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| Margaret Harris | |
|---|---|
| Name | Margaret Harris |
| Birth date | 1898 |
| Death date | 1990 |
| Birth place | London, England |
| Occupation | Costume designer, teacher, author |
| Years active | 1920s–1970s |
| Notable works | The Sleeping Beauty (Ballet), Antony and Cleopatra (Royal Shakespeare Company), Olivier's Hamlet |
Margaret Harris
Margaret Harris was a British costume designer and educator noted for contributions to 20th-century theatre and ballet. Harris worked across institutions including the Royal Shakespeare Company, Sadler's Wells Theatre, and the Old Vic, influencing stagecraft through design, pedagogy, and published writings. Her collaborations with leading directors, choreographers, and designers helped shape modern approaches to theatrical costume, period interpretation, and dramaturgical research.
Born in London, Harris trained in applied arts and textile techniques during the post-Edwardian period. She studied at the Central School of Art and Design and later at the Royal College of Art, where she encountered tutors connected to the Arts and Crafts Movement and the Vorticist milieu. Influenced by exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum and lectures at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Harris developed an interest in historical costume supported by archival study at the British Museum.
Harris began her professional career designing costumes for regional repertory companies before joining the Old Vic company for classical productions. Her notable stage credits include period and modern-dress interpretations for productions staged at Sadler's Wells Theatre, the Royal Opera House, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Among major works often associated with her aesthetic are a production of Antony and Cleopatra emphasizing Roman and Egyptian visual dialogue, a revival of Hamlet staged by the National Theatre, and costume schemes for ballets such as The Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Ballet. She published essays and manuals on costume construction and period silhouette that circulated among practitioners at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and within professional circles associated with the Society of British Theatre Designers.
Harris collaborated with prominent figures including directors from the Old Vic repertory, choreographers from the Royal Ballet, and designers associated with the English Stage Company. She worked alongside stage directors influenced by Laurence Olivier and teamed with choreographers who trained under Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton. Harris's research practice drew on curators and scholars at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, and her methods informed pedagogy at institutions such as the Central School of Speech and Drama and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Her visual vocabulary reflected dialogue with contemporaneous scenography trends promoted by figures linked to Basil Dean, Gillian Lynne, and critics writing for The Times. International exchanges brought her into contact with designers from the Comédie-Française and workshops connected to the Metropolitan Opera.
Harris maintained a private life centered in London while traveling for commissions across the United Kingdom and to continental Europe. She was known among peers in societies including the Guild of Drama Adjudicators and kept long professional friendships with designers and academics affiliated with the Royal College of Art and the Courtauld Institute of Art. Outside the studio, Harris collected historic textiles that she cataloged in notebooks later consulted by curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of London.
During her career Harris received commendations from theatre organizations and arts bodies, including honors from the Arts Council of Great Britain and acknowledgments in annual awards presented by the Society of London Theatre. Retrospectives of her designs were mounted at institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Opera House archives, and her publications were referenced in curricula at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Harris's integration of historical research, textile technique, and stage practicality influenced generations of costume designers working in institutions like the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Ballet, and the National Theatre. Her manuals and sketches entered pedagogical syllabuses at the Central School of Art and Design and the Central Saint Martins, shaping approaches to period authenticity and collaborative production. Collections of her drawings and fabric swatches have been preserved by the Victoria and Albert Museum and cited in scholarship on 20th-century stagecraft, extending Harris's impact into exhibition histories and museum practices.
Category:British costume designers Category:20th-century designers