The Sherlock Holmes Museum - Baker St, London

While on a college trip to London i took the time to visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London. Over the years many TV series and Films have been made based on Sherlock Holmes and as a student of costume  design i felt it would be a nice stop off during my visit to london, as many items found at the museum would have been used to replicate props and costume accessories for those TV series and films. 

Below is a collection of items from the museum

Here we have a copy of a notebook or journal which at a time without mobiles and computers was one of the only ways of keeping records. 

Here you can see an early example of handcuffs which are clearly different from modern 21st century ones this is something to keep in main when researching and planning period costumes and accessories.

Here again is a few early examples of items a person might have like a hat and pipe, theatre glasses as there still was time for a social life among detective work.

Here are a couple of guns on display again different in appearance to those of the 21st century and another accessory that may need to be sourced to complete the look of a character or costume.

The last image is that of a writing desk as any good detective needs a base to work from again taking note of the various items arranged on the desk, these are the details that could make a production of a period TV or film a smash hit or a big flop. 

Images credited to

The Sherlock Holmes Museum

221b Baker Street, London NW1 6XE

The Harry Potter studios tour, London

While on my college trip to London among many of the places i visited like the V&A, and the Sherlock Holmes Museum I also when to the Harry Potter studios while there we were given special group talk in the academic learning centre, which is not part of the normal tour here we got to see up close some of the costumes and props used during the filming of harry potter before we proceeded onto the standard tour.

It was great to be able to take the tour looking at it through the eyes of a student costumier as you really can get a sense of what it would be like to work on such a big and long running movie production.

From this i would like to share just a small amount of the images i took while down there picking out the best and most relevant to those with an interest in the costume side of things.  

Top left we have a collection of Slytherin House uniforms

Top right we have a costume worn by Hagrid

Buttom left we have a costume worn by Professor Snape

Buttom right is a costume worn by Professor McGonagall

Here we have a collection of the wigs worn and made by many of the main cast.

More of the character costumes:

Top is potions teacher Professor Slughorn

Buttom is two costumes worn by Dolores Umbridge

Next up is a collection of the Death-Eater Masks

Here is a great piece of costume display, it shows how through the production of the movie many replications of the same costume had to be made showing different levels of wear and tear for many of the characters.  Here is one of Harry's which through various scenes in the movie harry would of encountered lots of wear and tear during battles with the dark side and this set of costume are displayed together to so this.   

Here we have some of the amazing work but the prosthetic and model makers that worked on the movies.

There is many more images i took while i was there too many to display but in the post i have tried to show off some of my favorites and those that show off some of the costumes for the main characters seen in the movies. 

The images are credited to

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London 

Studio Tour Drive

Leavesden

WD25 7LR

V&A Museum London

During a college trip to the capital in London i had the opportunity to visit many interesting places, one of those places was the Victoria & Albert  Museum. During this trip it allowed me to see some primary sources of research on costume and clothing from a wide time period. below are a few images with a bief description of what they are and when they are and the time period they date from.   

 Figure 1

Figure 2

Images figure 1 and 2 are are of a 1755-60 court dress viewed from the back.

This type of dress was required and the french court for all royal assemblies and balls.

Due to the shape and sheer  width of the dress it was a challenge to negotiate things like door ways and carriages while trying to maintain a level of gracefulness. 

 Figure 3

 Figure 4

Figure 3&4 features a ball dress  C.1820-25 made of silk satin and silk net embroidered with metal and silk bobbin lace.

 Figures 5 & 6

Figure 7

Figure 5-7 feature a Regency style day dress C.1817-20 comprised of a Spencer,skirt and bodice. figure 7 is a  tailcoat waistcoat and under-waistcoat C. 1815-20. 

Figure 8 & 9

Figure 8 is a printed wool dress C. 1835-38 while figure 9 is a doll for the same era C. 1830 note the similar style dress worn with large puffed sleeves and pleated skirt.

Figure 12

Figure 10-12 features the 1940-50s style tailored fit. Note how Figure 11 is a utility style ladies suit cut to minimise fabric wastage and the use of the 4 buttons was the maximum allowance under the clothes rationing regulation during war time Britain.

    

The V&A Japanese Armour section 

  

Figure 13- 16 are a selection of Japanese Samurai Armour popular ago the Edo period of Japan. 

Images credited to the Victoria and Albert Museum London

http://www.vam.ac.uk/