Costume designed by Alison Chitty for Judi Dench as Cleopatra in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, National Theatre, 1987.

This costume was worn by Judi Dench in the later part of the play, beginning with the scene on the monument when Cleopatra takes her last farewell to the dying Antony. All the Egyptian women wore trousers which combined practically with style, giving freedom of movement without being too revealing. Designer Alison Chitty and the National Theatre’s Head of Costume, Janet Mayo, told the V&A that the design of the trousers was taken from research into early Egyptian clothes and allowed the actors ‘to move freely in a hot, lazy and sometimes louche way. This contrasted with the dress of the Romans, which was based on Veronese’s paintings of Classical figures, their clothes were more tailored and formal.’ Antony and the Romans wore armour, the uniform of the military in Rome, over doublets and breeches, linking them to the period in which the play was written.

Cleopatra’s costume uses embroidered sari fabric and this, together with the dense natural colours selected by Alison Chitty, enhanced the mercurial “gypsy” quality in Judi Dench’s performance.