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They have been worn by some of the most famous actors from stage and screen and now the rarely seen costumes from the Royal Shakespeare Company are going on show. Catherine Vonledebur reports.

DAME Judi Dench’s 1976 yellow Adriana dress from The Comedy of Errors incorporates a beautiful embroidered butterfly motif; while the red skeletal T-shirt worn in 2008 by David Tennant as Hamlet was hand-printed inside the Royal Shakespeare Company’s costume department.

Both garments are among 35 rarely displayed, beautifully hand-crafted costumes on show in the first part of the RSC’s new exhibition, In Stitches.

Other costumes in the exhibition range from a lace dress worn by Edith Evans in All’s Well That Ends Well dating back to 1959; Vanessa Redgrave’s 1961 Rosalind dress from As You Like It to the military uniform worn by Antony Sher in 1999 as Leontes in The Winter’s Tale and Sir Ian McKellen’s King Lear outfit from 2007.

RSC head of costume Alistair McArthur says: “The exhibition includes Derek Jacobi’s cloak when he played Prospero in The Tempest, before my time in 1982. It was hand painted with symbols. The head of department, Dot Marshall, who sadly died last year, had all the names of the costume makers inscribed on the cloak.

“It’s nice to see some of the old things come out of storage such as a lovely Edith Evans dress from 1959. David Tennant’s T-shirt from Hamlet was printed in-house. They have been hidden away for a long time. Most of the costumes are still very beautiful. A costume has to be put together well – it has to last 100 performances or so. The exhibition is a good demonstration of what the costume department has produced over the last 60 years.”

Each costume from the RSC’s unique collection and costume store, which houses more than 30,000 items highlights the skills and craftsmanship that go into making each piece, such as tailoring, dyeing, printing, leather work, beading, corsetry, millinery, mask-making and jewellery making.

The RSC is one of the few theatre companies left in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ to make all its costumes, hats, masks, jewellery and even underwear in-house.

And it is the only theatre company in Britain with an on-site armoury.

Alistair, who recently celebrated his 10th anniversary working in Stratford-upon-Avon, heads a team of 26, including cutters, stitchers, leather workers, milliners, dyers, wig and make-up artists, designers, wardrobe mistresses and dressers.

He said: “Our costume workshop is opposite the main RSC building in a row of cottages.

“There is a designer and costume supervisor appointed on every show – they choose the fabric and draft the patterns. The RSC cutters draft all patterns themselves according to the specifics of each design and these are given to the work room ready for the first costume fittings.

“The designer gets to see how it’s working and any difficulties. We look at it technically. The costume is then taken apart and put together properly. When it is finished it goes over to running wardrobe across the road in the main theatre.

“The costume departmenttries to avoid using zips in their costumes. For quick changes we try not to use Velcro as it ruins the line of the fabric and is very noisy. We now use industrial strength magnets.

“We buy fabric from all over the world.

“If the designer requires a particular colour or pattern, fabric can be dyed or printed by the RSC’s dye department.”

Alistair says the department makes everything from underwear to armour and weaponry.

“We make everything that goes into a show ourselves, even the underwear and are one of the few theatres who makes its own armour.”

Alistair trained as a stage manager at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

“I spent a lot of my time in the wardrobe department and enjoyed it. I was offered two weeks work-experience at The National Theatre. The head of costume must have seen something in me and offered me a year’s training as costume supervisor. I was very lucky I was given a break,” he says.

Part of the exhibition, Into the Wild, now showing in the PACCAR Room of the RSC Theatre, illustrates how in-house designers have responded to the themes of nature in Shakespeare’s work.

And on May 4 Costume Craft, the second part of the exhibition, opens in the Swan Theatre’s Ferguson Room. It gives a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how costumes and wigs are made and maintained.

Coinciding with In Stitches the RSC, a registered charity, is launching a Made in Stratford Appeal which hopes to raise £1m. The cash will help to support the RSC’s theatre-making and essential craft skills, facilities and training.

* To donate visit: http://www.rsc.org.uk/support-us/donate.aspx