Like many designers, Messel was fascinated by costume and crafts. He collected items not particularly because he was researching for a particular production, but simply because they took his fancy. He amassed a collection of hats and headdresses, including several bridal wreaths. This example may have come from the Balkans or Eastern Europe and would have been worn flat low down on the head, with the loops of silver beads lying over the forehead. All the wreaths are remarkably similar in materials and making, and suggest that 'folk' costume has evolved into traditional bridal wear and were commercially available, using materials that were available throughout Europe.

Oliver Messel (1904-1978) was Britain's leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, working in every aspect of entertainment - ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue - as well as in interior decoration and textile design. His lavish, painterly and romantic designs informed by period styles, were perfectly in tune with his times and earned him an international reputation. By 1960, however, Messel's style had become unfashionable, having no sympathy with the new 'kitchen sink' school of theatre. He increasingly concentrated on his non-theatrical painting and designing and eventually retired to the Caribbean, where he began a new career designing and building highly idiosyncratic luxury villas.