This woven cloak white is part of a group of costume items that also includes a dress and sideless gown, also in the collection (H12 and H13). They were all reputed to have been designed by William Morris for use as costume props to be worn by models, notably his wife Jane, at the time of the decoration of the Oxford Union murals in 1857. The gown has been linked to a 1858 study by Morris for ‘La Belle Iseult’, his only easel painting which is now in the Tate collection.
