Researcher’s new book takes readers behind the stage to reveal the hidden craft of British costume making

Craft and Illusion: 250 Years of Costume Making in Britain (Yale University Press) will be published on 27 October 2026

A new book co-edited by a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures provides the first major study dedicated to costume making in the United Kingdom, documenting generations of hidden expertise while warning that the sector and its skills face an uncertain future.

Published by Yale University Press, Craft and Illusion: 250 Years of Costume Making in Britain, is co-edited by Dr Jade Halbert (main image), Lecturer in Design Studies at the School of Design, and Dr Veronica Isaac at the University of Brighton. The book takes readers backstage and into the hidden world of the workroom to record the complex tactile skill, oral traditions, and physical labour involved in creating performance costumes across British theatre, opera, and film.

Dr Halbert and Dr Isaac highlight how the physical expertise of makers has been overlooked in both academic literature and cultural archives:

“The making of costume for performance has always been – and remains – a behind-the-scenes activity. Because of this, the intensity of the costume maker’s labour, the breadth of their specialist skills and the quality of their craftsmanship often go unrecognised. Making is also, of course, a tactile practice, rarely recorded in writing but reliant instead on both formal and informal oral and visual transmission of knowledge, inextricably linked to the knowledge and understanding gained through touch and held in the hand.

“Craft and Illusion illuminates the realities of costume making: the time, tools and expertise it demands, the pressure makers face, and the challenges of rendering two-dimensional designs into magnificent and robust three-dimensional life. Costumes are powerful: they enchant, they dazzle and they hold us spellbound. Their makers deserve recognition and appreciation.”

The book is structured in two parts. The first section traces historical milestones in British costume making, from 18th century workrooms at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane to post-war art schools, the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, and the costume construction course established at Liverpool’s Mabel Fletcher Technical College in the 1980s. The second part presents 23 personal contributions from active costume makers and researchers, offering detailed accounts of making for classical opera and ballet alongside reflections on careers in the sector.

Despite the industry's rich heritage, Dr Halbert and Dr Isaac emphasise that post-pandemic restructuring, rising production costs, and production moving overseas threaten the survival of these specialised skills. The publication calls for greater institutional recognition, fair pay, and formal archiving to protect the UK's costume-making workforce.

“The future is unclear,” they argue. “Audiences have changed, productions have changed, the world has changed. In order to secure its survival, our attitude to costume making has to change too. We must recognise and acknowledge its status as one of our most significant, long-standing and irreplaceable creative production sectors.

“As an audience we need to look beyond the costume and see through the illusion to appreciate and value the craft of the maker. As a society, this means we need to both recognise and respect different forms of knowledge and mediums of expression.

“Know-how is as vital as knowledge and, as the contributors to this book have demonstrated, the needle and thread are as powerful as the pen and paper.”

Craft and Illusion: 250 Years of Costume Making in Britain (Yale University Press) will be published on 27 October 2026. This will be followed by a launch event at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in November.