Costume at the National Theatre

The National Theatre costume department is a land of absolute marvels. Housed on-site at the Southbank theatre, it sources, sews, alters and dresses performers for 20 new productions per year (and bear in mind that the NT is one of the few London theatres to use large casts). It also loans costumes from its 90,000 strong hire department to theatres all over the country. The wizard-like people who work there are able to magic blood out of costumes, whip an actor into a corset in under 60 seconds and just, well, perform magic basically. You can now see some of their treasures for free on display in the National Theatre's Wolfson Gallery. There are costumes from 'Follies', 'Antony & Cleopatra', 'Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom', 'wonder.land', 'Dara' and 'War Horse', and the displays will take you through the entire costuming process from start to finish.