Diana

This design was created by Leon Sault, possibly for Charles Frederick Worth. It represents Diana the Huntress, updated to a fashionable mid-late 1860s crinoline silhouette. Slightly scandalously, the dress is made to suggest that the upper part is a chemise, with a drawstring neckline, although the skirt of the "chemise" is worn over a turquoise satin crinoline skirt trimmed with wide stripes of brown fur and alternating stag and wolf masks. She carries a hunting horn and riding crop, and has a hunter's bag and knife hanging from her waist. She also wears a quirky headdress made to resemble a miniature lion crouching down and poised to spring. Léon Sault was a fashion and theatre designer and illustrator who later became a magazine editor, publishing some of his fancy dress costume designs as part of a series titled "L'Art du Travestissment" (The Art of Fancy Dress). His designs included characters such as Mephistopheles and embodiments of concepts such as Astronomy.

During the 1860s, Empress Eugenie of France threw a number of extravagant masquerade balls which required the guests to wear elaborate and inventive costumes that were made up by Worth and other Paris dressmakers. Worth, a relative newcomer, became the Empress's favoured couturier at the end of the 1850s. This made him extremely fashionable, and the rest of the ladies of Eugenie's court also bought gowns from him - and so too did their husbands' mistresses, and anyone wealthy enough to afford Worth's very high prices. As a result, Worth was under great pressure to produce vast numbers of unique, one of a kind costumes and gowns, often at very short notice. This is one of a large number of similar designs and sketches that were given to the V&A as part of the archive and reference collection of the House of Worth, making it extremely likely that it was originally designed for a guest to wear to one of the Empress's magnificent balls.