Sometimes the dye room is called upon to replicate patterns on fabric by using techniques such as screen-printing.

Costume designers and makers will have a range of books and reference materials that they draw on, from old photographs to antique sets of patterns.

In order for costumes to look realistic onstage, once they have been made they must often go to the dye room to be ‘broken down'. Sometimes they might just be made to look as if they have been worn a little, or in some cases they may be transformed to look as if they have been worn all day on a battlefield.

Dyeing fabrics and printing on material of various kinds are two skills at the centre of work in the dye room. The dyers also do a lot of ‘breaking down', or making costumes look as if they have been worn over an extended period of time.