This design was created by Jules Helleu, possibly for Charles Frederick Worth. The costume represents the classical Greek goddess Athena in her role as the goddess of war. A plumed helmet, shield, and corsage made to represent a gilded and embossed breastplate are juxtaposed with a fashionably large crinoline skirt of black and gold-embroidered crimson draperies over a white underskirt, short enough to show matching gilded leather boots made to represent military buskins with lion's masks. Although skirts that exposed a grown woman's lower leg would normally have been considered quite shocking, fancy dress costumes were one of the very few exceptions to the rule. We can tell that this costume represents Athena, and not the Roman goddess Minerva, because an additional sketch shows the shield has a design of Medusa's head on the front. According to Greek mythology, after Theseus killed the monstrous Medusa, her head was given to Athena, who affixed it to her shield.

During the 1860s, Empress Eugenie of France threw a number of extravagant masquerade balls which required the guests to wear elaborate and inventive costumes that were made up by Worth and other Paris dressmakers. Worth, a relative newcomer, became the Empress's favoured couturier at the end of the 1850s. This made him extremely fashionable, and the rest of the ladies of Eugenie's court also bought gowns from him - and so too did their husbands' mistresses, and anyone wealthy enough to afford Worth's very high prices. As a result, Worth was under great pressure to produce vast numbers of unique, one of a kind costumes and gowns, often at very short notice. This is one of a large number of similar designs and sketches that were given to the V&A as part of the archive and reference collection of the House of Worth, making it extremely likely that it was originally designed for a guest to wear to one of the Empress's magnificent balls.