{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O133063"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O133063/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017JX2099/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017JX2099/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017JX2099","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX2101","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O133063/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O133063","accessionNumber":"S.572-2006","objectType":"Theatre costume","titles":[{"title":"Tunic designed by Oliver Messel","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"<i>The Infernal Machine</i> by the French writer Jean Cocteau, is an adaptation of the Oedipus myth from the Greek dramatist Sophocles.  While Sophocles’s theme is that man can not escape his own fate, Cocteau took the characters off their pedestals and wittily humanized them, turning Oedipus into a naïve, arrogant puppet with whom the gods play, not a man in charge of his own destiny.\r\n \r\nMessel designed costumes, sets and masks for the play when it was produced at the Arts Theatre in London in 1940. It featured Jeanne de Casalis as Jocasta, Leueen McGrath as the Sphinx, and Peter Glenville as Oedipus.  Messel’s basic designs were classical, but updated in materials, like this tunic with the permanently pleated collar.   \r\n\r\nGreat Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Oliver Messel (1904-1978) won international acclaim for his lavish, painterly and poetic designs informed by period styles.  His work spans ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue. Messel’s traditional style of theatre design became unfashionable from the mid 1950s onwards, and he increasingly concentrated on painting, interior and textile design, including designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.","physicalDescription":"A tunic by Oliver Messel for Jean Cocteau's play The Infernal Machine, 1940.  Short-sleeved, short-skirted tunic of cream crêpe; the sleeves cut in one with the body and shaped by pleating on the shoulders; around the hips is a band of elastic, so that the bodice falls into a blouson effect; the skirt is pleated.  Around the neck is a deep frill of permanently pleated chiffon, beneath which a panel of cream cotton falls to the waist.  At the neck is a pleated cravat in pale blue crepe and across the body is a swathe of the same fabric.  The costume fastens down the back with hooks and worked eyes.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Messel, Oliver Hilary Sambourne","id":"A4929"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"crepe","id":"AAT183741"},{"text":"thread","id":"AAT14250"},{"text":"velvet","id":"AAT133711"},{"text":"chiffon","id":"x32757"},{"text":"elastic","id":"x29976"},{"text":"metal","id":"AAT10900"}],"techniques":[{"text":"machine stitching","id":"x29587"},{"text":"glueing","id":"AAT53012"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"crepe, permanently pleated chiffon, elastic, metal hooks","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Theatre costume","id":"THES268477"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2017JX2099","2017JX2101"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"005","id":"THES344041"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Theatre costume","id":""}],[{"text":"tunic","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1940","earliest":"1940-01-01","latest":"1940-12-31"},"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":"74","unit":"cm","qualifier":"approximately","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"44","unit":"cm","qualifier":"approximately","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Messel designed costumes, sets and masks for Jean Cocteau's play <i>The Infernal Machine</i> which was presented at the Arts Theatre, London, from September to October 1940.  It featured Jeanne de Casalis as Jocasta, Leueen McGrath as the Sphinx, and Peter Glenville as Oedipus.   \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":"Tunic designed by Oliver Messel for Jean Cocteau's play <i>The Infernal Machine</i>, 1940.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Pinkham, Roger (ed.) <i>Oliver Messel</i>, London, V&A, 1983","id":"AUTH353280"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"Reason For Production: Commission","productionType":{"text":"Design","id":"THES48872"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Cocteau, Jean Maurice Eugene Clement","id":"N1116"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.572-2006"],"accessionNumberNum":"572","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2006,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 8994"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-05","recordCreationDate":"2007-03-13","availableToBook":true}}