In one of the industrial warehouses in an industrial estate in Algete, half an hour from Madrid, Victorian corsets with medieval armor and the worn clothes of the rugby team that spent three months lost in the Andes share space with the costumes of the British royal family of mid-20th century. They are strung along hallways that measure hundreds of meters. In order not to get lost in them, it is necessary to know how to orient yourself in temporal terms, even to find the way out: go from century to century until you reach romanticism, where the door is. There is a wall covered with posters from hundreds of movies and series: The House of the Dragon (2022), Poor Creatures (2023), Napoleon (2023), The Snow Society (2023), Cristóbal Balenciaga (2024), The Bridgertons (2020), Dune (2021). The list seems endless. These are some of the hundreds of projects that Peris Costumes, one of the most important costume houses in the world, has worked on. Renowned directors such as Ridley Scott travel there or send a team to explore among the more than 10 million garments stored only in Madrid. If production costumers can't find what they want, there are another five million pieces of clothing spread across the 22 countries where Peris Costumes is based. The Madrid industrial warehouses are attended by costume designers, such as Pepo Ruíz Dorado who, together with Bina Deigeler, has worked on the Cristóbal Balenciaga series (2024). “We come with the breakdowns and we go by time looking for what we need,” says the designer from a workshop reserved for him. Around him there are dozens of photos plastered on the walls of costumes from the series he is working on now and which he cannot talk about due to a confidentiality agreement. Behind him, a table with squares, pencils, scissors and fabric patterns. “We also design here,” he clarifies, nodding towards his workspace. The company is mainly dedicated to dressing the extras, since the protagonists' costumes are usually made on the filming set itself. This is what he did, for example, with the King's Landing guard in The House of the Dragon or with the patricians who enjoyed watching bloody battles in the Colosseum in Gladiator II, the film starring Pedro Pascal and which premiered on November 15. For Napoleon (2023) they had to sew 5,000 soldier uniforms. A job that involved “hundreds of hours” and “thousands of buttons,” notes the costume house's communications director, Miriam Wais. There are times when the production needs a unique costume made from scratch. At that moment Javier Varas and his team come into play. He is head of the men's tailoring shop. She has long hair tied up in a bun and black glasses. He moves back and forth between the dressmakers in the workshop giving instructions and joking with them. There is a great atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual trust. When Varas gives instructions they do not always obey him. But he, far from feeling upset, answers: “Do whatever you want, it will surely turn out well.” He has been at Peris Costumes for six years, but has specialized in film and theater costumes for 15 years. “My work is 80% technical and 20% artistic,” says the tailor. “I have to follow what the designer wants, but also leave my mark.” He adds that the trend changed a lot after the emergence of Game of Thrones. “Since then the approach in the rest of the productions is less historicist and more fantasy. The Bridgertons are proof,” he explains.Javier Varas cutting a 19th century men's suit.Jaime VillanuevaThe costume house is more than 150 years old. It was founded by the Peris family in 1856 as an artisanal tailor shop in Valencia dedicated to dressing theater actors and actresses. A few years later he moved to Madrid. The story took a radical turn in 2012, when Javier Toledo bought the company. “Now the only thing that remains of the Peris family is the name,” says Wais. Since then he has focused on the audiovisual sector. The number of garments has grown exponentially on the three-story racks of the hundreds of hallways and has expanded to different countries to be closer to the filming locations. In Madrid alone, 70 people work, like María Ortega, who knows stocks very well and assists producers to explain what is best for their projects. Also Eva Galvache, responsible for ensuring that the millions of garments that the company stores are always in their place and nothing is lost. A suit handmade by the tailoring team costs between 2,000 and 3,000 euros. The amount increases if they are armor with chain mail whose rings have been joined manually one by one.
Star Knight holding a medieval soldier's helmet made of chromed leather to emulate metal.Jaime VillanuevaIt is not always like this. In the cinema few things are what they seem. Nor the metal breastplates of a medieval knight, too uncomfortable for the actors. These garments are usually made of leather, which is then treated to create the effect of iron or steel. Peris Costumes has its own workshop to work on these garments. A small space with a sweet atmosphere in which the smell of leather, dye and resins mixes. There are several mannequins placed in a row, as if they were soldiers standing at attention, on which anachronistic garments are variegated: a legionnaire's cap with a bra from the futuristic series Kaos (2024) or a bracelet from Vikings (2013) with the jacket worn by the Captain Alatriste. Estrella Caballero and Irene Aguado work there, between whom a relationship of teacher and pupil is woven in a profession that remains completely craftsman Caballero's history is marked by chance. He worked making orthopedic prostheses and, after meeting some film specialists by chance in a saddlery while buying a canvas for his brother-in-law, he ended up becoming Ridley Scott's trusted person. She earned her stripes after dressing 120 horses in Kingdom of Heaven (2005), “each one with a different pattern,” she notes proudly. He then traveled to work on different blockbusters and ended up at Peris Costumes, just 12 kilometers from his birthplace. “Before I traveled all over the world and now the world comes here,” he says.