About

This PhD is an investigation into innovative developments of period costume making for film and television as a distinct form of craft practice in Britain from the late 1950s to the 1980s. It focuses on the importance of a defined, scholarly approach to the craft practice developed and disseminated by Costume and Theatre Design courses at British Art schools during this period. Focusing on the overlooked, back-room costume maker, rather than the designer, I will recontextualise period costume making as a unique craft practice that existed outside of the confines of modernist craft discourse. Developing in parallel with new performance technologies that increasing demanded craft skills as part of ‘period accuracy’ and ‘authenticity’, the research will identify the direct impact of these costume makers on the period drama revivals of the 1970s and 1980s in British Television and Film

This will be the first study to focus on period costumes as important craft objects, with their own language of making. A language that emerged from a small network of previously unresearched and highly influential craft educators and costume makers at three institutions: Norah Waugh at Central School of Arts and Crafts (1950s -1960s), Michael Pope at Wimbledon School of Art in the 1970s and Jean Hunnisett at Bournemouth School of Art in the 1980s. By studying archival material, identifying and analysing extant work, alongside foundational texts, it is possible to uncover the lineage of this unique practice and its tangible impacts on British Television and Film.

Employing material culture methods and working across Cultural Studies, Craft History, Film and Television and Museum Studies, this interdisciplinary study will extend and deepen knowledge of period costume as a unique nexus point between scholarship, craft and popular culture, and make a significant contribution to craft histories and interpretation of period dramas.