{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O128641"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O128641/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BN4127/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BN4127/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2007BN4127","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O128641/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O128641","accessionNumber":"S.507-2006","objectType":"Theatre costume","titles":[{"title":"Headdress","type":"generic title"},{"title":"Titania","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This charming headdress was designed by Oliver Messel for Shakespeare's <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i> at the Old Vic in 1937.  The director, Tyrone Guthrie, used the well-known Mendelssohn incidental music, which he felt was ‘redolent of crimson and gold opera houses, of operatic fairies in white muslin flying through groves of emerald canvas.’ Messel's designs perfectly echoed the concept.  \r\n\r\nMessel was always inventive in his use of materials.  He understood that the theatre is heightened realism, so for the flowers he used metallic paper, chandelier drops, metal discs and cellophane, which subtly convey the fantasy, inhuman elements of the fairy queen and a sense of steely character.  Titania was played in this production by Vivien Leigh who, crowned with 'stars' and with the gauze ribbons falling down her back, looked the epitome of an imperious Victorian fairy queen.  \r\n\r\nOliver 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.","physicalDescription":"A headdress by Oliver Messel for Titania in A Midsummer Nights Dream, 1937.   A wire base concealed by brown paper tape painted silver.  Attached by thread to the wire base are pink paper flowers alternating with black, gold, green and silver leaves made from metallic paper, painted paper and gauze. Also gold beads, rhinestones and imitation pearls.  Some parts are covered in clear sellotape.   Fixed at the back of the head-dress is a large flat bow of gauze silver strip ribbon.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Messel, Oliver Hilary Sambourne","id":"A4929"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Clement, Thérèse","id":"A18125"},"association":{"text":"makers","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"wire","id":"AAT11063"},{"text":"beads","id":"x32809"},{"text":"rhinestone","id":"AAT10806"},{"text":"gauze","id":"AAT14083"},{"text":"pearls (imitation)","id":"x30523"},{"text":"masking tape","id":"AAT14836"},{"text":"paint","id":"AAT15029"},{"text":"sellotape","id":"x38806"},{"text":"thread","id":"AAT14250"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Wire, paper, gauze, beads, thread, imitation pearls, rhinestone, paint, sellotape","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Hats & headwear","id":"THES48943"},{"text":"Theatre costume","id":"THES268477"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2007BN4127"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES344039"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Theatre costume","id":""}],[{"text":"headdress","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1937","earliest":"1937-01-01","latest":"1937-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"12.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Circumference","value":"49","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"The headdress was designed by Oliver Messel for <i>A Midsummer Night’s Dream</i> at the Old Vic in 1937 with Vivien Leigh as Titania and Robert Helpmann as Oberon.  The production was revived the following year with Dorothy Hyson taking over from Leigh.  Photographs show Leigh wearing this headdress and Dorothy Hyson wearing a grander coronet (S.491-2006).  Messel designed this lighter headdress for the early, more active, scenes and the grander headdress for the formal blessing scene at the end.  \r\nMessel decorated box S.492:1/2-2006 to house the two headdresses.  \r\nLord Snowdon, Oliver Messel's nephew, inherited Messel's theatre designs and other designs and artefacts.  The designs were briefly stored in a disused chapel in Kensington Palace before being housed at the V&A from 1981 on indefinite loan.  The V&A Theatre Museum purchased the Oliver Messel collection from Lord Snowdon in 2005.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Head-dress designed by Oliver Messel for Titania in Shakespeare's play <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>, Old Vic 1937","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Pinkham, Roger (ed.) <u>Oliver Messel: an exhibition held at the Theatre Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, 22 June - 30 September 1983.</u> \r\nLondon: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983.  200p., ill\r\nISBN 0905209508)"}],"production":"Reason For Production: Commission","productionType":{"text":"Design","id":"THES48872"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Leigh, Vivien","id":"N699"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.507-2006"],"accessionNumberNum":"507","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2006,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 8853"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-06-11","recordCreationDate":"2006-10-17","availableToBook":false}}