Dressing the part

Celebrating 60 years of period costumes, from Darcy's shirt to Streep's safari gear

- Shaad D'Souza

When John Bright founded the period costume house Cosprop in 1965, it was out of a desire to give the clothes seen in film and TV "a greater realism" than viewers were used to.

Now the costume designer's vision is to be celebrated in an exhibition marking his 60 years of creating some of the most recognisable costumes of all time.

"I decided that if we made the stock as real as possible, it would be universal," Bright said. "The truth is the truth for all times."

That mission led to the creation of some notable costumes: the Regency-era shirt that, once wet, turned Colin Firth into an instant heartthrob in 1995's Pride and Prejudice; the safari gear worn by Meryl Streep in 1985's Out of Africa, which inspired countless catwalks; Johnny Depp's dishevelled 1720s Pirates of the Caribbean suit, so artfully soiled you can almost smell it through the screen.

All of these outfits were the result of tireless research and craft by Cosprop's highly trained artisans, who use period-accurate materials and techniques to achieve cinematic realism.

These costumes, and dozens more, are on display at south London's Fashion and Textile Museum in Costume Couture, an exhibition that celebrates 60 years of Bright's work at Cosprop and runs until 8 March.