Masked Singer costumes land at Brighton Museum

If you have ever wondered how the costumes on The Masked Singer actually get made, there is a rare chance to see them up close. The Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is putting on 'Making the Masked Singer' (also billed as 'Take it off!'), which opens on 24 October and runs right through to 6 June 2027. It is free with museum admission, and members get in free, so it is an easy one to drop into without planning much around it.

The scale of the thing is the first surprise. There are 24 complete costumes and seven individual character heads on display, pulled from seven seasons of the ITV show. You will recognise the fan favourites: Hedgehog, which turned out to be Jason Manford; Fox, Denise van Outen; Tree, Teddy Sheringham; Badger, Ne-Yo; Mushroom, Charlotte Church; Pigeon, Katherine Ryan; Phoenix, Ricky Wilson; Pufferfish, Samantha Barks; and Dressed Crab, Gregory Porter. Newer characters like Moth, Conkers, and Giant Joel make an appearance too, alongside a line-up of heads including Unicorn, Bush Baby, Snow Leopard, Fawn, Maypole, and Monkey Business. It is a lot to take in, and the sheer variety of shapes and textures is half the draw.

What is really worth noticing, though, is the work that goes into it. These are not simple fancy-dress outfits; they sit at the intersection of sewing, sculpture, engineering, prop-making and specialist fabrication. The show, which first landed on ITV on 4 January 2020 and is hosted by Joel Dommett, has built its whole premise on these costumes, and seeing them out of context makes you appreciate the craft involved. The judging panel has shifted over the years, with Jonathan Ross, Davina McCall, Ken Jeong, Mo Gilligan, Rita Ora, Maya Jama, Alan Carr, Stacey Solomon and Paloma Faith all taking a turn, and each series has left its mark on the costumes on show.

There is a strong local connection here, too. The costumes are crafted in Sussex by Plunge Creations, founded in 2000 by Creative Director Tim Simpson and based at Bestwood Works on Drove Road in Portslade. Plunge has made costumes for every season of The Masked Singer UK, as well as the Belgian version and The Masked Dancer, and their portfolio stretches to Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the National Theatre's Much Ado About Nothing, The Celebrity Traitors on BBC One and the 2019 Spitting Image revival. The production company behind the show, Bandicoot Scotland, was set up in 2017 by Derek McLean and Daniel Nettleton as a joint venture with Argonon, and has picked up ten awards along the way, including an International Emmy for Entertainment, a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Programme and three RTS Craft & Design Awards for Costume Design. The exhibition rounds things off with interactive experiences and family activities, so it works as much for younger viewers as for anyone who has followed the show since the start. The museum sits in the Royal Pavilion Gardens and is part of the Brighton & Hove Museums group, alongside the Royal Pavilion & Garden, Hove Museum of Creativity, Preston Manor & Gardens and the Booth Museum of Natural History.