Profile
at the heart of the company and this is clear to see in the clothing they supply. Tim speaks passionately about programmes that utilise inadequate or inaccurate clothing, a decision that can completely pull an otherwise impressive production apart at the seams (pun intended). Of this he says, “You can tell if people are penny pinching... they get clothes that are appalling and they are only doing it to save money.” T e eff ect of this, in Tim’s expert eyes, is that the overall mise-en-scene gets disrupted. “I actually think that if you see a fi lm and you don’t notice the costumes then the costumes are great,” he explains. “If I actually notice the costumes then they’re terrible. T e costume should form part of the picture of the fi lm. If you go and see, for example, a masterpiece of a painting, a
legacy. Acknowledging this, Tim describes the way he used to feel when he walked around the West End, seeing trailers for fi lms that he had worked on, or watching television programmes where the costumes the company had supplied were being worn by actors or presenters. “It used to give me a kick,” he explains, “and it makes me feel very proud. Not many companies can have a legacy like that.” But then the Angels legacy goes back 170 years and Tim has been there all of his working life having started out stacking shelves. As you can imagine, supplying such a large number of costumes to so many productions brings certain challenges. In the funeral
Rembrandt or a Monet, you’re looking at the whole thing, the colours, and the way the light has been captured and so on. It paints a picture. And that’s how a fi lm should be.” With such a thoughtful and attentive approach to costumes it is no surprise that many of the productions which have had garments and accessories supplied by Angels have gone on to win Oscars for ‘best achievement in costume design’, Moulin Rouge, T e English Patient and Alice in Wonderland to name but a few. But the company are not just limited to working with fi lms and television series. In fact, Angels recently made a replica of the Queen’s coronation dress for Harrods! It is fascinating to think of the journey that
many of the costumes in the company warehouse will have been on during their existence there. T e costume worn by Richard Burton in Cleopatra, for example, was later worn by Sid James in Carry on Cleo! T e costumes that Angels supply are immortalised in fi lm, available for generations of people to see. It is an incredible
scene of Evita all of the costumes were supplied by Angels. Of this fi lm Tim recalls, “During that fi lm, Madonna was pregnant so we constantly had to adjust her dresses because she couldn’t look pregnant in the fi lm. So we were constantly making adjustments and that was a challenge.” For those interested in fi nding out more about
the company and how it works, Angels off ers tours covering the various departments within the building so people can watch the diff erent processes involved in putting costumes together. Visitors on the tour can expect to see, as Tim puts it, “eight and a half miles of clothing that represents two thousand years worth of history
from caveman up to modern day.” T ey can even get to see costumes being worked on for upcoming projects, which they might then see on television or on the big screen! It’s a wonderful opportunity to get a sneak peek inside a company with such a rich and varied history and to marvel at the millions of costumes collected lovingly over nearly two hundred years.
For more information or to book a tour visit
www.angels.uk.com
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