The art of dressing Tommy Shelby by the costume designer behind the Netflix epic, Canada Reviews

When a TV show makes the move to the big screen, there is an inevitable scaling up: the budget gets bigger, and so do the themes, the scope, the action. But when you’re dealing with something like Peaky Blinders – the Steven Knight-created gangster drama set on the gritty streets of inter-war Birmingham – there’s certain things you just can’t change. Most importantly: its impeccable sense of style.  

The three-piece suits. The long coats. And, of course, the newsboy caps that give the show half its title. It’s impossible to think of Peaky Blinders without imagining this Midlands street-fighting gear. Indeed, when the show hit its stride with the third season in 2016, it became a full-on fashion phenomenon: according to reports at the time, UK sales of flat caps increased by 83 percent. 

You might think that the person responsible for Peaky fashion feels a degree of pressure, having to enshrine and evolve such a phenomenally popular style in The Immortal Man, the gang’s first cinematic strut. But, insists award-winning costumer designer Alison McCosh, ‘I don’t think about it, to be honest.’ Having worked on the movie and the last three seasons of the show, she notes that its sartorial success is less about the outfits than the actors who wear them. Primarily, Cillian Murphy as top Blinder Tommy Shelby.  

Dressing Tommy

‘The way he wears it is so important,’ says McCosh, who also worked with Murphy on Small Things Like These and last year’s Steve. ‘It comes from within, doesn’t it? If somebody wore the cap but didn’t own the style, it just wouldn’t translate as well. You don’t want it to look like a costume, and that’s the thing with Cillian: he wears it as if he owns it. It became part of him, so to speak. That, I think, is a lot of the appeal.’ 

Tommy has always been McCosh’s favourite character to dress. By the time she started working on the series, she points out, he had accumulated his wealth and stature, enabling her to show that ‘in the power of the suit and the coat’ – something she’s maintained in the movie, despite its leap forward into the era of World War II. 

‘We streamlined the cap to make it more piercing, and focus in on his eyes and his cheekbones,’ she details. ‘And then the shoulder became a lot stronger, and the movement of the coat swung a lot more. We had more drama in it.’ 

However, for a significant portion of The Immortal Man, Tommy is out of his element, suffering a self-imposed exile in a decrepit manor house. ‘We were considering where he was emotionally,’ she says of collaborating with Murphy on this new look. ‘It’s vastly different from where you’ve ever seen Tommy Shelby. We just went with our gut and it worked, you know?’

They settled on heavy woollens and a large hood, which completely obscured that iconic Shelby silhouette. At least until Tommy gets his mojo back and returns to Birmingham, decked once more in his signature style – a moment which McCosh describes as ‘very powerful’.  

The next generation 

The catalyst for Tommy’s comeback are the dangerous antics of his son Duke, played by Barry Keoghan who heads up a new generation of Peaky Blinders. While Shelby Jr couldn’t exactly be given a drastic new style, McCosh ensured there were some subtle differences. ‘There’s a little bit more youth to it, a little bit more rebellion,’ she says. ‘It’s not as refined, and it harks back more to a gypsy kind of look, embellished with some jewellery and colourful neckerchiefs. There were a lot of conversations with Barry, and a lot of experimentation.’

Throughout it all, of course, the caps remained unchanged. Although, McCosh reveals, they’re not straightforward newsboy caps. ‘We actually taper them down for each character, and that’s all hand-done by [London-based hatter] Herbert Johnson, who works closely with us. So when we have a fitting with a principal actor like Cillian or Barry, it’s not a standard cap. We have to taper it to make it look more appealing, because generally the shape is quite voluminous and sometimes on camera that’s just not as attractive.’

If the cap fits…

McCosh is proud of the fact that the majority of the Peaky Blinders costume work is done locally. ‘All the shoes, shirts, ties and coats are made in London,’ she says. ‘Cosprop [in Islington] make a lot for us, and we also work with Chris Kerr. He uses his father’s patterns, which are handed down.’ This inherited knowledge also applies to Tommy’s suits, which are made by Ireland-based tailor Ronnie Johnson. ‘He uses old patterns, too. It’s wonderful to work with people like that. Their detail and their craftsmanship is something I rely on heavily.’

So where should one go, if they wanted to dress like a Peaky Blinder themselves? ‘Well, I would say if you want a great cap, go to Herbert Johnson [whose hats are available at Swaine outlets],’ McCosh suggests. ‘Then I would have a great suit made by one of our fantastic tailors, like Chris Kerr [on Berwick Street].’ Of course, you could also consider searching for the genuine article. ‘I love to trail around the vintage fairs,’ says McCosh. ‘That’s my Sunday!’

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is streaming on Netflix worldwide on Friday, March 20.

Read our verdict on Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.

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