Patterns for Performance Award Winners 2026

The Costume Society’s Patterns for Performance Award 2026 Winners were announced on 4th July 2026.

This year, the standard of entries was exceptional, with the largest number of applications from the widest variety of institutions around the world that the awards have ever seen. 

The entries were judged by multi-award winning costume designer Joanna Eatwell, known for her work on Wolf Hall, Taboo, Carnival Row, Venom, One Life and The Radleys.

Winner: Gigi Chon Tsz Wan has created a costume for ‘the Queen of the Night’ from Mozart’s The Magic Flute as part of her work as a third year BA Costume Design student at Wimbledon College of Arts based on Patterns of Fashion 1 c1660-1860.

Joint highly commended: Iris Burton is a third year BA Costume Design and Construction student at Nottingham Trent University and she has submitted her costume for Dicken’s ‘Miss Havisham’ from Great Expectations, based on 1861-64 Evening Dress - Patterns of Fashion 2 c1860-1940.

Joint highly commended: Sylvie Xu Xintong has created a costume for the title character Don Quixote in the ballet by Emanuele Luzzati based on 1567 doublet and pluderhose - Patterns of Fashion c1560-1620. Sylvie is a third year BA Costume for Theatre and Screen student at Wimbledon College of Arts.

Using a Janet Arnold or Norah Waugh pattern as a basis to develop a theatrical costume for a character in a performance, this year’s finalists have selected characters from opera, ballet and period drama, and all three have deployed their knowledge of dress history and considerable textiles skills to create highly original and characterful costumes for performance. 

Images taken by Molly Oliver.