This is one of a series of eighteen lithographs created in Paris in about 1910 by a French artist who signs himself "Laviny". Their subject matter is of beautiful women dressed in fantastical and extraordinary costumes which represent various aspects of Paris. Whilst the outfits are ultra-fashionable in silhouette, they are very exaggerated and were probably not intended to be made up in real-life, but were made to amuse and for decorative purposes. The lithographs were printed by Fattorini et Crespin of Paris.

This costume embodies the Bastille, the notorious fortress that acted as a Royal prison before being demolished during the French Revolution. Despite its destruction, the Bastille retains a major role in French popular culture. The costume chosen to represent it is a feminised version of the striped linen trousers worn by the male Revolutionaries, or "sans-culottes", who stormed and destroyed the Bastille in 1789-90. The trousers, interpreted here as a skirt, are worn with a man's tail-coat with the sleeves removed and worn over a loosely draped bodice. On her head she wears a Phrygian cap, traditionally worn by the revolutionaries because of its symbolism as a cap of liberty, representing freedom from tyranny. For this reason the Phrygian cap is frequently shown being worn by Marianne, the embodiment of post-revolutionary France.