PAULINE Chambers has designed costumes for some of the biggest films of them all. Remember the sumptuous robes worn by Dawn French, who plays the Fat Lady in the painting in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban? Pauline made them.

She also helped make the school uniforms worn by Harry's Hogwarts schoolmates in Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban. And those stunning costumes for the Black and White Ball in The Phantom of the Opera? They were Pauline's, too.

Over the last 30 years, since graduating as a costume maker from the Mabel Fletcher College in Liverpool, she's worked in theatre, opera, TV and film, and for organisations such as York Theatre Royal, the West Yorkshire Playhouse, the Glyndebourne Festival Orchestra and the BBC. She also worked as a costume tutor at Hull University.

That's a pretty impressive CV. But Pauline wasn't finished.

Ten years ago, after more than 20 years as a theatrical costumier, she spotted a gap in the market.

Through her work as a costume tutor at Hull University, she'd noticed that the increasingly theoretical nature of drama degrees meant that budding costumiers were graduating without the necessary practical techniques and experience. What wardrobe departments were in desperate need of, she realised, was costumiers with practical training.

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Practical training: Pauline Chambers oversees students at the Northern College of Costume

At Mabel Fletcher, Pauline herself had trained under professional practitioners who worked at the same time as teaching.

‘It was really good for the students – they could give us hints and tips about how to get a job. What was key to the course was the sharing and passing on of skills.’ But in 2006 she realised that modern students weren't getting that.‘They didn’t quite have the skills to go out there and get a job – they needed a finishing school!’ she says.

With her industry contacts and technical expertise, she decided that she could bridge the gap between education and the professional world of costume making. The Northern College of Costume, which in just ten years has developed one of the top specialist courses in designing period costume, was born.

It took two years, but after working out hours and qualifying with a PGCE, Pauline set up shop in a business park on Terry Avenue before moving to her current location, an airy studio situated high above the bustle of Parliament Square.

It used to be a ballet studio, and although the barre still runs along one wall, upon entering it is immediately clear that now this is the headquarters of a fashion atelier. A dozen mannequins in bustles, panniers and doublets stand next to swathes of fabric, patterns and vintage costume books make up an extensive library, and sewing machines sit by the windows.

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Students at the Northern College of Costume

The course is aimed at those with prior experience of dressmaking. It is designed to be equivalent to a degree, an intensive full-time schedule and small class size meaning that pupils benefit from almost one-on-one supervision as they create three complete suits of menswear, womenswear, period costume and 20th century costume.

Flicking through a book of patterns, Pauline points out different styles of codpiece, and explains the hard graft necessary in making Victorian lady’s underwear.

‘There’s a lot of elbow grease involved in making corsets, they’ve got bone and metal in them – it’s not dainty sewing, it’s real construction!’

Looking at an eighteenth-century painting of Madame de Pompadour by Francois Boucher, it seems impossible that such a cascade of ruffles and layers could ever be handmade nowadays, but Pauline offhandedly informs me that it’s this term’s project.

‘There are so many techniques you can learn through that one gown – panniers, corsetry and stays, fashions of the time.’

And the value of learning such transferable skills is evident – as Pauline puts it, ‘the proof is in the pudding.’ Although the course is not officially accredited, each student undergoes a placement in a professional company at the end of the course, and over 80% of the College’s alumni have gone on to paid work in the costume industry after the course ends.

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Students with some of the costumes they created

One student, for example, has gone on to become an expert in ageing and damaging costumes for TV series, including the HBO drama, Game of Thrones. It seems an ironic turn of events for someone who has spent so many hours learning the clearly painstaking craft of dressmaking visible on the mannequins.

The lessons learned from Pauline’s expert tutelage can be seen in productions and companies as varied as Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the London Olympics Opening Ceremony – as well as closer to home, in the York Mystery Plays and the 2016 ITV series Dark Angel, filmed in Ripon.

Pauline says the college’s location in York is particularly meaningful for a costume college. ‘It’s a very vibrant city. At heart it’s a historical city, and that’s what attracts the students.’ Indeed, the final photoshoot of the course is richly provided for by the backdrop of York’s ancient buildings.

Residents of the city won’t blink an eye at the odd Viking striding around; however, if you spy a few particularly exquisitely costumed Elizabethan gents at the Guildhall, or fin-de-siècle ladies lounging around Betty’s, they may well be Pauline’s models.

And each year, the students display their hard work to the public in a free exhibition usually held in the Market Street studio. Complimentary wine and cakes are provided, and Pauline speaks warmly of her wish to give back to the city and increase the visibility of arts in the North East.

Ten years ago, Pauline says she could never have envisaged that she would now be presenting a serious alternative to a university costume degree in York.

For the first time this year, she is offering two courses, and places are already filling up fast for 2017. ‘It’s exceeded my expectations. I’m just thrilled that it’s gained such a fantastic reputation, that it’s successful, and that I’ve helped these students to start their careers in costume, really.’ And what is she most proud of, over this decade – her pupils working on Hollywood blockbusters, successful exhibitions, any particularly fiddly embroidery numbers?

She smiles, and immediately responds: ‘I’m really pleased that I’ve been able to create a little community of women who all know one another and support one another. Just by fluke, I’ve been able to create this really lovely little community.’