A co-production between dance company Rambert and Birmingham Hippodrome, Peaky Blinders: The Redemption Of Thomas Shelby makes a welcome return to Birmingham this month. As well as boasting athletic dance and an eclectic soundtrack, the production showcases the skills of costume designer Richard Gellar. What’s On recently caught up with Richard to find out more about his creative approach...

How did you get into working in costume, Richard?
I’m originally from Liverpool, and everyone thinks that if you work in theatre costume, you love fashion. There are certain houses that I like, but that’s not how or why I got into costume. My original degree was in art history & theology, and I loved the clothes that were in portraits. I was more interested in that side of art than I was in anything else. 
After I’d completed my degree and travelled a bit, I knew that I needed to get a job, so I thought about what I was interested in. During this period, I was doing drag on the doors in Liverpool, where I made my own costumes because I could sew, and someone mentioned I should do a costume course. So I did a post-grad in costume design & management, where I learnt everything about the industry.
I started working at the Royal Exchange in Manchester as a tailor’s assistant, before going onto ‘dye and breaking down’, which is where you age a costume. I went on to do bits of design before supervising. I think I’ve now probably covered every job in this sector! Overall, I love the creative process of making.

Did you have creative freedom with Peaky Blinders?
I like working with Rambert’s artistic director, Benoit Swan-Pouffer, because you can bounce ideas and nothing is too big. I tend to go to him with the biggest and brightest idea, so there’s room to bring it back collaboratively if needed.
A lot of the costumes have modern twists but give a nod to the characters and the era. I wanted to use a lot of beadwork and velvets for the women. When you put a dancer in a costume, you have to think about movement and adapt designs so that they’re fit for purpose. The suits are all 1920s cuts, but adapted slightly so that the dancers can move in them.

Where did you get inspiration for the costumes in the show?
I’ve created military looks before, so I know this area off by heart. Sometimes when I’m watching a film, I can place when the costume is wrong - either because of the era or if it doesn’t suit a person. I’m a bit of a stickler about everything being absolutely correct, whilst tweaking certain things because of it being presented in dance.
I haven’t created many costumes for the 1920s era before, but I like it because I love the glitz of the period. After World War One, glamour really started to come into its own. People started to be able to afford things and create their own styles.

What was the creative process like?
At the moment there’s a focus on fast fashion and being sustainable, so it was important to me to utilise a lot of costumes we already had in stock. When I first started designing, I pulled everything out of the costume store, including all the spare fabrics, to see what we had available.
We made a lot of blouses and underskirts from stock that we already had. There were whole sections where we utilised costumes that we had in the Rambert costume store. For example, the factory scene was fully created from costumes we pulled from pieces from the past. 
Some of the costumes in the production came from the 1930s to 1950s. It’s quite beautiful to bring back pieces of history created by people who’ve worked at Rambert through the years - and from years when Marie Rambert was artistic director.
Back then, during the period of the industrialisation of England, we were amazing at creating fabrics. We had fabric mills that were making wools that are in line with all the Peaky suits. There’s only a few fabric mills that make wools in the UK, so I looked to England and Scotland to source materials and check our carbon footprint, including the heavy-duty tweed used for the dancers who play the characters of Polly and Ada.

Which costumes are you most proud of?
Grace’s green dress has been in my head for some time, so I was happy to be able to create it and use it in green velvet and jet black. As soon as I put that dress on dancer Nya, who plays Grace, I saw the way she moved in it, and she made the costume come to life.
The dog costumes are a bit left-field, but I like them too. I thought about the sleek fur of powerful dogs like Dobermans. So I sought out brown leather, then added in chaps and brass buckles, alongside a steampunk jacket and the head masks to make them look scary and unique.
The TV series’ costumes are beautiful, and the whole show is a piece of art in its own right. I watched every single episode and loved it. I wanted to keep certain elements from each character, whilst at the same time making the designs stand alone too.
I didn’t want to mimic anything in the series, but I did want to make it so that you could pick out the characters. With Polly, for example, I created pieces that were highly tailored garments and slightly androgynous.
With Tommy, I noticed he wore a lot of grey, so I wanted to make a note of that by using grey wool in Prince of Wales check. With Arthur, he usually wears a bow tie, so he wears one throughout. I wanted to stay true to the characters so that the audience could instantly recognise them from the television series.