Costume for an Attendant on the Queen of the Waters in Frederick Ashton's ballet Homage to the Queen, Royal Opera House, 1953, designed by Oliver Messel.

Costume for an Attendant on the Queen of the Waters in Frederick Ashton's ballet Homage to the Queen, Royal Opera House, 1953. Low cut sleeveless bodice of a cotton foundation overlaid with flesh pink cotton and, down visible centre front, toning net; except for a small area over the hips, sides and back, the blue cotton has been overlaid with overlapping sections of crin, painted blue, brown, green and gold, creating a fin-like effect. The narrow elastic shoulder straps support a fine net surmounted by narrow curved petals of moulded plastic, which carry wires supporting crystal bead drops tremblant. Two concertina-pleated upright points of crin, edged with sellotape, conceal the join where the strips are attached at the low back.
The hip line is surmounted by a peplum of millers buckram finished with inverted scallops, completely overlaid with crin and occasional strips of narrow velvet ribbon, the whole painted and made as the fin-like structure of the bodice. Beneath the peplum are stiffened supports, creating a small farthingale. The centre front of the peplum is finished in a V-shaped motif of raised crin edged with gold lurex with knotted crin cord simulating coral. The mid-calf length skirt is a single layer of gathered jade nylon organza.

The costume was originally worn with a fitted headdress and a neck ruff.

Given by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Costume for an Attendant on the Queen of the Waters worn originally by Shirley Bateman and later by Merle Park in Frederick Ashton's ballet Homage to the Queen, Sadler's Wells (now Royal) Ballet, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 2 June 1953. The music for the ballet was composed by Malcolm Arnold, and the scenery and costumes were designed by Oliver Messel. The ballet was created to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Homage to the Queen was a formal ballet created for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Both Frederick Ashton and his designer Oliver Messel looked back to the 17th-century Court Masques in the subject of the queens of the four elements (earth, air, fire, water) paying tribute to the new Queen.

For the costume for an Attendant on the Queen of the Waters Messel created a bodice encrusted with crin painted blue, brown, green and gold, giving a fin-like impression. In movement, the single-layer chiffon skirt wafted like gently undulating water. The costume also shows Messel's characteristic use of unexpected materials to gain the effects he imagined. He wanted to suggest the gleam of water and found the solution in a new wonder tape - Sellotape.

The costume was worn with a small neck ruff, which linked the costume back to the court masques.

S.648-1981