This design for a 'robe défilé' (which translates as promenade dress) was made for a music-hall performance in a revue created by the American actress Pearl White at the Casino de Paris in 1922. The white dress, with draped skirt and a decorative coral-coloured ornament at the front hip with hanging tassels, is a typical evening dress of the period, whilst drama is provided by long black-and-white scarves flowing from the shoulders and trailing behind the wearer on the floor. The sketch is signed at the bottom "Minerve A: 21", which indicates the name of the dress and the date of original design (either April or August 1921). The model as drawn strongly resembles White herself with her trademark blonde hair (which was actually a wig) and distinctive make-up.

Pearl White (1889-1938) was a silent film actress best known for starring in the 1914 serials The Perils of Pauline and The Exploits of Elaine. In 1921, following the breakdown of her marriage, White moved to Paris, and made plans to launch a revue at the Casino. Employing 160 chorus girls, plus fifteen principals alongside White herself, the show was being advertised through posters, and the scenery and costumes had been completed, when there was a fire at the casino in May 1922. All the scenery and almost all the costumes were destroyed, and the cast were put out of work. These designs, which were probably designed by the House of Worth for White, are possibly the only surviving documentation of costumes designed for this revue, although a poster by Bouet portrays White in the hat, collar and necktie from E.22185-1957.

The House of Worth, founded in Paris in the 1850s by Charles Frederick Worth and Otto Bobergh, quickly came to the attention of Empress Eugenie of France, and subsequently became one of the couturiers of choice of royalty across Europe, dressing many crowned heads including those of Norway, Italy, Denmark, Russia, Belgium and Spain. After Worth died in 1895, his son, Jean-Philippe, became designer. After the 1910s, Jean-Philippe appointed his nephew, Jean-Charles to succeed him as designer, and in the mid-1930s, Roger Worth, Charles' great-grandson, took over as designer. Roger's brother, Maurice, was the last designer for Worth in the early 1950s before the Paris house of Worth was bought out by Paquin in 1953. Paquin closed in 1956, donating a wide range of fashion plates and designs from the combined Worth and Paquin archives and reference collections to the Victoria & Albert Museum.