The Costume Collection, The Globe Theatre, London

Twenty-five complete outfits available as a public research resource at the Globe Theatre, London.

The twenty-five complete outfits made for productions at the Globe Theatre by Tiramani, available as a public research resource at the Globe Theatre, are the outcome of ten years of research and development by Tiramani on the history and methods of construction of Tudor clothing, and have been used in eight Globe productions since 2001, including a production of ‘Twelfth Night’ in 2002 that won an Olivier Award for Costume Design.

Tiramani was Director of Theatre Design at the Globe between 2002-05, previously Master of Clothing at the Globe, and has worked closely with Mark Rylance, the Globe’s first Director, to produce a unique body of work in which the development of theatre costume is founded on historical research into the material culture of clothing. Her research has shown that this methodology is particularly relevant to the Shakespearean Theatre, where actor’s costumes were regularly donated as gifts from the nobility. The specific demands of theatre production at the Globe has also necessitated a distinct approach to costume construction, where a traditional notion of silhouette is replaced by attention to detail and to the weight, texture and character of the original. This method of working has required extensive primary research on remaining examples of Elizabethan clothing at the V&A. Tiramani’s research is discussed in the V&A documentary ‘400 Years of Fashion: Anatomy of a Collection’ and has led to a commission to write a series of pattern books of the V&A dress collections. On 14 June 2007, Tiramani’s research was recognised as a crucial element of the approach to theatre production established by The Globe, when Tiramani, Mark Rylance and composer Claire Van Kempen were jointly awarded the Sam Wannamaker Prize in recognition of their achievements during the founding years of the Globe Theatre.