4 Cool Things You Never Knew About Titanic’s Costumes (Just In Time For The Blu-ray Release!)

‘Fess up, fellow children of the 90s: Have you seen Titanic more times than is likely healthy? Can you recite every word out of Jack Dawson’s mouth verbatim? Is the original poster still hanging in your childhood bedroom at your parents’ house? Then we’ve got good news for you! The movie is being released on 2D and 3D Blu-ray today, and we got some exclusive dish on the costumes to celebrate.

Costume designer Deborah Lynn Scott chatted with us about her project of a lifetime and the unique challenges it presented. Here are four fun wardrobe facts we dug up just for you:

#1: The “Heart of the Ocean” necklace was actually designed by James Cameron himself. He writes, he produces, he directs, he breaks barriers in animation…but did you know that the Titanic director was the one who dreamed up that oversize blue heart necklace at the center of the film? Deborah says, “That really came from Jim, supported by the historical documentation that was taken from the script and having the biggest diamond in the world at that time. But Jim really designed the necklace, with a lot of historical references.”

#2: It took 50 people and 365 days just to costume the cast “Jim Cameron really wanted to the movie to be as accurate and impressive as possible–the producers had the foresight to know it would take a certain amount of time to do it right–so I had about a year of lead time, which is really unusual these days,” Deborah says. “We started off with a team of four or five people and traveled all over the place collecting vintage garments. But slowly over itme, we had maybe 45 or 50 people working in the costume department alone–we shot the whole movie in a studio that they built from the ground-up down in Mexico, and we had a gigantic warehouse where wardrobe was, with offices, shops, hair and makeup, dressing areas. The scale was just incredible.”

#3: All of the extras wore wetsuits under their period dress to film the water scenes. The logistics are tough enough on a film of this scale, but add an underwater element, and it’s downright chaotic. “All of a sudden we would have 700 or more people in the water,” Deborah says. “We had to make life vests for most of them, and it wasn’t always done in one take, so we had a giant room that was like a heated closet, where the clothes would dry. And everyone wore wet suits. It would take hours to get people ready. “

#4: The third class was more fun to dress than the first. “It was obviously really amazing and fun and difficult to do the grand dining room, because everything was so detailed,” Deborah says. “There were so many bits and pieces to everything. We would always laugh about the collar studs and cuff links and you could just drive yourself crazy with every last detail. When we had our first chance to go into the third class world, one of the first things we shot was the dancing scene with Rose and Jack down below, and everyone just had such a good time, because it was such a fun, different thing to do. I think that’s my favorite scene in the film.”

Titanic comes out today on Blu-ray (score your copy here) and, duh, will go in our hearts forever. Were you ladies gaga over this movie the first time around? What did you think of the costumes? Share!

PLUS…more great fashion on film:

• The 6 best chick flick closet montages ever

• Magic Mike’s costume designer dishes on his inspiration

• The upcoming remake of The Great Gatsby will be decked out in Tiffany & Co. jewels!

Photos: Paramount