Tag: Royal Opera House

ROH Institution Thoughts

The placement has generally felt quite strange. The week prior I was working as a tailoring assistant, being trusted with work for clients and paid for my work then going into the ROH I was treated as someone on work experience. They said they often get students without much tailoring experience but interest so comments were made about being surprised how much I already knew/ hoping I had found the placement valuable.

The ROH has been a kind of personal goal of where “I would work if I could work anywhere” since going on a tour in second year. I knew it would not be perfect but there was a tangible sense of resentment in the tailors towards the head of department, designers and generally senior staff members.

This mostly seemed to stem from a lack of control over their work. For example, the new Romeo shirts being made out of polyester caused a lot of frustration as its so difficult to work with and make look nice compared to the silk versions. The HOD also asked additional shirts to be made without explaining to the team that additional dancers had been cast and needed their own. Feeling like the work they were doing was pointless and unnecessary caused a lot of resentment.

I understand these feelings likely the reality of working for a huge, hierarchal institution vs a smaller theatre. Harry and Kyle at the Lyric had more control over their work, process, hours ect.

ROH Journal 21/2/25 – Last day

Today was my last day in the menswear department of the Royal Opera House costume production department. I wanted to use the day to answer any last burning questions about the work they do and part of that was asking for a tour of some of the other departments.

During my internship I’ve used my lunch breaks to explore the building. Throughout the FRO and BOH there are lots of costumes, hats and props from past production on display so it was a great insight into the variety of work done at the ROH. Ballet and Opera are very new to me, I’ve never seen an opera and only 2 ballet, but I’m slowly building a repertoire. I love how decorative the productions can be, previously I thought opera to be stuffy and old fashioned but the productions at the ROH shoes how dynamic it can be.

The Cinderella mouse costume and head in particular is so inspirational. I love his fancy little tailored historical jacket + silly mouse head 🙂

Costume designs for Into the Woods
Final costume for Into the Woods
Hat on display in Foyer, from Alices Adventures Underground 2020
Don Quixote designs and fabric swatches on display outside the womenswear workroom
Military style embellishments on display outside the menswear workroom
Tutu construction and embellishment samples on display outside the womenswear workroom
Cinderella Mouse costume on display in foyer

At lunch I also tried to peak into some of the other departments (often they were busy and I got too nervous about disturbing work/ the team on their break so I didn’t go into any). Lucy was very kind to introduce me to some of the people working in the Dye/print shop, Hats & Jewelry, Props and Revivals departments.

After seeing it’s behind the scenes in the props department, I’d really like to see Die Walküre but sadly cant afford the tickets. 🙁 Fingers crossed it will be available for streaming on Young RBO

Royal Opera House Waistcoat

Since there was not much going on in the menswear department, the tailors suggested I make a waistcoat using a basic pattern they have so I could see the techniques they would normally use when making something for a show.

The process was fairly familiar to what I’ve done before so I tried to get as many details from the tailors about how they like to do things and what’s best when making for ballet compared to bespoke or opera.

Front pieces after striking, cutting and thread marking
Under collar
Backs sewn together
Back pieces prepared – cb seam sewn and neckline reinforced with silesia
(Larger piece) canvas, (bean shape) horsehair chest canvasing, cut so stronger threads run horizontal across body to fill out the chest area
Hourse hair “bean shape” covered by the black demette layer. Fullness was put into the demette and hourse hair to push the chest top cloth out.
Demetter cut slightly bigger than horsehair to cover its shape edges. All are tacked to the canvas, with fullness put into horshair/demette to push out chest
Hourse hair and demette padstitched to the canvas
Permanent pad stitches, tacking removed
Canvas dart closed – 1 dart leg is cut, dart is closed, fusible holds in place then zig zag stitch over everything, trim fusible neatly and stitch down edges
Fuse 1” around pocket opening on front to reinforce fabric
Attach canvas and front pieces: there is no dart in fabric front so it must be done carefully following steps
Mark pocket position, check both pockets match
Welt pocket cut out and fused – lightweight everywhere, heavy on the welt shape. Cut 2”Above, 3/8” below and sides
Chalk welt outline, tack lower welt edge to front, making sure pattern matches when flipped
Matches perfectly 🙂
Place silesia pocket bag inbetween welt and front seam allowances
Final pattern matched pocket
Cut bridal 1 1/2” strip, tack to to breakline while stretching the bridal – this will ensure breakline does not stretch/ become baggy
Pad stitch bridal and lapel, rolling the fabric while stitching so lapel wants to lay flat against chest
Pad stitches must flash through to front fabric but be small enough to only be minimally visible
trim canvas to 1/8th inside thread marks along the CF, neckline, armhole. Apply fusible
Apply fusible tape to all trimmed edges the herring bone stitch the inside edge to permanently attach (outside edge will be stitched down)
Sew collar CB seam, this collar doesnt need iron shaping as the seam shape gives it a lot of shape
Pad stitch collar canvas to undercollar, trim canvas back to stitch line
Front Lining is attached around the armhle – sewn 1/8″ outside of the stitch line so will cab roll back and the lining is not visible
Sew shoulder seams, back stitch collar to neckline (position using the stand)

Savile Row tailoring vs Opera House tailoring

Greg mentioned a few times about friends who worked at Saville Row + costume tailors who apprenticed there

-“very small world of tailors”, “there’s not many of us, so we all know each other.”

-People seem willing to share their knowledge & methods

-Each tailor will have their own method of doing something, and there’s no one right way 

Each Savile Row shop has a house style and method of making. Generally tailors are allowed to innovate to achieve a client’s vision – don’t have to follow the set way. 

There is a big difference in methods of theatrical vs bespoke tailors caused by time allowances, budget, and styles they make