The Costume Society

What The Costume Society does

The Costume Society is a UK registered charity (No. 262401), founded in 1965 and headquartered at 3rd Floor, 15 West Street, Brighton, East Sussex. Its stated mission is to promote the study and preservation of historic and contemporary dress. The organization operates as a volunteer-run membership society serving students, fashion designers, teachers, lecturers, stage and screen designers, re-enactors, museum staff, and general costume enthusiasts, with a secondary institutional readership served via its peer-reviewed journal distributed through EUP (Elsevier Urban & Partner).

The Society's product surface is centered on membership subscriptions, offered at £36/year UK and £40/year overseas (with discounted Career Starter rates of £21-£25 for those aged 16-29 or in recognized study, and a six-month mid-year option). Members receive the Costume journal and The Thread magazine (each published twice yearly), access to an annual conference, study days and museum visits across the UK, eligibility for grants and awards, and an ambassador program. The grants portfolio includes the Patterns of Fashion Award, Patterns for Performance Award, Elizabeth Hammond Grant, Museum Work Experience Grant, Yarwood Research Grant, Daphne Bullard Grant, and Heritage Crafts Bursaries and Maker Awards (the latter in partnership with Heritage Crafts). Underlying technology is a standard website-based membership platform with PayPal payment processing, Eventbrite for event bookings, Google Analytics for web measurement, and a members-only portal for digital publication access.

The Society is entirely funded by member subscriptions and donations, has no parent company, no investors, and no funding rounds. Governance is provided by an Executive Committee of trustees and officers including Chair Vanessa Jones (Curator of Dress at the Rijksmuseum) and trustees Serena Dyer (DMU Leicester), Victoria Haddock, and Sarah Howard (textile conservator). Distribution is direct-to-consumer via the Society's website and postal delivery of publications, with no resellers, partnerships, or sales intermediaries disclosed beyond the EUP journal-publishing arrangement.

Name

The Costume Society

Legal name

The Costume Society

Website

https://costumesociety.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1965

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Costume Society is a UK registered charity (founded 1965) that promotes the study and preservation of historic and contemporary dress through individual membership subscriptions, a peer-reviewed journal, members' magazine, conferences, and grants, serving students, designers, academics, and museum professionals.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Brighton

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Subscriptions: The society generates primary revenue through annual and six-month membership subscriptions. UK membership costs £36.00 annually (Career Starter £21.00); Overseas membership is £40.00 annually (Career Starter £25.00). Six-month options are available at £18.00 UK (£10.50 Career Starter) and £20.00 Overseas (£12.50 Career Starter). Membership year runs January to December.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

The Costume Society is a UK registered charity (No. 262401) that sells annual and six-month individual memberships to promote the study and preservation of historic and contemporary dress. Membership includes access to the peer-reviewed Costume journal (twice yearly), The Thread members' magazine (twice yearly), an annual conference, study days and visits across UK collections, and eligibility for grants and awards including the Patterns of Fashion Award, Patterns for Performance Award, and research/conservation grants.

Product overview

The Costume Society is a membership-based charity (Registered Charity No. 262401) promoting the study and preservation of historic and contemporary dress. The organization operates a platform-plus-services model offering membership as the core product, supplemented by academic publications (Costume journal and The Thread magazine), annual conferences and events, and a comprehensive grants and awards portfolio. The grants and awards include the Patterns of Fashion Award, Patterns for Performance Award, Elizabeth Hammond Grant, Museum Work Experience Grant, Yarwood Research Grant, Daphne Bullard Grant, and Heritage Crafts Bursaries. The Society also operates a blog, ambassador program, and members-only online portal. Members include students, fashion designers, teachers, lecturers, stage and screen designers, re-enactors, and museum staff.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Society Membership
• Costume Journal
• The Thread Members' Magazine
• Annual Conference
• Study Days and Events
• Patterns of Fashion Award
• Patterns for Performance Award
• Elizabeth Hammond Grant
• Museum Work Experience Grant
• Yarwood Research Grant
• Daphne Bullard Grant
• Heritage Crafts Bursaries and Maker Awards
• Members Site

Named customers4 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Heritage Crafts: A UK charity preserving heritage craft skills, with whom The Costume Society runs joint bursaries and maker awards. Comparable as a peer UK charity in the heritage crafts and traditional costume-making space, with overlapping grant programmes and audience.
• Association of Art Historians: A UK professional association for art historians. Comparable as a peer membership body serving academics and students in a related humanities discipline, with a similar conference, journal, and subscription model.
• The Design History Society: A UK learned society for design historians. Comparable as a peer academic membership body serving scholars in an adjacent design-focused humanities discipline, with a similar journal, conference, and subscription model.
• Association of Dress Historians: A UK-based professional membership body for dress historians. Directly comparable as a peer academic/professional society focused on the study of historic dress, serving overlapping member segments of researchers, students, and museum professionals.
• The Textile Society: A UK membership society promoting the study of textiles and their history. Closely comparable as a peer academic society addressing an adjacent but overlapping field — textiles and dress — with similar membership, journal, and conference model.

Regional players

• Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology): A US-based museum dedicated to fashion and dress, comparable in focus area to UK museums The Costume Society partners with. Operates primarily in the United States and is not a direct competitor for UK members, but serves an overlapping global audience of dress historians and students.

Others

• Victoria and Albert Museum: A major UK museum with globally significant dress and textile collections, often a study-visit destination for The Costume Society's members. Not a peer organisationally, but a key institutional ecosystem partner and content reference point for the society's events and awards.
• Fashion Museum Bath: A UK museum housing a collection of historic and contemporary dress, frequently cited in The Costume Society's events and grant programmes. Comparable as a partner institution serving overlapping audiences but operating as a museum rather than a membership society.

Broad incumbents

• UK Fashion and Textile Association: A UK industry body representing fashion and textile businesses. Comparable as a UK sector body serving the fashion and textile community, though oriented to industry rather than the academic/historical focus of The Costume Society.
• Costume Designers Guild: A US-based industry guild representing film, television, and theatre costume designers. Comparable as a larger, established professional body in the costume field, though it serves working designers rather than dress historians and is structured as a labour guild rather than a learned society.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/costume_society
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCyUk6wwPYmlbPno5jv4x1Nw
• Facebookfacebook.com/thecostumesociety1965
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/costume-society
• Instagraminstagram.com/costume_society
• Pinterestpinterest.co.uk/costumesocuk

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Costume Society