Sip and Sketch: Costume Design Tour
Sip and Sketch: Costume Design Tour
Sip and Sketch: Costume Design Tour
Peek inside our costume workroom and witness where designs come to life. Then, relax with a Bellini in our bar while trying your hand at sketching your own designs.
Peek inside our costume workroom and witness where designs come to life. Then, relax with a Bellini in our bar while trying your hand at sketching your own designs.
Peek inside our costume workroom and witness where designs come to life. Then, relax with a Bellini in our bar while trying your hand at sketching your own designs.
If you have any access requirements for your tour, please contact tours@roh.org.uk after booking so we can deliver the necessary arrangements.
Looking to have this tour all to yourself as private experience for you and your group? Or perhaps you need this tour run in a different language? We can offer bespoke private tours. Send your requirements to tours@roh.org.uk.
On the day of your tour, you will receive 10% off in the Royal Ballet and Opera Shop and Royal Opera House café. Simply show your tour ticket at the till, valid on the day of your tour. One week after your tour, you'll receive an email providing one month's access to RBOStream for £1.00.
Discover more tours, how to get to the tour venues and in-depth accessibility information.
Background
Discover the artistry and precision behind some of the most iconic costumes in stage history as you enter the costume workrooms of the Royal Opera House. This two-hour experience opens with an introduction to costume design, revealing how captivating designs for ballet and opera are conceived, developed and realised. Guests are invited to tour our costume workrooms, where highly skilled makers transform ideas into extraordinary, stage-ready pieces. You’ll also visit the pattern room, explore the costume reference collection, and walk through the ever-evolving costume store. The guided tour lasts approximately 1 hour.
Afterwards, unwind in the bar with a Bellini or a soft drink, before trying your hand at costume design using a curated selection of ballet- and opera-inspired templates. Soft drink options include tea, coffee and seasonal fruit sodas.
Please note that alcohol is only available to guests aged 18 and over, and valid ID may be required. While this experience offers a unique insight into the costume-making process, it does not include meetings with designers or costume team members. Photography is welcome in front-of-house areas but is not permitted backstage, including within the costume workrooms.
This experience runs year-round, with new dates released on a rolling basis. Please check back in the coming months for updated availability.
—
Important information about your tour
- The meeting point for this tour is the Ground Floor cloakroom of the Royal Opera House.
- Latecomers will not be admitted.
- Children aged 14 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Children under the age of five are not allowed on our tours, this includes babies and children in pushchairs.
- As the Royal Opera House is a working theatre each tour provides unique experience and content may vary according to what spaces are available on the day.
- We may be using headsets on our tours so you don’t miss any important information from our guides. All equipment is fully sanitised after each tour. You can use your own headphones if you wish. Please note headphones need to have a standard jack connection to be used with our devices.
- Contact-free bag checks will be in operation when you enter the building.
Access
This tour takes you through different areas of the Royal Opera House, including long corridors, stairs, escalators and lifts. The flooring is also different depending on where you are in the building – some floors are smooth and tiled or wooden, some are carpeted.
Because we are a working theatre, there are areas that won’t always be available to us, which means each tour will take a different route. The spaces we travel through can sometimes be busy and loud.
Our tour guides use descriptive language which helps to paint a picture for blind and partially sighted visitors.
Please get in touch at boxoffice@roh.org.uk after booking to let us know your access requirements so we can make sure you have the best experience on your visit. We can help plan the tour if you require step-free and wheelchair access, if you prefer to avoid areas with views from a height, if you need to use the hearing loop or if you need to take regular breaks. Unfortunately, our hearing loops aren't compatible with Bluetooth.
Donate
The Royal Ballet and Opera is a charity and relies on your support. No matter the size, every gift is critical to our work and helps us to secure the future of ballet and opera.
Your donation will enable us to keep extraordinary work on our stages, inspire the next generation and support the Royal Ballet and Opera's community of artists, technicians and craftspeople.
For people, not profit. Making world class ballet and opera for everyone.
Be the first to know
Sign up to hear the latest Royal Ballet and Opera news, receive ticket alerts, and discover how to support us.
Sign up to hear the latest Royal Ballet and Opera news, receive ticket alerts, and discover how to support us.