Lila de Nobili was a designer of great delicacy and ingenuity. In 1968, she designed Peter Wright's production of The Sleeping Beauty for the Royal Ballet, and the surviving artefacts are little masterpieces of both imagination and craftsmanship. There were, in fact, so many visual delights that it took several viewings to realise them all. Most fondly remembered (although not by the dancers) was the entry of the Fairies in the Prologue, running down what appeared to be a shaft of sunlight.

Each fairy wore a headdress symbolising her gift to Princess Aurora, in this case, the songbirds indicate the gift of music, and the idea is carried through into the choreography. The headdress is a miracle of lightness, the acetate birds floating and held between the sturdy wire circlet, through which the dancer pins the headdress to her hair, while the tape anchors it under her hair at the back. There is nothing worse for a dancer than a wandering headdress, unless it is one so heavy that it gives her a headache.