Costume for the lead Swan in a production of Swan Lake. It was originally designed by Lez Brotherston and first produced by Matthew Bourne in 1995. This version of the costume was worn in 2012.

Swan Lake was created by Matthew Bourne at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London, for his clmany, Adventures in Motion Pictures, in 1995. The lead Swan was created by Adam Cooper and the production went on to be a lasting international success. It is regarded as the longest-running ballet in the West End, although not in one continuous run. Bourne was inspired by many sources for the production, ranging from: Peter Shaffer’s play Equus and Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds to Jean Cocteau’s poster image of Vaslav Nijinsky in Le Spectre de la Rose. He was also influenced by productions of Swan Lake he had seen, beginning with the first two: Erik Bruhn’s version for the National Ballet of Canada and Peter Darrell’s staging for Scottish Ballet. He regards the ballet a being about ‘someone who needs love’ and from the outset wanted to create a beautiful work for men at a time when European dance was presenting men aggressively. He saw his swans as being beautiful, pagan and animal.

Lez Brotherston was Bourne’s third choice of designer for Swan Lake. Bourne’s reluctance to use Brotherston stemmed from the fact that although they had just, successfully, created Highland Fling together Brotherston had already designed a modernist interpretation of Swan Lake for Northern Ballet.

The majority of the costumes Brotherston designed for Bourne’s production are either timeless or inspired by the 1950s and 1960s. The costumes for the swans are iconic feathery breeches made of loops of white silk chiffon stitched individually at approximately one centimetre apart to white Lycra calf-length tights. There is a corset-style, elasticated waist with flesh-coloured insert (to create the illusion of a lower cut at the front waist). The chest of the wearer is left bare, but whitened with water-based pancake make-up, The dancers' calves and feet are also bare. For the facial make-up Bourne suggested to Brotherston ‘a triangular beak-shaped dark line, from the hairline to the tip of the nose’. The dancers’ hair was to be cut very short to ‘get long, swan-like necks with the smooth lines of the head, neck and shoulders.’

Bourne claims that the Swan costume ‘was the one that I developed the most myself.’ He gave Brotherston a picture of an Indian dancer, leaping. ‘He had trousers that seemed to be made of fringing or something; they moved very well and looked good in mid-air’.

These white, dynamic costumes become very worn and stained after long tours. Brotherston therefore kept back this costume worn by Ashley Bain from the 2012 recording of the production so that the museum would have an example that remained in good condition.