Sophie Fedorovitch was famous for her spare yet evocative designs, which perfectly conveyed the atmosphere of the particular work which she was designing in a few strokes of colour and shape. This design was created for one of the Revellers in Frederick Ashton's 1935 ballet Nocturne, which was set in 1890s Paris and the blue paper implies the nighttime setting. A detailed reconstruction of fashionable dress was out of the question for dancers, but Fedorovitch still captures the idea of the glamorous nightlife of the time. The attached fabrics are lightweight, but when used in quantity in the way indicated by the design, would move perfectly. Although the dress is coloured white, the chosen fabric veers towards beige, white being too dominating a colour for general stage use.
The design is not a clear blueprint for making the costume, but rather an imaginative, impressionistic suggestion of what the finished dress should look like. To realise the concept, Fedorovitch worked closely with her chosen makers.