In 1840 Morris Angel was a cemetery keeper in London. He suggested to women burying their dead husbands that he take the clothes from the body and if he could sell the clothes he would pay the widows.
The result was that he collected a lot of clothes. He also acquired tailors samples from Savile Row.
Contemporary actors needing costumes for the latest role began to rent clothing from Morris and so was born "Angels The Costumiers”.
If you’ve watched a period piece movie its likely at least some of the clothing came from Angels. 32 Best Costume Oscars involved clothing from Angels.
This perhaps shows how hard it is to see the possibilities of ideas. Had Angels started from a different POV and posed the question “should we start a business to hire clothing to actors’ the answer might well have been ‘no’. After all where would you get a supply of clothes, and if you have a source then could you have raised the necessary capital to buy the clothes? It might not have occurred to them to utilize the clothes from the deceased.
You can find a fuller history on Angels on Wikipedia and you can glimpse the racks of clothing in this clip from CBS This Morning:
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