Stratford Guild Talk 11 March REVIEW - a Costume Design Journey

March 11th 2026 “Script to Screen: A Costume Design Journey”, Speaker: Val Greathead

We were given an entertaining introduction to the life of a costume designer, mainly in the TV industry, by our speaker this month.

Val Greathead’s interest in costume design started at a young age. While in the Brownies she was given the lead role as Winnie the Pooh and decided to make her own outfit using the stuffing from the family’s cushions. She was not flavour of the month at home after that! But the torch was lit.

Graduating, in the late 1970s, from Newcastle Poly with a degree in Fashion design, Val joined one of the smaller independent TV companies, Tyne Tees Television, where she developed her skills over a number of years, especially on location filming. She was also delighted to meet with stars like Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Billy Connolly, Spike Milligan and many others.

She explained the importance of costume; it can transform an actor, affect the way they move, how they feel and their presence on the set as well as sending messages about their place in the story. Costume design is therefore a unique art form. It is collaborative and interpretive and goes a lot further than just making clothes. Costumes communicate, an impression is created before the actor has even opened their mouth.

It all starts with the script. The director, production designer, producer, dresser, make-up artist and the actors all contribute to basic design. Style, budget, logistics, how the actor has to move, etc are all discussed and agreed. Then the designer can get to work, creating the design, locating materials, briefing the tailor, costume maker, milliner, or perhaps buying items that can be “embellished”. As well as adding decorative features the term “embellishment” covers a multitude of actions, including distressing a newly purchased item to make it look old.

When a costume is completed, however, that is nowhere near the end of the designer’s role. On set the designer is responsible for continuity in the costume domain. In the 1980s this involved taking a multitude of Polaroid pictures and making sure that the wearer looked exactly the same in successive shots, which may be filmed many days apart. This includes ensuring that stunt doubles exactly match the actor’s last seen status. They also have to ensure that costume is, where necessary, mended, cleaned, pressed and ready to wear, often the very next day. A lot of TLC is needed as well as problem solving.

To broaden her experience, Val took a six-month contract with The Pitlochry Repertory Theatre, a demanding period involving six shows with two to four being presented in any one week. It kept her on her toes but she really enjoyed it. Following Pitlochry, where the budget was very tight, she moved to Central TV and was startled by the size of her budget, which, for her first show was close to £¼ million!

Val illustrated her talk with a wealth of pictures of her designs and the design process involved as well as stories, often humorous, about the actors and some of the situations and challenges she had to deal with, including an exploding Samurai.

David Balston