Titanic

Yesterday we decided to take a family trip to the Titanic exhibition. For those of you who don't know the Titanic was built by Harland and Wolf here in Belfast, before making it's journey to New York via Southampton. Last year was the 100 year anniversary of it's fatal collision with the iceberg, and it also saw the opening of the Titanic Quarter celebrating the history of the grand ship. We tried to go in the summer but unfortunately it was sold out. It was great to finally get to go before I travel back to Oxford (which is tomorrow). 

Here's what I wore;

 Jacket - Miss Selfridge. Dress - Topshop. 

Scarf - Alexander McQueen. Boots - Dune.

I'm still wearing my new favourite jacket, which has barely left my shoulders since I got it. And I decided to team it up with my lovely Alexander McQueen scarf. I bought this scarf at Bicester Village a couple of years ago. Much like my Vivienne Westwood bag I really need to break it out more often...

I'm not going to lie I've always had a bit of a fascination with the Titanic, maybe it's the Belfast history involved or the vintage era, but I was very excited to visit. And I wasn't disappointed, there was far too much to feature on my blog so here are just a few quick points. The Harland and Wolf shipyard where the Titanic was built has been transformed into the Titanic quarter where the exhibition is housed. 

The tour starts off with the history of Belfast's industry and economic boom, which lays the groundwork of the context of the building of the Titanic. 

 I wish this was still true...

The tour then explores the building of the Titanic, and there is a short ride which takes you around the 'shipyard'. During the summer when the exhibition had just opened, I remember watching the news which featured a very perplexed Queen on the ride during her visit to Northern Ireland. I'm pretty sure I shared the same look as the Queen as I went round... This part was my least favourite bit of the tour, but from speaking to others I'm pretty alone in this opinion.

Throughout the tour there were short stories of crew members and passengers, and at the end it told you whether they survived or not. Bit morbid I suppose, but it was incredibly interesting.

Here are the first and third class quarters that the passengers would have stayed in. As much as I would have loved to be a first class passenger, let's be honest I would have definitely have been in third class. A girl can dream...

At the end of the tour there was a video of the underwater wreckage of the Titanic. It is amazing to see how much of the ship is still intact, and not just the ship but also passenger's belongings.

The costumes worn by Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio 

during the 1997 Titanic movie.

I really enjoyed myself, and would highly recommend visiting if you ever take a trip to Belfast. It took us about two hours to go round the whole exhibition, but as it is self-guided these timings are definitely specific to the group. Anyone visited it already? What did you think?

*Sorry for the quality of some of photos, you can't use flash and in some parts of the exhibition the lighting with incredibly dim.