Duxford Girl

When I discovered a seamstress that specialized in making movie costumes, particularly Titanic costumes, I was beside myself. It took me a week to decide where to start with my collection because I realized that I eventually wanted the whole of Rose’s wardrobe. I finally decided on “The Flying Suit” for the simple fact that I had convinced myself that it was one of the more practical choices. Justification is a wonderful thing. Let’s face it, there’s nothing practical about collecting replica costumes from movies especially those from a totally different era.





Like all pointless interests, costuming has its own language. Movie costumes are frequently named for the scene they appeared in., hence, “The Flying Suit”. For those of you who’ve not seen Titanic 20 billion times, Rose wears the suit for Sunday morning service, a tour of the ship and then on the bow of the ship where she exclaims “I’m flying!”



Romantic as the scene seemed, I want to point out a few things. Rose would have likely been freezing her nipples off, standing on the bow of a ship going 21 knots (about 40 km/hr) in the middle of the North Atlantic in April. Also, I’ll wager that Rose was more used to traveling on the open seas than I am but had it been me I would have been tossing my cookies over the bow, not enjoying the view. It wouldn’t have been pretty. Those of you who know me, I know what you’re thinking. Yes, I realize that I also get airsick. The difference is that I can fly straight and level with my knees, toss it and then keep flying. I took a ferry once between Victoria, BC and Port Angelus, WA. On the way back the sound was mildly choppy. I spent the entire trip in the heads on my knees.

Perfect. Now that I’ve completely killed the romance of the scene I’ll tell you what I like about it. This is the point where Rose decides to leave her safe, comfortable life behind for the simple fact that she knows it isn’t ever going to make her happy. Like all major life-changing decisions, it’s a huge step into the unknown. To me, the scene is all about the courage one needs to take risks. I’ve always hated the fact that Cal (Rose’s fiancé) is a jerk. I think it would have been a far more compelling story if Cal was just a normal sort of guy because Rose isn’t just tired of him, it’s the whole life style she finds unappealing. I sense that when Cameron wrote Cal he felt the need to justify why Rose would leave all that money and privilege. Then again, if Cal hadn’t been a jerk it probably would have taken Rose a heck of a lot longer than a few days to make the decision she did. Real life rarely gives us nice clean-cut options and huge nautical disasters to hurry along the risk-taking process.

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