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| Dinner Dress |
| Rose wears the Dinner Dress, as the name hints, to the First Class dinner on Saturday, April 13, 1912, when Jack attends the dinner with her. The Dinner Dress could in no way be called simple! It is one of the most detailed dresses I have ever saw in any film! More than 5600 sequins, 2500 large black facted beads, and 8400 small black faceted beads all hand applyed to this dress! This dress's underdress is made with coral pink silk taffeta and the overlay is made of a fine black netting. The underdress is lined in natural white colored silk. The beading consists of silver sequins, with small and large glassbeads. |
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| This dress also has a square neckline, with short sleeves, and a side train.The overskirt of black silk taffeta is tiered and is pulled up slightly on the side, revealing the color of the underdress, a coral silk taffeta. |
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| In constructing this gown, the front of it is fairly simple and easy to replicate. The left |
| side of the overskirt is all one piece, and fairly narrow, since it extends to the lift side seam only. This piece has beads nearly covering it and a beaded design along the hem that replicates the pattern of the back of the overskirt. The overskirt's right side is made of four angled layers which are sewn into a backing fabric. The layers of the overlay's right side should be slightly diagonally cut, but not to a great degree, since it is be pulled up even more by the rhinstone clasp on the left of the bodice, just south of the bust of the gown. The layers of the skirt are attached to the overlay of the bodice at the waistline, which is actually a bit higher than Rose's actual waistline. The seam of the layered overskirt is farther back on the right side, almost around the skirt's back and on the side not directly over the hip. The drapery from the back is "held" under Rose's arm, with a rhinstone clasp. The remaining fabric hangs down the side of the dress, heading toward the back of the dress at the bottom. This creates a very lovely appearance. |
| The tricky part to understand on this gown, is figuring out where all the fabric on the right come from, and how this piece is attached to the rest of the dress. They could have cut out the back of the gown and the left front overskirt piece all together, createing no side seam on the left side of the dress. It would have been easier to cut the back piece out by itself, and sew it to the front overskirt at the side seam. The back drapery piece is slightly longer on the right side, sice it is caught up into the clasp under the arm. This allows some extra folds of fabric to hang down nicely Also, the overskirt is the same length all the way around the back.. At the top of the drapery, the piece is sewn is hand sewn into into the bodice, which has another overlay on it alreay, although the back drapery will cover some of it. |
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| At the left sholder, the back piece come up into a point and then it curves gracefully downward toward the right side seam, where the rhinestone clasp holds all the drapery. It was likely that a small handstiched seam was ran around the top and sides of this drapery piece, then sewn firmly to the back of the gown. Some narrow binding material may have even been placed under the hem to strenthen the material, since the beading and drapery are so heavy, if not, the fabric could have torn, or the stitching could have come loose during filming. They would have continued stiching everything down to the underarm seam, but did not stich the side of this piece in place. They would have gathered it and pulled it over the side seam, so that the back of the gown was perfectly smooth and the remaining fabric hung down the side.Then the drapery was firmly sewn at the underarm, placeing a rhinstone button or clasp over top of the stiching to cover it. Then the sides and bottom of this peice were hemmed, the same as the rest of the gown, and the beads, sequins, etc., were added. |
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| If you would like a copy of Rose's Dinner Dress, a very expensive (around$1,500- $2,000), but also very beautiful piece, please visit my links sections. From the example of her dress shown on the net, I would recommend Past and Present Creations as the front runner in accuracy of this gown. |
| Thank you very much Jennie Chancey for much of the above information! |