Over the past few nights, I've been watching the Julian Fellowes
Titanic miniseries. Well, without spoiling anything, I'll just say that
I'll never be happy again.
Through my flood of tears, I happened to notice that there were some lovely costumes in the series. All classes of women are represented in the story, so the variety of costumes is simply astounding. I'm super excited to analyze them.
Since the variety of costumes is so vast, it's really hard to know how to tackle them, and I certainly won't be able to cover them all in one post (the four episode series has
89 prominent characters, folks). I think the best way to look at this is in broad chronological chunks. Bear with me, and I think it will all sort out.
The first time we see a significant number of female characters together (other than a rather shady jail scene at the very beginning) is when the first and second class families gather for dinner and dancing on the first night of the voyage. As is tradition, the travelers don't change for dinner on the first night, so in this scene, we get a good look at some Edwardian traveling clothes.
The ladies' traveling dresses are dark and sturdy, and not nearly as extravagant as the evening gowns we'll see later on. However, even these plain frocks meant for automobiles and trains are decked out in fantastic detail and beautiful draping typical of the pre-war 1910's.
The hats in this series are, in a word, stunning. The sheer mass of them paired with the amount of flowers, feathers, and other decoration stuck on top had me starry eyed.
A little later on, we get to see some true-blue Edwardian evening wear. That means gorgeous cuts and colors, lovely fabrics, and of course, tons of sparkle.
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| Source. I think it's interesting that her hair tends more towards the Gibson Girl style here. |
Of course, there are way more characters than just the upper class ladies. One of my favorite characters, Annie Desmond (played by future Doctor Who companion Jenna-Louise Coleman), is among the staff of the
Titanic. Obviously, her maid's uniform isn't much to write home about, but she's still a firecracker.
One character with a really interesting wardrobe is Mary Maloney, an Irish mother of four in steerage. Though the story is set in the 1910's, Mary's hair and clothes are more old-fashioned. She sports a Gibson Girl hairstyle and 1900's shirtwaists, which is perhaps indicative of her lower class.
We all know the moment is coming. The unsinkable ship hits an iceberg, and the nightmare begins. It's important to note that in these scenes, all of the women are wearing bulky life jackets over their costumes. Since these jackets obscure the costumes (and since promotional images of the costumes sans-jackets are available), I'm going to be analyzing the costumes without the necessary, but unattractive flotation devices.
As you can see in the image above, the majority of female characters go to bed before the disaster takes place, only to be woken in the middle of the night and told that the ship is sinking. Most of the ladies, such as Georgiana Grex, seen below, stay in their nightgowns and robes. However, some of the older, upper class passengers (such as Georgiana's parents) take the time to change into tuxedos and jewels before running for their lives. It's an interesting juxtaposition to see ladies wearing giant hats and jewelry along with their life vests. I think this nods to the true events of the
Titanic sinking; many of the passengers originally underestimated the danger of the situation.
Two other characters we've glanced at before reappear in braids, nightgowns, and bathrobes.
The interesting thing about watching this series (beyond nerds like me ogling the costumes) is that you know how it ends. We all know the story of the devastating loss of lives that night in the Atlantic. Pre-equipped with that knowledge, the viewer is then presented with a superb cast of characters that is wonderfully acted and large enough to fill a passenger liner. One simple question drives the story from there: out of this enormous pool of characters that we've come to care about over the course of four short episodes, who lives and who dies? It's an ending that's surprising, moving, and that is a perfect homage to the tragedy that took place 100 years ago.
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