A TIARA rescued from the ill-fated Lusitania, a suit worn by Marlene Dietrich sailing into New York on board the Queen Elizabeth and a wooden panel fragment from the first-class lounge of the Titanic are among the fascinating objects that will go on display at the newly unveiled V&A Dundee today.

The museum's inaugural exhibition, Ocean Liners: Speed and Style, contains 250 pieces from public and private collections around the world including paintings, sculptures, ship and engine models, furniture, fashion, textiles, photographs, posters and film.

Many of the items are never-before-seen in Europe or will be reunited in the same space for the first time since leaving the magnificent ships which revolutionised travel from the mid-19th to the late 20th-century.

The exhibition has been co-curated by the V&A Museum in London and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts – where it was previously on show – offering visitors the chance to experience the scale and opulence of these great floating palaces that once traversed the globe.

Among the key themes is how Scottish design and engineering innovation was at the heart of the evolution of the ocean liner, while giving a glimpse into the lavish interiors and lifestyle on board as well as the slick marketing techniques used to lure prospective passengers.

Meredith More, a curator at V&A Dundee, was involved in researching Ocean Liners: Speed and Style, drawing from sources that included museums and the archives of shipping companies.

"There are objects from America, France, Italy and all over the UK," she says. "We also borrowed from Scottish collections because many of the ocean liners we feature were built in Scotland."

The more unusual items include a wooden pattern used to cast one of the turbines for the Cunard liner QE2, launched from Clydebank's John Brown & Co in 1967, complete with original markings. The piece is on loan from the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine.

Another interesting object is a model of a quadruple expansion tandem engine made for Dumbarton shipbuilders William Denny Brothers which first went on display at the 1888 International Exhibition in Glasgow.

"We have borrowed that from Glasgow Museums," says More. "It is a very early engine model. The technology went out of date quite quickly, but it was objects like that which led the way for new developments and meant that ships like the Lusitania could be built.

"It is such a stunning object and was made by a model maker in Glasgow specifically for exhibition. It shows what pride shipbuilders took in their work. They were exhibiting their work to a broad international audience and it was revered around the world."

A thrilling clutch of fashion items – from bathing suits to flapper frocks – capture the glamour of life on the ocean wave. There are poignant objects too, their stories tinged with tragedy.

Here are some of the highlights to look out for.

A day suit worn by Marlene Dietrich

The Hollywood star, who garnered international fame in films such as The Blue Angel and Shanghai Express, was the picture of sartorial elegance as she frequently crossed the Atlantic by ocean liner.

German-born Dietrich was seen wearing this "new look" Christian Dior day suit arriving in New York on board the Queen Elizabeth on December 21, 1950.

Luggage belonging to the Duke of Windsor, circa 1940s

After Edward VIII abdicated to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson in 1936, the couple became regular passengers on liners between their adoptive home in France and the US.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor each owned a set of luggage from Parisian trunkmaker Maison Goyard. They didn't travel light and once boarded the SS United States with 100 pieces.

Liner companies were quick to publicise any famous names travelling on their ships. "For the broader public, knowing that these big celebrities were on board made ocean liners even more aspirational," says More.

A Cartier tiara saved from the sinking Lusitania

The final voyage of the Lusitania marked a flashpoint in the First World War, when the Cunard-owned passenger ship – built by John Brown & Co – was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat off the Irish coast on May 7, 1915 with the loss of 1,198 lives.

Lady Marguerite Allan – the wife of shipping magnate Sir Hugh Montagu Allan of the Canadian Allan Line – was among those aboard the stricken liner. In her luggage was a glittering diamond and pearl Cartier tiara made in 1909.

"Lady Allan managed to get off safely along with the two maids who were carrying her luggage which included the tiara," says More. "Tragically, she was travelling with her two daughters who were in another part of the ship and they didn't make it off.

"The fact this tiara survived – and you can picture it being fled off the Lusitania – is quite amazing."

The Steerage by Alfred Stieglitz

An emigration boom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw millions from across Europe head for the Americas – a hugely profitable business for shipping lines. Yet, many poorer immigrants had to endure crude on-board conditions that were in stark contrast to first-class passengers.

A powerful image by American photographer Alfred Stieglitz was taken on the ship Kaiser Wilhelm II as it sailed from New York to the German city of Bremen in 1907. It shows immigrants returning to their homelands, the abject poverty and cramped deck spaces in steerage laid bare.

A two-piece wool bathing suit

By the Roaring Twenties, outdoor pools and umbrella-lined decks were a common sight on many of the biggest ocean liners. Looking stylish on board was de rigueur and that went for swimwear too.

A two-piece bathing suit made of yellow wool jersey, owned and worn by Lady Vera Swettenham in the 1930s, is among the eye-catching items.

"It was important to have the latest fashions," says More. "The show stretches from the 1850s to the 1960s, so you imagine how social and moral codes changed across that time. The selection of swimwear we have goes from early, very modest costumes to much more revealing styles later."

An Empress of Britain colour lithograph poster

The imposing view of the looming hull with smoke trailing behind was used to emphasise size and speed, the Art Deco style of the poster a popular trope of the era.

Launched in 1930 – yet another constructed by John Brown & Co – the Empress of Britain was the fastest and most luxurious liner at that time, operating between the UK and Canada.

The poster advertised a seamless travel experience demonstrating how companies such as Canadian Pacific, which owned the ship, attempted to lure customers.

Stanley Spencer's Riveters

The painting is part of Stanley Spencer's series, Shipbuilding on the Clyde, commissioned to record industries involved in the Second World War.

"It is an amazing work of art which shows a production line within the shipyards where each worker had a really specialist skill that they would do repetitively in order to handcraft these ships – some of the largest objects ever made," says More.

A wooden panel fragment from the Titanic first-class lounge

Found floating in the Atlantic, this ornate wooden panel comes from where the doomed ship split in two after colliding with an iceberg on April 14, 1912. It is the largest remaining fragment from the Titanic and decorated the over-door to the first-class lounge.

Designed in Louis XV style with rococo motifs and forms – an intricate, carving of musical instruments in keeping with the ship's grandeur – it is a piece rarely lent by the Maritime Museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and will be displayed in Scotland for the first time.

"It is one of the only surviving objects from the Titanic and comes from the part of the ship where it broke in half when it struck the iceberg," says More. "It is a really emotive object and has pride of place at the end of the exhibition."

Ocean Liners: Speed and Style is at V&A Dundee until February 24. Visit vam.ac.uk/dundee