ANGELS COSTUMIERS

On Thursday I went to try on various costumes for my next assignment.  I have never been to Angels before and I was amazed at the size of the place.   As the world’s largest supplier of outfits to cinema, stage and television, Angels is home to more than eight miles of clothing rails. There was everything you could think of with rows and rows of  tweed jackets and military uniforms,  sc-fi outfits etc: etc:

A fraction of the 6 million costume inventory is seen in the warehouse of Angels in London

There has been six generations of Angel’s working at the costumers which started in 1840 .  Angels has absorbed several other clothing archives, including the BBC’s costume collection.

Angels Founder, Morris Angel   Angels First Shop on Shaftesbury Avenue

In 1840 Morris Angel, the founder of the Company, opened a second-hand clothing shop in the Seven Dials area of London (near Covent Garden) providing a service for those who wanted good quality clothes at reasonable cost. When an actor asked if he could rent a suit rather than buy it, and the hire business took off. The company remains a family enterprise with the 6th generation of the Angels family working in the company.

I would have liked to try on some of the medieval armour outfits that I saw but I wasn’t able to.  Angels have supplied the costumes for over 34 Films which  have won Oscars for ‘Best Achievement in Costume Design’ and the same amount of Bafta Credits, according to their website:-

  http://www.angels.uk.com/

The company are now based in Hendon and sometimes they arrange tours for people to have a look around, check out the website above.