Ngila Dickson’s work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy involved designing and overseeing the making of thousands of costumes, from elven silk dresses to 15 copies of Gandalf’s cloak. Dickson’s work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy would dwarf even the manifold demands of Xena and Hercules. Aside from the 1000s of costumes that needed to be designed, sourced, dyed and aged, identical sets of costumes were required for stunt doubles, horse-riding doubles, and actors of completely different sizes. To help create the illusion that the hobbits were a different size than other races, costumes were recreated identically, in a larger scale weave. A single costume for one of the villainous Dark Riders required more than 50 metres worth of layered