Oliver Messel (1904-1978) was Britain's leading theatre designer of the 1930s, '40s and '50s. He created settings and costumes for all forms of entertainment - ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue - as well as working in interior decoration and textile design. His lavish, painterly and romantic concepts were perfectly in tune with the times and earned him an international reputation. By 1960, however, that style was becoming unfashionable, and Messel gradually abandoned theatre and built a new career designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.

In 1944, designer Oliver Messel was released from his war duties in camouflage to work on the film Caesar and Cleopatra, adapted from George Bernard Shaw's play. Messel was responsible for the costumes and the interior design of the sets, bringing all his imagination and ingenuity to creating Roman and Egyptian costumes and interiors in the context of the mid 1940s. The film was the most expensive British film to date, costing over £1m, and brought a welcome sense of extravagance and colour into a drab post-war world.

Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) played the role of Cleopatra. Messel designed a number of wigs for her, each in an instantly recognisable Egyptian style. This wig and headdress are designed to look realistic in close-up but only have details on the parts that show. The head covering, made of blue leather 'lotus' shapes, is not separate but is sewn to the hair to keep it in place and the hair itself is divided into three bunches, one hanging over each shoulder and one down the back, which are covered in black net to prevent them catching on the lotuses. At the forehead the hair is trimmed but not styled as it is hidden by more lotuses attached to the front of the gold headdress.