Costumes for Professional Stage and Screen

At Gladrags, we marry our expertise in costume provision across centuries and cultures with a respect for professional creative process. In our Aladdin’s cave, you can browse freely to create your perfect looks, or access our bespoke styling service, which delivers to the brief of costume designers, supervisors and stylists to bring your costume vision to life.  

Established since 1994, we are inherently sustainable with 95% of our 8000+ stock gifted, repurposed and regularly refreshed by costume donations from production companies, theatres, and private collections. Together they bring us both unique theatrical costumes as far back as the Iron Age to genuine vintage garments dating back to the late 19th century. 

From award-winning documentary makers Passion Productions and BBC's Malory Towers to Brighton Dome and Chichester Festival Theatre, a range of production and theatre companies collaborate with us and look to our planet-friendly costume service to support a more sustainable solution to production design, costume construction and set-dressing. 

Please see below for example productions that feature Gladrags costumes and further information on our service. 

A visit to Gladrags is more than a transaction, it’s an experience. We like to make our approach to costume hire as differentiated and flexible as possible, understanding your particular process, working to your particular brief. These are some of the ways we can help you: 

 

• Tour and introduction to our costume collection for future planning, design ideas and inspiration 
• Dedicated gathering rails, on-site fitting room and free off-site fittings loan 
• Freedom to browse, source and style costumes yourselves, with assistance from our team, if desired 
• Have our knowledgeable stylists put together palette rails according to your brief, or create whole looks, saving valuable designer time 
• Access to our free Rehome-it! stock of recycled garments and fabric to further your own sustainable costume practise 
• Hire by the item, allowing you to blend with other suppliers or your own costume makes. See our prices here 
• Discounts applied for production weeks and tours 
• Access to our mini costume reference library 
• Alterations service as well as the potential for your own team to alter and adapt costumes

Sustainability 

If you are working within the theatre Green Book standards, or striving towards sustainability goals, hiring from Gladrags is an environmentally conscious choice. Here are some of our commitments: 

• The predominant use of second-hand clothing, costume, textiles and apparel for hire 
• Prolonging the life of donated costumes through repair, redesign and repurpose, using 75% second-hand textiles, haberdashery, sewing machines and equipment  
• Re-use and otherwise re-homing of every scrap of fabric, connecting with designers, makers, community and re-use organisations 
• Planet-friendly textile care, including 100% use of eco washing products, low wash-cycles, natural clothing sprays and steam cleaning  

You can be part of a closed-loop costume journey, whereby we reduce textile waste together.
Find out more here about our environmental impact.