Cabaret costumes are among the most intricate and lavish of all theatrical costumes, successors, in ingenuity and style, to pantomime costumes of the late 19th and early 20th century. At that time whole scenes were devoted to parades of costumes on a theme, like flowers, styles of porcelain, sweets or countries. In the 1960s the idea of parading spectacular and imaginative costumes continued in nightclub floor shows, though on a smaller scale.

This headdress epitomises nightclubs and cabaret - champagne and nightclubs being indissolubly linked in popular consciousness. It was worn by a showgirl at Murray's Cabaret Club, an intimate London nightclub situated in Beak Street in Soho. Murray's opened in 1933 and finally closed its doors in 1975. Its founder, Percival Murray, established it as a respectable restaurant and club and it had a strict membership and admissions policy. Royalty and film stars were regular patrons. The club was known for its floorshows which featured girls in elaborate, if brief, costumes. Among the showgirls was one Christine Keeler, whose affair with the then Conservative Minister for War, John Profumo, ruined his career and may have helped bring down Harold Wilson's government in 1964.