This is one of a number of designs for historically-inspired ballgowns designed in the early 1920s. The designs draw elements from 17th, 18th and mid-19th century dress but are mainly made to early 1920s tastes, using modern fabrics such as metallic lamé. As there are at least 32 similar designs in the collection (see E.22131 to E.22162-1957), they were probably designed for a fancy dress ball with a historical theme, but it is also possible that they were designed to be theatre costumes for historical plays.

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 the crowned heads of Norway, Italy, Denmark, Russia and Spain as well as Belgium. 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 their archives and reference collections to the Victoria & Albert Museum. The London house of Worth was originally a branch from the Paris house that opened in 1911. In 1936, the London fashion house Reville-Terry took over the branch and renamed it "Worth London", with Elspeth Champcommunal as head designer. From that point, until its closure in 1967, Worth London was a completely separate business to Worth Paris.