After the success of the exhibition “Dior-A New Look”, the Dutch Art Museum makes the Haag space for a new fashion fairy tale: Titanic. The love story of Rose and Jack from the beginning of the 20th century proves to be surprisingly up to date. Even today we are creating war, migration and the violence of nature. Again, romantic dresses with lace, embroidery and even corsets appear as a counterweight. These parallels at the time ago over a century ago form the red thread of the exhibition.
On April 10, 1912, the Titanic moved Southampton towards New York. Women like Rose (Kate Winslet) traveled with a return flight ticket. Happiness seeker: Inside like Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), especially to the wide world, in search of a better life. The Titanic did not turn out to be as “unsinkable” as it was claimed. On the night of April 14th, she sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean within a few hours. At least 1,500 people were killed, including eight Germans, seven Swiss: inside and 47 passengers and crew members from the then Austria-Hungary.
One of the legacies is the classic film of the same name by James Cameron from 1997, with the Oscar-winning costumes by Deborah Lynn Scott. Fifteen pieces can now be seen in the Hague. They are supplemented by loan from private collectors: inside and processed pieces from their own archive.
Fans of the film will recognize the staging of the designer Maarten Spruyt. The ship is ready for the descent in the first hall. You can hear the penetrating screeching of the naval farms. The ship horn signals the descent: “We put off”. So quickly, another kiss. In the further course of the exhibition, the costumes become simple. You leave the empties of the rich and reach the false deck of the third grade. The encounter of Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), of poor and rich is all the more remarkable. The tour follows your romance over the deck, past luxurious dinner and even into the machine room – and it ends tragically. To process this, the contribution by fashion photographer Jasper Abel helps. He created a moment of relaxation in a room where you can rest briefly. In his film collage you can see recordings of the shipwreck from 1985.
Classical music that can be heard in the meantime plays an important role. It should not only cause the dreamy feeling of romantic film, but also the musicians: honor on board. According to rumors, the band continued until a quarter of an hour before the downfall. This perseverance says a lot about the time.
Rose’s Oscar-winning clothes
If you come especially for the Oscar-winning Rose dresses, you can orientate yourself on the red-haired mannequetry dolls. The most dreamy presentation is that of the red satin evening dress, the “Jump Dress”, in which she meets Jack for the first time. It is completed by a stuffed seagull, a loan from the Museon Science Museum, and a starry sky in which her fate is written. However, the robe made of several layers of chiffon with a pink wool coat, in which she later drives in the water, is more interesting. In order to be able to turn the surrounding scenes dry, this costume had to be made 24 times. If you look closely, you will find a replica of the chain “Heart of the Ocean”. She is hidden behind a peep hole, along with costumes from other film figures like Molly Brown, which was called Margaret Tobin-Brown in real life. She survived the disaster and continued to tell the story. A stroke of luck because she was a well -known feminist.
A favorite piece by curator Madelief Hohé is the “deck dress” made of silk with white embroidery. In this dress, Rose falls in love with the central Jack, which is disguised as a rich gentleman, on the first-class deck within a few hours. “We had a comparable dress from Gustav Beer from Paris, from velvet with layers of Voile and beautifully embroidered. Before the Titanic exhibition, it was in a desolate condition. Now the piece of clothing can be presented again through the restoration; I think that’s great,” says Hohé. A third, modern design by Tess van Zalinge completes this corner of the exhibition.
Complained silk
The textile masterpieces from the film are supplemented by jewels of the art museum from the same period: 1908 to 1918. “Such a project is a good opportunity to set up and research the collection,” says Hohé. The restorer César Rodríguez Salinas reconstructed the missing parts together with students in the laboratory. The museum learned a lot about the construction of costumes from a forgotten era: the gap between the Belle Époque and the Golden twenties.
Robes from “complained silk” caused many problems. “At that time, silk was treated with an acid so that it felt more luxurious and also looked. In the opening hall there are two “dramatic cases” behind glass. “We wanted to show that broken things can also be very nice; that fits such a disaster story.”
Emancipation and reform
The early 20th century was a time technological jumps, with the invention of the phone, car and aircraft. The exhibition could have emphasized this a little more specifically. However, if you look closely, you can see the change in fashion itself. It is characterized by opulence: dresses made of shaming off and crepe Georgette; Embroidery and metal beads; an abundance of mechanically manufactured tips; Flapped hats with huge grinding and feathers on the wrist and in the hair. The exhibition also shows a new zeitgeist: reform dresses with a higher waist, lighter fabrics and more freedom of movement. You can only look at rose striped “boarding suit” with an extended blazer, a sculptural yet practical silhouette and a tie with gemstone brooch – a harbinger of modernity.
With the reform dress there was also the gradual abolition of the corset, but some of which can still be seen in the exhibition. Underwear became fashion, thanks to the outstanding designers such as Jeanne Margaine-Lacroix, Lucile, which was on board and survived the disaster, and Calloet Soers. These women set up their own fashion rooms and thus conquered their place in society. The longing for nature and an emerging health movement reflected in rough, original materials such as scratchy wool.
This is also part of the Titanic era: emancipation. In order to transfer the image of the strong woman to the present time, modern creations of expressive designers such as Iris van Herpen are shown in the exhibition. You can see two breathtaking, 3D printed dresses from their “Carte Blanche” collection from 2024, which was filmed under water. In the art museum, this was reproduced with artificial drops of water on the clothes doll. “Carte Blanche” also fits well with Titanic: It’s about resistance and a fresh start.
Class struggle
“Titanic & Fashion” also questions the class society, which was a matter of course at the time of Rose and Jack. The rich traveled in the first class; Poor migrant: inside and the crew in the third. You were either a gentleman with a hat or belonged to the simple people. Is it so different today, in view of persistent racism, hatred of migrants: inside and a dwindling middle class – the growing gap between poor and rich?
Hohé chose modern designs to answer this question poetically. The designer Tess van Zalinge interprets, for example, the color codes for workers at the time: inside in their own way: white for office workers and blue for workers: inside. Both colors are contained in their unusual, alienated ensemble. The interpretation of the British designer Craig Green, who has a preference for hard -working people, is quite different. He can see a suit inspired by nursing staff who surrounds the doll with a red edge – a good aura. Because often the workers are: inside the real hero: inside, not the employees in the office.
Further back is a human figure he designed with just one leg. It is wrapped in a strange creation made of leather cushion that is reminiscent of a car seat and is printed with inscriptions such as “165 centimeters” and “63 kilograms”. “Maybe it’s a rescue ring, or maybe people are saved here,” suspects Hohé. In any case, it is an urgent work that raises questions about work, classification and the role of technology. “I find it exciting that young designers deal with such ideas and draw attention to topics that we would rather not face,” says Hohé.
The exhibition uses the catastrophe of the Titanic and the fashionable nuances of that time as a mirror for our own time: Who is sitting on top at the top, who goes under – and who gets the rescue ring?
The exhibition “Titanic & Fashion – The Last Dance” can still be seen until January 25, 2026 in the Art Museum.
This article was used with digital tools translated.
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