Exhibition - Dressing the Stars: Award-winning British Film Costumes

Monday 5 September - Sunday 30 October

 A rare and special opportunity to see fantastic costumes from classic British films. Covering a period of over 60 years the selection of costumes featured have been made for such actors as Colin Firth in The King’s Speech, Kate Winslett and Alan Rickman in Sense and Sensibility, Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes in Shakespeare in Love and Keira Knightly and Ralph Fiennes in The Duchess.  The exhibition gives visitors the chance to learn more about costume design and the designers themselves.

There are 15 costumes in all, each featuring exquisite detail and displayed alongside large film stills of the actors they were designed for.  The gallery also has a cinema space which will be playing an Audio Visual presentation including excerpts of interviews with the costume designers, film clips and production photos.

The exhibition features the following costumes: 

• Uniform worn by Colin Firth as King George VI in The King’s Speech (2010)
• Wedding dress worn by Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria in The Young Victoria (2009)
• Uniform worn by Rupert Friend as Prince Albert in The Young Victoria (2009)
• Costume worn by Laurence Olivier as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark in Hamlet (1948)
• Costume worn by Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth (1998)
• Costume worn by Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola de Lesseps in Shakespeare in Love (1998)
• Costume worn by Joseph Fiennes as William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love (1998)
• Armour worn by Kenneth Branagh as King Henry V in Henry V (1989)
• Red travelling outfit worn by Natassja Kinski as Tess in Tess (1979)
• Costume worn by Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Lucy Honeychurch in A Room With A View  (1985)
• Uniform worn by Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility (1995)
• Wedding dress worn by Kate Winslett as Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (1995)
• Wedding dress worn by Keira Knightley as Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire in The Duchess (2008)
• Wedding Suit worn by Ralph Fiennes as William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire in The Duchess (2008)
• Evening dress worn by Bette Davis as Mrs Van Schuyler in Death on the Nile (1978)

The gallery, located on the top floor of Rheged, includes a gallery shop stocking design-led products from British craftspeople and our Culture and the Arts Information Station.