Princess Aurora traditionally wears pink in Act I of the ballet The Sleeping Beauty. This reflects her name - Aurora being the Greek goddess of the dawn. Act I takes place at Aurora's 16th birthday party, and pink also ties in with the idea of a young girl, although one passing from childhood to womanhood for, during that party, she is introduced to four suitors. During the 'Rose Adagio', Aurora dances with each Prince, and each gives her a pink rose, the colour again reflected in her costume.


Oliver Messel designed 'The Sleeping Beauty' for the Sadler's Wells (now Royal) Ballet in 1946. This was the first production when the Royal Opera House reopened after the Second World War and marked the establishment of the ballet company in the theatre. Fonteyn danced Princess Aurora and her first entrance was in the original version of this costume.
The production underwent various modifications over the twenty years that the production remained in the repertory. The collar became smaller and the decoration less ornate; the sleeves were originally much fuller, but dancers felt that they hid their arm movements so gradually they became much slimmer.
The costume suffered considerable wear, especially around the waist; this was caused by the partner's hands when he supports Aurora during the Rose Adagio.
This tutu probably dates from the 1960s, the period of Fonteyn's last performances in the Messel production, when she was appearing with the Royal Ballet Touring Company. As far as is known, no earlier version of this costume for Fonteyn exists. A film of Act 1 with Fonteyn was shot by Keith Money around the time of her last performances in this production .

Historical significance: The Sleeping Beauty is a key production in both the history of the Royal Ballet and in Fonteyn's career. The mounting of the greatest of the Russian classics in 1939 by an English company not ten years old was presumption in the extreme, but it was possible because Ninette de Valois recognized a potential Aurora in Fonteyn. She went on to dance the role over fifty times during the War. In 1946, Sleeping Beauty was the production which re-opened the Royal Opera House and Messel's vision of the ballet has overshadowed almost all subsequent attempts to stage it. The image of Fonteyn in her Act I costume from this production has achieved iconic significance - the memory of her first entrance through the colonnade, a burst of youth, joy and radiance on the post-war scene, has remained a touchstone for all dancers since, as has the image of her almost superhuman balances in the Rose Adagio.
In 1949, the Sadler's Wells Ballet opened their first American season with The Sleeping Beauty and Fonteyn's performance in Act I was both her artistic coming of age and that of the Sadler's Wells Ballet - overnight both were catapulted to international superstardom. In 1961 the Royal Ballet took Sleeping Beauty, back to the Maryinsky in St Petersburg, where it had been created in 1890. Once again, Fonteyn in the pink Messel costume in Act I, was fundamental to the company's success.