This sailor suit was hired or purchased by Oliver from Morris Angel, one of the leading theatrical costumiers, who also maintained a large department hiring out costumes for fancy dress and costume balls.

These balls were a feature of social life in the 20th century, especially in the 1920s and 1930s and even into the 1950s and Messel was frequently a guest at many of those given by highest society. He also attended more bohemian social events, such as the Chelsea Arts Ball, where everyone tried to outdo each other in ever more imaginative and outlandish costumes - in which company this sailor suit would have stood out by its very simplicity.

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.