A Tour of Angels Costumiers Warehouse

On Friday, Butters and I had the extraordinary opportunity to take a private tour of legendary film costumiers, Angels' warehouse out in North London. And I have never seen anything like it. As my guide, Master Costumier Mark informed me (with more than 20 years in the business by the way, the man is the walking talking encyclopedia of fashion and film), most people upon casting their very first gaze out over the vast store of 8 MILES of clothing and 5 million individual items wind up dumbstruck, or "costume drunk." Let me tell you, I was positively Costume Wasted when I stumbled out of there, rubbing my eyes. Like a moth to the costume flame, I just wanted to go back and see more, perhaps never ever again to re-assimilate back into regular society.

The reason they invited me? Starting August 6th, for the first time ever, members of the public will be able to book places on an hour and a half tour of the 170-year-old family built business. Since 1948, when costumes supplied by Angels received a Best Costume Academy Award for Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet, Angels has followed suit by supplying costumes to 32 other Best Costume Oscar-winning films including Henry V, Star Wars (I am such a Geek and massive fan), Titanic (1,400 pieces!!), Gladiator (be still, my heart), Marie Antoinette, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and, most recently, The Young Victoria. The way it works is this. A costume designer will draw up a sketch of what they want, or come to the warehouse and peruse. When a look has been decided upon, Angels will replicate it exactly, but never lend out pieces from their actual collection to be shot. That way, with military uniforms, for example, once a costume designer has decided on a style, Angels will produce an assortment of battle-ready uniforms, some beaten and battered, some splattered with blood, others pristine. Mark said to me, "If we're doing our job right, you should never really know we're even there..." Well I certainly know now!

It was like the who's who of film as we passed endless racks of military uniforms tucked behind a weathered poster of Pearl Harbor and outfits ready and the waiting for Jack Sparrow to slip into upon commencing shooting Pirates of the Caribbean 4.  I nearly collapsed from excitement in the armoury, countless rails of medieval and classical war-garb, sprung to life off Russell Crow's chiseled torso itself.


After the men at arms, we meandered through the ethnic sections (of particular interest for me, given the book I'm working on, it was the first time I've seen some of these ethnic costumes in the flesh), and then on to Santas, brides, bunny suits, before finally reaching the time-warping treasure trove of period, modern and contemporary clothes. Essentially, the world's biggest vintage market, stretched before your eyes and perfectly ordered by decade.

And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, it did. A treasure trove of a climate controlled room is sectioned off the main warehouse to preserve, by decade, all kinds of designer goodies. What's a blogger to do when confronted with rails upon rails of 1980's Comme, 1990's Alaia and so forth? Faint? Root oneself to the spot and refuse to ever leave, content to become the madwoman in the designer cupboard ranting and raving for ever and ever? No, twas not to be. So with heavy heart, I allowed myself to be lead away from the greatest stock of vintage designer goodies I'd ever laid eyes on. 


Mark told me that Angels is constantly buying clothes, everything and everything, in essence, can be a costume. What we're wearing today will be the costumes of the future. And so, as the decades rolled by one by one, Angels would scoop up stock as they went, thus amassing vast stores of perfectly preserved, never-worn heaps of clothes accurately depicting a cross-section of society rather than just the elite.

Angels undertakes over 1000 TV, film and theatre projects a year, and has a staff of over 100. Outside the film industry, Angels is best known to the general public for being the UK’s largest supplier of fancy dress from the Angels Fancy Dress flagship store on Shaftesbury Avenue (the site of Morris Angel’s original shop in the 19th Century). Go to their website to book your tour now. I guarantee you, it'll be the best £20 you ever spent.