Costume design by Sophie Fedorovitch for Marie Rambert as Orchidée in Frederick Ashton’s ballet A Tragedy of Fashion. This was added to the revue, Riverside Nights when it returned to the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, on 15 June 1926 where it ran for 50 performances. It was danced to Kaleidoscope (1917) by Eugene Goossens.

A Tragedy of Fashion or The Scarlet Scissors was a small-scale work that reflected the influence of Ballets Russes productions that Ashton had seen, notably Les Biches and Boutique fantasque, and was regarded as some (within it’s context of performance with a revue as a burlesque on the Russian company). It has assumed great importance as it is regarded as the work that marks the start of Twentieth Century British Ballet. The idea for the ballet was put forward by Marie Rambert’s husband Ashley Dukes inspired by letters written by Madame de Sévignée concerning the French chef, Vatel, who committed suicide because of his shame that a fish dish did not arrive in time for Louis XIV. Given the Ballets Russes had produced The Good-Humoured Ladies with a theme of food Dukes repurposed the narrative around fashion. In the ballet M. Duchic (played by Ashton) kills himself with his cutting scissors when his fashions fail to please his customers.

A Tragedy of Fashion was Ashton’s first ballet and he was invited to choreograph it when he made suggestions about how M. Duchic should move. Ninette de Valois saw the work and congratulated Rambert on discovering ‘a real choreographer’. The designs in the programme are credited to F.E.D. Ashton would have liked Chanel to design the work but Rambert pointed out they could not afford her and anyway had reservations about fashion designers working for the stage. Instead, she introduced her friend and artist, Sophie Fedorovitch who for her first professional stage design, created a setting of mirrored screens overhung with a vast pair of scissors and clothes for the models that were fashionably up-to-date. It launched the major collaboration between choreographer and designer that continued until Fedorovitch’s death in 1953.

Marie Rambert danced the role of Orchidée, assistant to M. Duchic. Initially she wore this asymmetrically geometric dress of blue, black and silver but would later change to model ‘Volupté du désert’ or ‘Le Sporran’ (S.887-1983).