ITV Masked Singer: Character Costumes

After proving to be such a smash hit in 2020, it was no surprise when ITV’s Masked Singer Series 2 came back to our screens in 2021. The show is pure escapism as the audience and judges try and guess which stars are performing in each disguise. A huge part of the show’s appeal is the incredible costumes the celebrities wear. These, we are very proud to say, are designed and fabricated right here at Plunge Creations.

In the lead up to a new series, Tim Simpson, one of Plunge’s directors, collaborates with ITV and the production company, Bandicoot TV, to come up with possible ideas for character costumes. As Tim says “They start throwing silly ideas at me and I start throwing silly pictures back at them”.

Once the designs are finalised and the full masked costumes are allocated to the performer who is going to wear them on the show, fabrication starts. Due to the unimaginable level of secrecy around the show, at no point before filming starts, do we at Plunge get to know who will be wearing the costumes or have a fitting with them.

In the workshop, there are around 45 people, all with a wide range of different skills, working simultaneously to bring all 12 costumes together in a relatively short period of time. We have sculptors sculpting the masks, tailors working on the bodies of the costumes, makers who are flocking, painting, pattern cutting, you name it. Each costume is unique and therefore comes with different complications which need resolving in the fabrication process.

Once on set, the costume work continues. This is the first time the performers get to try on their costumes and so there is still fine-tuning to be done to make sure they are as comfortable as possible while wearing a crazy costume. Things like heat can be an issue. Take Bushbaby for instance. Bushbaby needed ice packs fitted into the costume, which were refreshed each performance, in order to keep him cool. For both Dragon and Sausage, the stars had to learn to walk differently in their costumes so that they could more easily move around and perform.

One of the best compliments Plunge received for the costumes was from Sue Perkins who wore the Dragon costume. When asked by Good Housekeeping “If you could wear your mask and costume just one more time, what occasion would you choose to wear it to?”. Sue Perkins answered “My wedding”. Now that we would all love to see.

(Photography by Beth Steddon https://www.bethsteddon.com/)