This costume was designed by Oliver Messel for Ferdinand, played by Alec Guinness, in Shakespeare's play The Tempest, at the Old Vic, 1940.

Although by 1940 wartime restrictions on materials had begun, there was still a store of pre-war fabrics and trimmings that could be drawn on. This, however, was no bar to Messel's imagination - he had always used materials creatively, knowing that, in the theatre, the real on stage often looks strangely artificial, whereas artifice looks 'real'. Thus instead of lace for the ruff, he used wired crin (a rigid synthetic mesh) edged with pipe cleaners formed into picots (decorative loops). The embroidery was done with coloured tinsels to mimic silks.

The colour of the costume sets Ferdinand apart from the other couriers, who are dressed in darker shades, befitting their age and station. The cool blue sets him apart - a symbol of his youth and lack of corruption, a calming colour linking him to elemental forces of sky and sea. However, a completely blue costume might be a little fey, so Messel has teamed the doublet with maroon breeches, which 'anchor' the costume.

Oliver Messel (1904-1978) was Britain's leading theatre designer throughout the 1930s, '40s and '50s, mastering every aspect of entertainment - ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue - as well as working in interior decoration and textile design. His lavish, painterly and romantic concepts were perfectly in tune with the times and earned him an international reputation. By 1960, however, that style was becoming unfashionable, and Messel gradually abandoned theatre and built a new career designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.