Film costumes in Titanic exhibition

Saturday, 8 January 2011

Kate Winslet's Titanic costumes will go on show at a new exhibition

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Costumes worn by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in the Oscar-laden 1997 movie Titanic will feature in an exhibition about the ill-fated ship which opens next month.

Lasting until the beginning of July, the display is being mounted by bone china company Royal Crown Derby which supplied items to the Titanic's first-class restaurant.

The exhibition, in Derby, will open on February 26 - almost 100 years to the day that the Titanic's owner, White Star Line, placed an order with Royal Crown Derby.

The order included 600 dinner plates, 150 soup bowls, 150 breakfast plates, 100 salad plates, 150 breakfast cups and saucers, and 100 teacups and saucers.

Royal Crown Derby still has the 1911 pattern book with the design of the crockery which was to be exclusive for the Titanic and was no longer to be manufactured for general sale.

Apart from one plate, currently at Southampton Museum, none of the original crockery survived the 1912 disaster. But Royal Crown Derby has put the range back into full production for the first time since 1911.

As well as the Winslet and DiCaprio costumes, the exhibition will feature memorabilia from the Titanic and from her sister ship, The Olympic.

The centrepiece of the exhibition, which runs until July 2, will be a recreation of the Titanic first-class a la carte restaurant, with a table laid as it would have been on its 1912 voyage.