This headdress was designed by Oliver Messel for Edith Evans as the Countess in Christopher Fry's verse play The Dark is Light Enough at the Aldwych Theatre in 1954.

Messel was a master of materials. When he drew a design, he knew how it should be made and was quite capable of making it himself or show his selected maker how it should be made. The design is based on fashionable headwear for an 18th century matron, which would have been made in laces and silk ribbons. Such materials would look far too flimsy on stage and would also not be durable enough for the wear and tear of a long run, so Messel has used his favourite crin, a synthetic mesh, which will hold its shape.

Oliver Messel (1904-1978) was Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, working in every aspect of entertainment - ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue - as well as in interior decoration and textile design. His lavish, painterly and romantic designs informed by period styles, were perfectly in tune with his times and earned him an international reputation. By 1960, however, Messel’s style had become unfashionable, having no sympathy with the new 'kitchen sink' school of theatre. He increasingly concentrated on his non-theatrical painting and designing and eventually retired to the Caribbean, where he began a new career designing and building highly idiosyncratic luxury villas.