For many, the highlight of watching ITV’s hit singing competition, The Masked Singer, is trying to guess the identity of the mystery celebrities.
Twenty-four celebrities have taken to the stage throughout series one and two of the programme in various extravagant costumes, ranging from a unicorn to a sausage, in a bid to win.
But have you ever wondered who is behind the design of these costumes?
Meet Plunge Creations.
Tim Simpson, managing and creative director of the business worked closely bringing this year’s head-turning designs to life.
He explained: “The production team and myself often have conversations about what ideas we’d like to have in there. We look at Pinterest and other art/photography sites for interesting ideas and to see what clever fabric techniques we can bring to bear.”
Images kindly provided by Sarah Banbury, Publicity Manager at ITV
Plunge began life in 1997 as a theatre production company, producing shows in several cities around the UK. But now, this Brighton-based business produces costumes for popular television shows including Big Heads, Spitting Image and The Masked Singer.
The costumes start out as sketches before they’re brought to life by the talented team at Plunge Creations. Each costume takes a team of between 5-6 people around 4 weeks to complete and are a huge hit with fans like Mary Wood.
Mary, a 30-year-old activity worker from Nottingham explained: “The thing I find most impressive about the costumes is how amazing they look, they are so unique.
“My favourite costume would have to be Queen Bee from the first series of the programme, it was such a beautiful costume and was very distinctive.”
Queen Bee, later revealed as Nicola Roberts, went on to win Series 1 of The Masked Singer UK.
Mary added: “Robin from this year helped me to work out it was JLS star, Aston Merrygold behind the mask, especially because he sang ‘Rockin Robin’ when he appeared on Stars in Their Eyes.”
Whilst the costumes have helped some correctly guess the identity of the hidden celebrities, the same can’t be said for all of the shows 10 million viewers.
Margaret Swan, from Edinburgh said: “I’ve been watching The Masked Singer since its first series in January 2020 and none of the costumes have given away or helped me to guess who the celebrity is!”
Most of the costumes go into secure storage once the show’s finished, whilst others are sent abroad for the series’ Australian and American versions.