the costume house was a fascinating learning experience.”

• The Costume House: The Inside Story of Cosprop from A Room with a View to Game of Thrones by Keith Lodwick, is published by Yale University Press, price £40. The book accompanies the exhibition Costume Couture: 60 Years of Cosprop at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London, until 8 March 2026.