Rosemary Vercoe

She was born on 29 April 1917 at Old Court, Hanger Hill, Ealing, London, the second of five children of Richard Herbert Vercoe (1884–1930), a doctor, and his wife, (Elizabeth) Selina Vercoe, née Skinner (1881–1960).[1] Vercoe was educated at Chelmsford County High School for Girls, followed by Chelsea School of Art, where her teachers included Graham Sutherland and Henry Moore.[1]

She first worked for the London District Theatre Unit as an actress and costume designer, before joining the Players' Theatre costume department during the Second World War.[1]

After the war, Vercoe worked in Stratford-upon-Avon's Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, where she was the costume designer for The Taming of the Shrew, and toured with the company in Australia in 1949–50 as a costume designer, and as an actress understudy.[1] After this, she essentially became a costume designer full-time, and stopped acting.[1]

Vercoe was a regular collaborator with Jonathan Miller on his opera and theatre productions.[2] She was known for her meticulous historical research, and for using ordinary everyday clothes of the period, rather than "costumes".[1][2]

Miller's 1982 production of Verdi's opera Rigoletto for English National Opera, set in 1950s New York, was set designed by Patrick Robertson and costume designed by Vercoe.[3] It was most recently revived in 2017, using Vercoe's costume design, which reviewers still comment on, "the mafia concept, although prolific in opera stagings these days, is still a perfect fit for Rigoletto".[4]

London's Victoria and Albert Museum includes Vercoe's costumes from the 1979 English National Opera production of The Turn of the Screw.[5] The V&A also houses her extensive archives.[6]

She was married to the set designer Patrick Robertson, and they were frequent collaborators.[2]

Vercoe died at the Highgate Nursing Home, 12 Hornsey Lane, Islington, London, on 28 July 2013.[1]