ESA industry Partnerships to look out for in 2026/27 - PART 1

ESA teams up with FilmLondon and Sony Pictures to provide the ‘Junior Costume Maker Accelerator Programme’.

Costume Makers are valuable. They are the universal utility skillset in the costume workroom. They jump on anything from adjustments and fittings to large scale garment making. One minute they are repairing a period bustle or adjusting Victorian trousers, the next moment they are constructing 30 army blazers for a war scene full of extras. It’s dynamic, fast paced, creative detail work. And here’s the thing… there are no where near enough costume makers. The skills shortage is serious. Serious enough for FilmLondon and Sony Pictures to approach us and ask to partner up on a fast paced training programme to support adults with initial sewing experience to become Junior Costume Makers.

Adult up-skill training is a growth area for ESA… Obviously we said yes… This is what ESA is here for! We got busy designing an ESA evening workshop programme. 20 packed sessions and workshops over 10 weeks focussing on different skills, techniques and costume periods. Taught by Industry costume professionals at ESA. Sony Pictures are further providing film and TV placement experience alongside FilmLondon’s industry mentors programme. 20 hopefuls were assessed and 15 were selected for the programme which began 2 weeks ago! Evening training programmes are fairly new for ESA but we’re excited to see how this goes so that we can consider more programmes in other creative skill shortage areas. We are of course proud to be the creative industry training provider of choice on this programme and we’re delighted to be partnering with FilmLondon and Sony Pictures to train the future costume makers of the UK film and TV industry.