With Sheridan's The School for Scandal set to be one of our costume highlights of the year, we spoke to the costume designer and talented team of makers about bringing this pink powder keg to life…

Welcome to the world of Sheridan’s The School for Scandal, where the wigs are high and the intrigue is even higher, with gossip bursting from the wings of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Costume is front and centre in this comedy of manners. Characters are beholden to 'the fashion', slip in and out of disguises, are recognised and unmasked by recognition of their clothes, and the spending of fortunes on fashionable items drives a wedge between two central characters.

In order to guide the audience through the story, as well as creating a visual feast for the eyes, our incredible team of costume makers have been hard at work cutting, dyeing and stitching together a production that promises to be the period drama highlight of the year (stand aside, Bridgerton!)

But how do directors, designers and costume-maker work together to bring a 250-year-old satire to a 21st Century audience? We twitched aside the curtain and took a sneak peak into the Costume Workshop to give you an exclusive preview...

FROM SKETCH TO REALITY

The process begins with conversations with the Director Tinuke Craig - discussing the time period, the aesthetic and the character reference and plot points which the costumes help to illustrate.

When speaking about the initial inspiration for the costumes, Costume Designer Alex Lowde says: “We set about using the18th Century as our primary visual reference point, exploring the collision of period against a modern aesthetic to create what is essentially a contemporary render of the18th Century.

“Acknowledging that while Sheridan’s 1777 comedy of societal manners and morality resonates immediately within its period, it also possesses many parallels with our society today.”

Alex then talks through his designs with Alistair McArthur, our Head of Costume. He remembers how excited the costume teams were by such inspiring designs. As the decision was made to set the play in 'period' dress - that is, 18th Century - but with inherently modern elements, all teams begin extensive research into different costume elements and techniques to turn the designer's sketches into reality.

Designer Alex Lowde's sketch of a costume for Lady Teazle
Design by Alex Lowde © RSC Browse and license our images

PANNIERS AND PETTICOATS

For the Traditional Womenswear team, led by Sam Pickering, perfecting the iconic silhouette that was highly fashionable at the time – impossibly wide hips and small waists – is the first challenge.

These silhouettes are created with hoops that are held together and suspended from the waist or hips, called panniers. Traditionally these would have been made from steel, whalebone, willow or rope, but to ensure the costume is strong, flexible and lightweight, so the actors can move about, dance and make dramatic, sweeping exits – our costume makers use nylon rods. 

A pannier with pink ribbon
Lady Teazle's cage panniers are trimmed with 50 metres of pink satin ribbon all sewn on by hand
Sophie Jones © RSC Browse and license our images

"The skirts are made of lightweight nylon hoops, which are covered in petticoats and outerwear, and the brief was to make them as wide as possible. However, the actors also need to be able to move in these costumes – and one even needs to be able to get through a trap in the stage floor – so we’re limited to a mere 2 metres in width for the widest skirt!" says Sam.

The character of Lady Teazle in particular has a jaw-dropping six costume changes throughout the play – some of which are even on stage – so the undergarments are costumes in their own right and will occasionally be just as visible as the outerwear.

"Though the silhouette is definitely 18th Century, these are not strictly period costumes. We’re more closely adapting a playful and anachronistic style, capturing the high fashion of Alex’s designs. So the hemlines are higher, and there are some more modern elements, like asymmetric necklines and, most obviously, the shocking pink fabric," says Sam.

Alex Lowde, Designer

"The colour encapsulates the mad and fevered nature of Sheridan’s protagonists - ripe with scandal, lust and lechery.”

ON WEDNESDAYS (AND ON EVERY OTHER DAY) WE WEAR...

Barbie lovers, rejoice! The flavour of the production is pink with a capital P.

The Costume Painting and Dyeing Team are responsible for creating the right colours to reflect the designer’s vision, as well as using all kinds of techniques to weather or age the fabrics. Since they started work on The School for Scandal, the RSC costume workshops have been awash with fabric samples of different coloured pinks.

Speaking about the colour pink that was chosen, Alex Lowde says: “We’ve adopted a very contemporary super saturated version of the pink colour. This is used on the both the set and costumes. For me the colour encapsulates the mad and fevered nature of Sheridan’s protagonists - ripe with scandal, lust and lechery.”

While the 18th Century is often more associated with pale colours, pastels and plain fabrics, in reality, fashion was far more expressive and outrageous, especially towards the latter end of the era. Expensive, richly coloured silks or elaborately brocaded woollens grew in popularity, along with additional decorative items, such as ribbons, bows, lace trim and rosettes.

Alex says: “In terms of fabric, we’ve used the historically accurate natural fabrics, such as silk, linen, cotton, wool and skins in combination with contemporary recycled technical fabrics, alongside digitally printed fabrics, laser cut leathers and some very saturated colours only achievable with modern dye techniques."

To capture the essence of the time but with a more modern twist, the Costume Supervisor and the Costume Painting & Dyeing team experimented with different fabrics, patterns and decorative techniques.

Helen Hughes, Head of Costume Painting and Dyeing says: “Traditionally, the fabrics would have been painstakingly hand embroidered to achieve luxurious textures and patterns.

"However, we are using a digital process called foiling to give a more modern, incredibly shiny effect that will pop under stage lighting. We use a Cricut machine to cut out the incredibly intricate designs and then use a heat press to transfer the designs onto the fabric."

The total amount of fabric in a dress can be up to 20m, including petticoats, backing and decoration
Sophie Jones © RSC Browse and license our images
RSC_School_For_Scandal_Costumes_H7A6346
The foiled design on Sir Charles Surface’s pink velvet coat took approximately 1.8m of metallic pink mylar foil and, including sampling, design work and printing, took approximately 17 hours to apply.
Photo by Andrew Fox © The artist Browse and license our images

ALL THAT GLITTERS

The icing on the cake is of course the twinkly, shiny elements, including jewellery, gloves and hats, plus specific accessories of the time, including wig bags and lashings of curled decorative feathers. These are all researched, sourced and painstakingly crafted by the Millinery and Jewellery Team.

While the process of making these starts at the same time as the rest of the costumes, Claire Spooner, Head of Millinery and Jewellery, says the final results may not come together until the production is on stage during the dress rehearsals.

She says: "Under the stage lights, and against the backdrop of the set, hats, jewellery and accessories can be added or changed to emphasise certain characteristics. For example, we've been making a giant tricorn hat that’s being used as part of a disguise – this may need to be altered depending on whether it achieves the desired reaction on stage as it’s a crucial comic element of the scene."

The giant tricorn hat in question was inspired by an image from a collection of fashion and costume plates, distributed in Paris between 1778 and 1787, called Galerie des Modes et Costumes Français. With only a black and white 2D image to start with, the team has managed to replicate this 'Chapeau a la Suisse' in real life, possibly for the first time.

Shoes are also a key part of the costume, and our Costume Props and Footwear team have been hard at work recovering and painting the many pairs of shoes in the show. Many actors have more than one pair, so there has been a lot to do.

18th Century men and women would both wear high heeled shoes, elaborately decorated with vibrant colours, pearly buttons, buckles, ribbons and ruffles - and Alex's shorter-style dresses will ensure these works of art are fully visible from every seat in the house.

In the process of creating costumes for a production like this, it is clear that our Costume Workshops use so many traditional crafting skills, as well as modern. 

Many of the costume makers highlight that working on a period-inspired production like this has the added benefit of preserving those skills and allowing the team to pass them onto future generations via our costume apprentices.

These glasses were inspired by a pair of Indian emerald and diamond glasses from the 17th Century Mughal era, the design of which were copied by Pharrell Williams for his collaboration with Tiffany in 2022
Sophie Jones © RSC Browse and license our images

FUTURE OF THE COSTUMES

Thankfully, all the effort, fabric and time that goes into making these incredible costumes doesn't end with the production. Once The School for Scandal has ended its run in September, the costumes will then be moved to our Costume Hire store in Stratford.

Once here, they may be reused by the Costume Workshop for future productions, as well as made available to hire to amateur and professional customers - for example, some of our Elizabethan costumes can be seen in the film Firebrand starring Jude Law and Alicia Vikander. Plus, if you have a fancy dress event coming up, our costumes are even available to hire by the public.

However, the best place to see the costumes in all their glory is on stage at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which promises to be a genuine treat for the eyes and ears.

The School for Scandal runs 2 July to 6 September at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

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