Diary: The Great Costume Warehouse

Not every theatre has the resources to make costumes for every production, many smaller regional theatres like the Bristol Old Vic, although they do have a small and expert wardrobe staff, need to hire costumes for many of their productions. To do so they use specialist suppliers like Bristol Costume Services. Most of the costumes used in Beasts and Beauties are hired.

Bristol Costume Services occupies a large warehouse sandwiched between a car salesroom and a gigantic supermarket on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Bristol. It looks very uninspiring on the outside, but as soon as you enter the building you are really and truly in an Aladdin's cave. The place is full of hundreds of costumes all arranged in long double rows carefully organised into historical period and type. There is everything from late mediaeval knight's armour to the green fluorescent suits worn by paramedics (Casualty is filmed in Bristol). On one rail you can find gentlemen's jackets from the 1930s - 1960s, on another, the helpfully descriptive labels for a complete set of costumes for the "swashbuckling woman", the "feminine dandy", the "masculine dandy" and even the "transsexual dandy"! Think for a minute about how many different pieces of clothing you currently own including underwear, outerwear, headwear, and footware, plus the jewellery you have in your wardrobe, and then multiply the total number of pieces by the number of decades you have lived and you will begin to realise just how much material this place holds.

All day the actors come at their appointed hour for Melly and Lynn from the BOV wardrobe to try out various costumes that Lynn has pre-selected using Melly's exquisite costume drawings as a guide. Occasionally one of the team will dash off into the forest of clothes and return with a different hat, or another set of silk scarves to try out. "Try this" becomes the mantra for the day. The costumes not only have to look right, they also have to feel right and be able to withstand quick changes and what will be a very rigorous performance happening up to ten times a week over four weeks.