TITANIC COLLECTION
For 2022, alongside commissions, I decided to finally take the plunge and piece together my very own Titanic costume collection. Titanic has always been my favourite film. The exquisite costumes designed by Deborah L Scott are what inspired me to become a dressmaker, and the Edwardian era is one of my favourite eras of fashion. It embodies an understated elegance and timeless design, teamed with impeccable quality and workmanship. The first class ladies onboard Titanic would spend hours getting ready wearing only the best fashions of the period.
I hope you enjoy the collection!
Danny xx
"...with all due respect Miss, I'm not the one hanging off the back of a ship here."
JUMP DRESS
This dress has been a dream of mine to make for twenty years. When I was researching the construction of the garment, I knew I would need plenty of time to complete all the beading work which is the signature feature of the gown.
The bodice is made up of eight sections of beadwork, the process for which was as follows...
The first step was to cut the eight sections from fine tulle fabric before applying appliques in a rose pattern as similar to the original gown as possible. We then outlined all of the appliques with black metallic 2mm seed beads. Once this stage was complete, we infilled all the remaining spaces with consecutive rows of scarlet red 2mm seed beads. This totaled 180 hours of beading and close to 10,000 individual beads.
On completion of the beadwork, a beaded fringe was added around the hem of the bodice and faux jet buttons to fasten the front and shoulders. The final stage of the bodice was to add the point de 'esprit tulle to create the overdress and train before edging this layer with 3mm crystal trim. For the underdress to be constructed, I created a full length sheaf dress in duchess red satin. This was cut in an empire silhouette with a nude illusion and lace bodice and neckline with gathered cap sleeve, all trimmed in the same 3mm trim, same as the overskirt.
The skirt of the underdress was overlayed with two tiers of black fine tulle, both of which were hemmed with black beaded fringe and the same 3mm crystal trim used in the bodice and overskirt. The underdress fastened in the centre back seem with hooks and eyes, with the final stage of construction being the addition of the beaded medallions around the hem of the two tiers of the underdress. This was done with 3mm black seed beads with 5mm rhinestones at their centre.
All in all a marthon of a project clocking up over 200 hours of work and many glasses of gin!
''Can you exchange one life for another? A caterpillar turns into a butterfly. If a mindless insect can do it, why couldn't I''
SWIM DRESS
I decided to make the Swim dress for my daughter Lily-May as out of all the dresses in the film, this costume suited Lily the most. I feel it is the most natural and youthful of the costumes' that Rose wears in the film.
The starting point for the construction of this gown came from my own stash of chiffons I already had. My chiffon colours were more muted than the original costume but I was curious if they would work for my interpretation of the original gown. As during my research I had seen different interpretations of the Swim dress. The left hand image below shows my original concept compared to the original gown. On looking back over the dress I felt that there was too much white in my interpretation and that the chiffon used was too heavy a weight, and therefore created too much volume in the skirt of the dress, making the dress look overworked and less effortless.
I realised that the key element of this particular dress was the ombre dyed upper tiers of fabric, which were missing my white interpretation. This prompted me to look for ombre dyed fabrics until I stumbled across an white and peach chiffon ombre. I also removed a layer of white chiffon from the train, replacing it with a lilac silk chiffon. The sash was also changed from dusky pink to peach. So below is an image of the updated dress. The problem now however was that we had gone too far in the opposite direction, adding too much colour into the gown. The lilac chiffon in the train was too vibrant and was jarring with the peach ombre of the tiers above.
From here, we did one final hunt for fabrics, before settling on the pink ombre chiffon and pale lilac silk chiffon for the train. A lighter weight peach chiffon was then chosen to complete the sash and it's tails, resulting in the final gown seen in the gallery above. All of the tiers were finished with 1mm machine rolled hems, with the entire construction of the gown being completed by hand.
"Come Josephine in my flying machine... and its up she goes, up she goes..."
THE FLYING DRESS
Paying tribute to the costumes from Titanic would simply be incomplete without recreating the iconic Flying Dress. The costume is worn by Rose, played by Kate Winslet, in the most iconic movie scene (some would argue of all time). It appears at the point in the movie when Rose begins to shed the confines of the class system in which she was raised. This is represented by Rose wearing her hair loose instead of pinned up and also be the looser fitting style of the Kimono Jacket worn as a part of this ensemble.
The ensemble was created using a two tone shot navy and black velvet paired with navy satin. The jacket portion of the dress was constructed in the style of a kimono with a loose fit which was gathered at the waist with a pleated satin sash. The jacket was trimmed with hand painted panels along the front opening edges, and a satin collar and buttoned cuffs. The points at the hemm of the jacket were adorned with hand felted pom poms. The sash is fastened at the back of the gown with two tails which trailed down the back of the skirt.
The Skirt was constructed in two layers consisting of a full underskirt with a draped wraparound overskirt. Peaking from below the overskirt is another hand painted panel. The ensemble was finished with a lace sleeveless chemise and hand finished custom shoes.
This dress was truly as dream to make and worn which I will treasure for years to come.