Film costume worn by Margaret Lockwood in the film The Wicked Lady, designed by Elizabeth Haffenden, 1945.

The Wicked Lady was one of the most successful British films of the 1940s. Margaret Lockwood played the title role of a bored nobleman’s wife, who becomes a highwayman, merely for the excitement. The costumes were designed by Elizabeth Haffenden, head of the costume department at Gainsborough Pictures which became known for its flamboyant period melodramas. The film marked a change of pace for Lockwood, who had played largely sympathetic roles including the title role in Lorna Doone (1935) and in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938).

The British Film Institute (BFI) acquired its costume collection for display at the Museum of the Moving Image, which existed on the South Bank in London between 1988 and 1999. The collection is made up of British, European, American and Japanese films and covers the period from the silent film era to the mid-1990s. It contains a wealth of historic and significant film costumes worn by major performers and designed by some of the 20th century’s most important film costume designers. The collection was transferred to the V&A in 2015.