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Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett in Titanic (1997)
Vitals
Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett, deep-sea treasure hunter
North Atlantic Ocean, Spring 1996
Film: Titanic
Release Date: December 19, 1997
Director: James Cameron
Costume Designer: Deborah Lynn Scott
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
This week marks the 113th anniversary of the RMS Titanic sinking in April 1912, a tragedy that has captivated generations—and resurfaced in the public consciousness with every new discovery or disaster, including the OceanGate submersible incident that dominated headlines (and memes) in June 2023.
Forty years ago in the summer of 1985, the wreck of Titanic was discovered by Dr. Robert Ballard, reigniting global fascination and eventually inspiring James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster. For Cameron, the shipwreck was more than a cinematic setting; it was, as he described, “the Mount Everest of shipwrecks.” Despite being “almost past the point” of considering a real undersea expedition, Cameron sought Hollywood funding for what was, at its heart, a chance to dive to the wreck. “Secretly, what I wanted to do was I wanted to dive to the real wreck of Titanic. And that’s why I made the movie,” he admitted to laughter and applause during a 2010 TED Talk, earning laughter and applause. Across 12 dives, Cameron spent more time with Titanic than most of her actual passengers.
Cameron’s longtime friend and collaborator Bill Paxton embodied this pursuit of the ship in his role as Brock Lovett, the modern-day treasure hunter leading the expedition to find a priceless necklace rumored to be buried aboard the ship. Charismatic yet opportunistic, Brock could be a stand-in for Cameron himself, driven by both adventure and the promise of a big payday—be that a sunken treasure or a billion-dollar box office. Paxton’s character even mirrors history; his reaction upon discovering Jack’s drawing of Rose (“I’ll be goddamned”) echoes Dr. Ballard’s exact words upon locating the wreck in 1985.
Fittingly, Paxton delivers both the film’s first and last lines, anchoring the narrative from discovery to understanding when he confesses in the final scene: “I never got it, I never let it in.” In a meta way, those words could reflect Cameron’s own emotional reckoning when he finally acknowledged the magnitude of the tragedy driving his lifelong passion after surfacing from his first of a dozen dives.
Titanic was the fourth of five collaborations between Cameron and Paxton before the actor’s death in February 2017, with their final project, Ghosts of the Abyss (2003), appropriately returning to the depths of Titanic herself.
What’d He Wear?
Cameron’s original screenplay describes Brock Lovett as “in his late forties, deeply tanned, and likes to wear his Nomex suit unzipped to show the gold from famous shipwrecks covering his gray chest hair. He is a wiley, fast-talking treasure hunter, a salvage superstar who is part historian, part adventurer and part vacuum cleaner salesman.”
While diving in Mir 1, Brock and his crew wear zip-up coveralls made from blue Nomex, the sturdy flame-resistant fabric developed by DuPont in the 1960s. Nomex’s ability to withstand intense heat has made it a popular fabric for firefighting, motorsports, military aviation, and space exploration. Recalling his own 2001 expedition in a submersible to the Titanic wreck, The Sun journalist Martin Phillips recalled that “the oxygen-enriched atmosphere in the pressurized subs raised the risk of a blaze… so we would be kitted out in fire-retardant to protect us—for a few extra seconds.”
The coveralls have a white straight-zip front that extends up from the fly to the neck, where an extended square-ended tab closes with a velcro patch over the neck. The shoulders have epaulet straps, and the set-in sleeves are finished with white ribbed-knit elasticized cuffs. Two large hip pockets below the waist seam are accessed via curved open-top entries.
On the front of the right shoulder, circular white patches with red borders and blue text identify their affiliation with the Russian research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh. A blue silhouette of a submersible is depicted across the patch, with мир (“Mir”) blocked out in white text against it, with the ship’s full name Академик Мстислав Келдыш and “CCCP” embroidered in red around the top and bottom of the patch, suggesting that their gear dates to sometime between 1987 and 1991 when Mir submersibles were added to the Keldysh‘s equipment and the end of the Soviet Union.
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Production photo of Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett, turning the camera on himself inside Mir 1.
After recording his dramatic prologue (“All right, enough of that bullshit.”), Brock ditches the dashing image in favor of practicality by pulling on his chunky Aran-knit fisherman’s sweater. The fuzzy finish and colorful flecks against the heavy-weight dark taupe-brown wool suggest the yarn is natural Donegal tweed, characterized by the slubby flecks of color that appear in sweaters, suits, and sport jackets crafted from this Irish wool.
In the Aran tradition of fisherman’s sweaters, Brock’s pullover jumper features several Celtic heritage stitch patterns, including the prominent honeycomb stitch down the center, flanked by braided cable-knit design down each side. These patterns are echoed down the length of each set-in sleeve. The sweater also has a hefty ribbed crew-neck and cuffs.
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“All right, you have my attention, Rose. Can you tell us who the woman in the picture is?”
Brock is back to dressing for function when he greets Rose Calvert (Gloria Stuart) on the Keldysh, now wearing a yellow nylon Mustang Marinewear survival jacket. This type of jacket was specially designed—and approved by the U.S. Coast Guard—as a wearable personal floatation device (PFD), with closed-cell PVC foam insulation that not only keeps the wearer afloat but delays the onset of hypothermia. (Given the story Rose is about to tell, this makes it seem a bit insensitive for Brock to wear when greeting her at sea.)
Brock specifically wears the model MJ6210 “Floater Jacket” blouson, a predecessor to the MJ6214 “Basic Bomber”. The jacket has two chest pockets—each with a velcro-fastened squared flap—and black ventilation eyelets to expel water. A similar pocket is sewn onto the upper left sleeve, and another velcro-fastened patch pocket is sewn along the inside. Two additional outer pockets are set-in at hand level with slanted welt entries extending back from the bottom of each chest pocket. The red-and-blue “Mustang Survival” logo is embroidered on a white circular patch over the left chest pocket.
The dark-blue ribbed-knit cuffs and hem starkly contrast against the highly visible bright-yellow nylon shell but echoing the dark-blue lining along the inside of the funnel-neck collar. In addition to the black-taped black straight-zip front, a black drawstring adjusts the fit around the waist.
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You may not think much of Brock Lovett’s style in more functional moments, but at least he’s not dressing like Lewis Bodine.
As he won’t be diving any time soon once Rose is aboard, Brock changes out of his dive-suit and into more traditional trousers. These light beige cotton slacks have a full fit characteristic of ’90s fashions, but little other detail can be discerned due to Brock keeping his Aran sweater tied around his waist outside—and then exclusively being photographed from the waist-up in subsequent scenes.
It’s not even clear if his khakis are flat-front or pleated—as so many men’s trousers were through the ’90s—but we can see that they have side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms, which break over the tops of his brown leather derby-laced work boots. The boots almost certainly have lugged rubber soles for better traction on Keldysh‘s potentially wet decks.
Image may be NSFW.
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Brock’s pale-blue chambray work-shirt pays tribute to naval heritage, though he wears it with a half-buttoned insouciance that echoes his bleached quasi-surfer/pirate persona. Likely made from a lightweight chambray cotton, the shirt has dark-blue two-hole buttons up the front placket, matching the single button to close each flap over the two chest pockets. The long sleeves are finished with button cuffs, which Brock naturally also wears undone and rolled up to his elbows.
He wears the top three buttons undone, showing the low-cut round neck of his faded slate-blue cotton tank top that he regularly wears as an undershirt. Two stamped gold circular pendants—likely recovered relics, per Cameron’s screenplay—hang from a black leather cord around his neck.
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Brock, his fellow researchers, and Rose’s granddaughter Lizzy (Suzy Amis) absorb the impact of her survival story 84 years later.
Cameron personally selected Brock’s 18-karat yellow-gold Rolex Submariner Date ref. 1680/8 dive watch as the screen-worn watch belonged to prolific cinematographer Al Giddings, whose underwater camera credits include The Deep (1977), For Your Eyes Only (1981), and his previous collaboration with Cameron on The Abyss (1989). Also serving as co-producer on Titanic, Giddings lent his gold Rolex to the production for Paxton to wear. The classic Submariner dive watch suited Brock Lovett’s functional needs while its flashier 18-karat yellow-gold finish aligned with his elevated status as a successful treasure-seeker who doesn’t shy away from publicity.
“I finished my part of the movie and went back to Montana… 8 or 10 months later, I started scratching my head, ‘Whatever happened to my gold Rolex?’ and got ahold of Jim’s office,” Giddings recalled for the Sotheby’s listing when the screen-worn Submariner was auctioned in December 2024. “And a week or two later, it came in the mail with a thank you note, from Fox.”
Giddings received the gold Rolex as a gift from T. Walker Lloyd in gratitude for his freely sending them his photographs of oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle to use for a Rolex advertising campaign. Powered by Rolex’s cal. 3035 automatic movement, the gold Submariner has the 40mm case that was standard at the time of its 1984 production, mated to a black bezel insert, black “nipple dial” with a 3 o’clock date window, and gold Oyster-style bracelet with a folding clasp.
Brock’s explorers Lewis Bodine (Lewis Abernathy) and Anatoly (Anatoly M. Sagalevitch) also wear Rolex Submariner Date watches, though theirs are stainless while the premium gold model is reserved for Brock.
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There are gold watches and then there are gold dive watches that have traveled 12,500 feet below the surface to witness the remains of arguably the most famous shipwreck in history. This is the latter.
When taking Rose Calvert’s call and greeting her aboard their ship, Brock wears a black twill baseball cap with self-threaded ventilation eyelets in each of the the six panels comprising the crown. The large, black patch across the front is embroidered with a white border, a white-embroidered diving helmet flanked by blue-embroidered waves, and the white-embroidered words “AMERICAN DIVERS INC.” and “MARINE CONTRACTORS” arced across the top and bottom, respectively. According to a November 2016 Bonhams auction listing, the cap was made by Chavin.
Image may be NSFW.
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Brock also wears a plain gold hoop earring in his left ear. While this was a more common male affectation through the ’90s, the earring may also be Brock’s nod to the classic pirate image as he’s something of a modern-day pirate, looting ships for treasure.
How to Get the Look
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Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett in Titanic (1997)
Brock Lovett’s deep-sea drip is built to serve, comprised of pieces he can trust whether navigating Titanic‘s submerged decks several miles below sea-level or panicked calls from investors at the surface. But just because he’s issued a dive-suit and sports a bright-yellow floatation jacket doesn’t mean Brock can’t add a degree of TV-ready panache that blends form and function, from his hefty Irish fisherman’s sweater to that showy but sturdy Rolex Submariner flashing the same shade of gold as the hoop gleaming from his left ear.
- Yellow nylon Mustang MJ6210 Floater Jacket bomber-style blouson “survival jacket” with two velcro-flapped chest pockets, velcro-flapped left-sleeve pocket, slanted set-in hand pockets, black straight-zip front, black drawstring-waist, with dark-navy ribbed-knit cuffs and hem
- Taupe-brown flecked Irish Donegal tweed wool Aran-knit crew-neck fisherman’s sweater with honeycomb and braided cable-knit stitch patterns
- Pale-blue chambray cotton long-sleeved work-shirt with front placket (with dark-blue buttons), two chest pockets (with single-button flaps), and button cuffs
- Slate-blue cotton sleeveless tank top
- Beige cotton slacks with side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Brown leather derby-laced work boots
- Black twill baseball cap with “American Divers Inc.” embroidered patch
- Gold hoop earring
- Black leather-corded necklace with two stamped gold pendants
- Rolex Submariner Date ref. 1680/8 dive watch with 18-karat yellow-gold 40mm case, black bezel, black “nipple dial” with 3:00 date window, and gold Oyster-style three-piece link bracelet
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
Three years, I’ve thought of nothing except Titanic, but I never got it… I never let it in.
The post Bill Paxton’s Sea Exploration Style in Titanic appeared first on BAMF Style.