Christina Vasa of Sweden was crowned with the official title King of Sweden on 20 October 1650, after already having ruled as monarch for six years. At her coronation, she was dressed in white and silver garments and a purple cloak lined with ermine, which together connected traditional values with modern ones. The appearance and design of Christina's garments would have been instrumental for her to legitimise and assert her power despite being a woman, and to create the persona of a successful monarch of a powerful nation. They would also have been a way for her to connect herself to desirable social and cultural contexts, such as an heiress of the Vasa family line or a participant in the European court scene.

Many historians and art historians have studied Christina's life – her childhood as the only heir of the Vasa dynasty, the years between 1644–1654 when she was a reigning monarch, and the last and longest part of her life, which she spent in Rome after abdicating the throne in favour of her male cousin Karl X Gustav (1622–1660). When it comes to her clothing habits, the combined sources on Christina's clothing are contradictory. Most research conducted tends to rely on portraits and other types of written sources discussing her as a person and her clothing, such as personal and diplomatic letters.