‘Dionne Warwick said “I’m never wearing that again!”’: behind the scenes of TV’s wildest costumes

Trousers splitting live on air, angry celebs, dressing famous people like giant boiled eggs … welcome to the world of outrageous clothing design

Over the weekend, Piranha, Cricket and Bigfoot battled it out to win a singing competition – having already beaten the likes of Dippy Egg, Weather, Bubble Tea and Air Fryer. So gloriously weird and wonderful is The Masked Singer’s guessing game about which celebrities are singing underneath the elaborate costumes that the series has been a global hit, winning a TV Bafta and an International Emmy. But where do these colourful characters that audiences go so wild for even come from?

“It starts off as a whim on a phone call, like, ‘Oh, let’s go for a Dippy Egg!’, or, ‘All the kids are into bubble tea,’” says the show’s costume designer, Tim Simpson, as he juggles talking over the phone and making a giant martini glass in his Plunge Creations costume and props workshop. “Then it’s, ‘Shall we have a landmark?’ and along comes the Eiffel Tower.”