Join us this year in Bristol for our 2025 AGM and the final of the Patterns of Fashion and Patterns for Performance Awards.
On the 5th July 2025 join The Costume Society in Bristol for a day of celebration and awards!
We are so excited to hear from our keynote speaker Anna Buruma who will join us from the Liberty archive!
We will hear from the team at Heritage Crafts about our ongoing exciting collaboration.
We will be joined by Dr Elizabeth Blood, who will talk about her research into the early years of the Costume Society.
Following the Society’s annual general meeting our day will conclude with the final of the Patterns of Fashion and Patterns for Performance Awards. Our guest judge this year is award winning costume and set designer Tom Pye.
The awards are a highlight of the Costume Society calendar, a celebration of new talent in costume (re)creation. The outstanding creations that have been shortlisted for this year's awards will be on display.
Book your tickets now!
Timetable:
10.30 Arrival, Coffee and 'My Costume Society' Memory Interactive Element
11.00 The Costume Society Past with Dr Elizabeth Blood
11.30 Anna Buruma: Artistic Dress at Liberty & Co – The Early Years
12.40 The Costume Society Annual General Meeting. Where we will be joined by the team from Heritage Crafts who will update us about our exciting collaboration.
13.30 Lunch break.* An opportunity to see the work of the 2025 finalists for the Patterns of Fashion and Patterns for Performance Awards
14.30 The Costume Society Future
15.00 The final of the Patterns of Fashion and Patterns for Performance Awards judged this year by costume and set designer Tom Pye.
15.45 Drinks
About Anna Buruma
Anna Buruma trained as a theatre designer at Central School of Art & Design. She worked in the theatre and later as a costume designer for television and film. She later studied the history of dress at the Courtauld Institute. She works as a free-lance researcher and has been the archivist at Liberty since 2005.
About Heritage Crafts
The Costume Society and Heritage Crafts have joined forces to launch two training bursaries and the Fashion and Textile Maker of the Year Award.
Many people are dissuaded from training in the hand skills of fashion textiles because of the cost, and therefore the make-up of the sector is not truly representative of the UK as a whole. This bursary has been set up to help cover or subsidise the training of someone who would otherwise be prevented from pursuing this career path due to cost. Applicants could be just starting out on their journey in fashion textiles, or at the point where they want to turn a hobby into a career, or they could already be a maker or designer who is looking to further develop their hand skills.
Fashion textile crafts can include, but are not limited to, dressmaking, tailoring, pattern cutting, hat making, millinery, glovemaking, fabric pleating, corset making, etc. Applications for training that prioritises the acquisition of practical hand skills will be favoured over training that is predominantly theoretical or design-oriented.
The two successful applicants will benefit from up to £4,000 in funding each, and be supported by the Heritage Crafts team to help them achieve their aims. Visit our dedicated website page for more details.
*Every year the Costume Society looks for ways to keep costs low and events accessible for our members and supporters. With this in mind our AGM and Awards Day will not include a catered lunch. Our venue is near a range of local cafes and attendees are invited to go out for lunch, there will also be space at Origin Workspace where attendees can eat their packed lunch or takeaway lunch
