Costume design by James Bailey (ca.1925-1980) for Viola in William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, Old Vic, 6 January 1954.

In 1953 the Directors of the Old Vic announced that the theatre would present all 36 of the plays published in Shakespeare's First Folio in the following five years. Twelfth Night, directed by Denis Carey, was the fourth play to be staged. Viola was played by Claire Bloom, with Gwen Cherrell as Olivia, John Neville as Orsino, Richard Burton as Sir Toby Belch and Michael Hordern as Malvolio. James Bailey designed the costumes and also the Palladian-inspired architectural setting which was used for all six plays presented in the first season of the Five Year Plan, between September 1953 and May 1954. For Twelfth Night he adapted his permanent set to suggest an Italian garden. The Elizabethan costumes were based on the miniatures of Isaac Oliver and Nicholas Hilliard. The disguised Viola wore a green velvet doublet.

James Bailey's romantic and atmospheric style, influenced by the work of Oliver Messel, made him a much sort-after designer for opera and ballet. His first commission after graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art was to design Giselle at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1946. He created settings and costumes for Shakespeare productions, notably a 'Victorian' Hamlet at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1948 and As You Like It for Katharine Hepburn in New York in 1950. Ill health caused him to give up his theatre work and from 1960 he concentrated on painting.