Costumes

WORK IN PROGRESS

=Westeros=

The North
The Starks have less available to them and are in different circumstances as they live in cold, damp weather. Available to them is wool, leather, fur and some dyes. They have to think about warmth and wear the high padded embroidered collars as status rather than jewellery. The village people wear a simpler form of this look. They are not ostentatious and are a loving family who are not trying to prove anything. Only Sansa disagrees with this and we see this as she is influenced in her clothing, mainly by Cersei and as the plot develops, she moves away from this. http://onscreenfashion.com/2012/04/27/an-interview-with-game-of-thrones-costume-designer-michele-clapton/

Page 44 – “Costuming Winterfell”: “I used medieval Northern Europe as a starting point, but the skirts in the men’s costumes have a Japanese look to them. We were never bound by the rules of any particular time period. First, you have to think about what they need, the practicality of it, what materials they have readily available. We also decided we’d have no jewelry, so there’s a lot of embroidery and embellishment in the women’s clothing, as well as these lovely padded neck pieces. As for the men, most of the armor is leather with some metal inside, but rarely close to the skin due to the cold. The fur collars were meant to be wolf pelts for the adults, the children have rabbit, and the peasants have collars stuffed with sheep’s wool.

We have a lot of blues and grays, murkier colors that seemed right for the harsh northern climates. The Starks represent a warm family unit, so the blues of their costumes are rather warm. But within the family, the various personalities are reflected in what they wear. For example, Sansa is in a slightly cooler blue. And the design of the nobles’ clothes spirals outward; what they wear inspires the people around them, from the ladies-in-waiting to the household staff, on down to the peasants.

It’s important that the costumes reflect each character’s individual journey. I always like to tell a story through the clothes, and I think it helps the actors, too. Sansa is a perfect example of this. She leaves Winterfell for a life at court early in the first season and begins to take on more and more of Queen Cersei’s traits as season one goes on. By the end of the season, she’s really starting to look like her. But in season two, her dresses are destroyed in the first half of the season, and Sansa starts reverting back to her childhood. The colors start coming down, and she’s trying to alter things back to where she was. So at the end of it, she’s wearing something closer to her mother’s look. She’s come full circle.

By contrast, Ned was never seen adopting any of the clothing styles of King’s Landing. He had four different looks, a couple of which were slightly smarter, but Ned generally chose to keep things functional and practical. To that end, he’d often be seen in the padded linen skirts with the leather doublet, sometimes with a cape. Later in the season, as he began to sense trouble brewing, he started wearing his leather armor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_iFAjvYFo4 Clapton: “Ned Stark has an elegance to him, but he’s incredibly practical, I don’t want him to look like he ever thinks about what he’s wearing.” Sean Bean: “What he wears, you know, says something about who he is. So he’s not prepared to be flouncing about like the others in gowns and silks and stuff like that.

Clapton continues: “Catelyn, again, similar sort of tones, and very underplayed, quite simple clothing. Catelyn doesn’t think particularly about what she wears, she wears what she’s always worn, it’s a traditional way, and that’s her look.”

“It was quite nice putting [Sansa and Arya] initially in very similar costumes. You have these sort of tied, knotted tops, and of course Sansa's are knotted quite nicely with little embroidery bits on the end, and all very nice, and Arya's are just all messy and unknotted and falling apart, and she takes the sleeves off. It's quite nice to have the two of them very similar, then to split apart so far away from each other.”

The Westerlands
“Tywin is a little more opulent–I really like his look this season,” Clapton said. “There are a lot of really tough leather looks which were really detailed–they look rich. Some of the cut leather pieces are my favorite.” http://fashionista.com/2013/03/game-of-thrones-costumer-designer-gives-us-the-dirt-on-season-3/7/

The Lannisters are very wealthy, competitive, they live in the capitol and power is important. It’s warm and on the coast which means there is trade and they don’t have to worry about keeping warm. They have a large staff with silks and jewels readily available to them. As Cersei influences the court and we notice her hatred for her husband, through season two we start to see her style begin to shift as her role changes. http://onscreenfashion.com/2012/04/27/an-interview-with-game-of-thrones-costume-designer-michele-clapton/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_iFAjvYFo4 Cersei is all about fashion and styling. She tends to wear very soft wrapped silks which are embroidered. It's like a kimono style, but with a slightly medieval cut. And she has a lot of metal bits, because I like the idea that she's armored in a sense.

The Reach
Margaery’s funnel-neck dress: “Margaery’s funnel dress was obviously an homage to the wonderful Alexander McQueen’s costume for Bjork. It just felt right that this young ambitious girl would be experimenting with shapes, honing her style skills which we now see her employing to great effect. It was a risk and divided the audience.”

Margaery’s wedding dress: I’m pretty pleased with Margaery's dress...it took weeks...months even, with all the roses and embroidery, and the bias cut was hard to achieve with the cutaway elements that are essential for her style...I wanted it to be pretty, but on closer inspection, strong and to tell the story of her ambition...the crowns particularly tell this.

http://winteriscoming.net/2014/02/game-of-thrones-costume-designer-michele-clapton-talks-westeros-fashion-margaerys-dress-with-vanity-fair/

The general rule with the Tyrells is that they actually don’t wear bold green most of the time, because this looks threatening. They tend more towards softer shades of green such as teal, because they want to exude gentleness instead of overtly threatening. But they do shift to darker green for war, i.e. Loras’s sparing costume.

Page 105 – Margaery Tyrell sweeps into King’s Landing and takes it by storm. As such, her wardrobe is very unique and very much at odds with everything else in King’s Landing. It’s a very structured look – the new style coming in after the war. For the first time in a long time, Cersei won’t be the trendsetter in the capital. It’s a fun way to reflect their future rivalry.”

King's Landing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_iFAjvYFo4 "They're near the sea, they can trade, they have silks, they have colors. We decided really, through the buildings, through the architecture, and through the climate, to make it much more "Persian" I guess in feel. King Robert, although he's living in King's Landing, I wanted to make it that actually at least he and Ned weren't so far apart.  Mark Addy: "He'd rather be in the boiled leather armor, getting his hands dirty with the guys, that's where he's the most comfortable." Clapton: "So though he's slightly grander, and you know, the fabrics are slightly better, it's not going to be lots of pomp and ceremony about him, I don't think that's what he's about. He's a soldier that's become a king."

How do you dress a medieval fantasy prostitute? Same way as you dress everyone else, but with a slight twist. In King’s Landing, for example, they wear similar costumes to the hand maidens–the difference is that they come off much more strategically. “[Just like] you see with contemporary prostitutes,” Clapton said. “They wear something similar to someone going out for the night–it’s just what they do with it and how they wear it.” http://fashionista.com/2012/06/game-of-thrones-hair-and-wardrobe-secrets-revealed/8/

Cersei in Season 3 inexplicably starts wearing plunging funnel neck dresses like Margaery used to wear in Renly’s camp (before she came to King’s Landing). What’s the in-universe explanation? http://fashionista.com/2013/03/game-of-thrones-costumer-designer-gives-us-the-dirt-on-season-3/4/

Even on-screen, they point out that Sansa subtly dresses more like Margaery in Season 3, because she’s still young and impressionable and emulates people she wants to befriend.

Joffrey’s looks just get increasingly more opulent because he’s an arrogant fool http://fashionista.com/2013/03/game-of-thrones-costumer-designer-gives-us-the-dirt-on-season-3/9/ (contrast with that Robert wore expensive and high quality materials, but generally his clothes were mostly functional, as he was at heart a soldier who won his throne on the battlefield). http://fashionista.com/2013/04/game-of-thrones-fashion-recap-who-are-you-calling-a-harlot/3/

The best costumes are complementary, reflecting the personality of the person wearing the garb. There's no better example in Game of Thrones than Margaery Tyrell, a young and beautiful queen-to-be who uses daring fashion to gain more power. "From the very beginning she is brave and experimental in her look, which I wanted. She was a young girl who wanted to be the queen," Clapton explained. Margaery is often spotted in revealing or outré outfits. One episode she wore a funnel dress that Clapton told Vogue was an homage to an Alexander McQueen dress made for Bjork. "It was ridiculous. She's a teenage girl trying things out." But over the seasons she has refined her look as she has learned how to wield her body to her benefit, explains Clapton. "She honed this look that was girlishly sexy because she could see that it was exactly what Cersei couldn't do. The more armor and more regal Cersei got, the more girlish and simple Margaery became--very knowing." http://www.fastcompany.com/3028226/most-creative-people/deciphering-the-hidden-messages-in-game-of-thrones-costumes

Sansa Stark has a strong dragonfly motif; she’s worn dragonfly necklaces even *before* she came to King’s Landing, so it isn’t something from Cersei’s look that she is imitating. It *may* be a subtle reference to Duncan Targaryen, “The Prince of Dragonflies”. Duncan was betrothed in a political marriage, but fell in love with Jenny of Oldstones (apparently a lowborn girl); despite being the oldest son and heir, he abdicated to marry Jenny for love. He later died in the Tragedy of Summerhall, alongside his father Aegon V, so his younger brother succeeded Aegon V afterwards. Why not Jonquil and Florian? Florian was a knight but he wasn’t rich, and if anything Jonquil may have been the fair maiden he won. Moreover they’re a legend, while the Prince of Dragonflies lived only forty years before (i.e. Barristan Selmy and Brynden Tully actually lived through this, fought in the War of the Ninepenny Kings right after Duncan’s younger brother succeeded). So Sansa fantasizes that she will be the next Jenny of Oldstones, whisked off by her handsome prince. When Sansa Stark, an aspiring queen, arrives at King's Landing from her more humble origins, for example, she attempts to dress like Cersei Lannister, the Queen Regent of the entire empire, whom she idolized at the time. Cersei embodied everything Sansa thought she wanted in life, so she attempted to copy her in the way she knew how, through clothing. But she didn't quite get it right, and looks like she's playing a child's game of dress-up, drowning in an ill-fitting gown. "A lot of people said her costume doesn't fit. Well, of course it doesn't! She's a young girl trying to copy someone," explained Clapton. "Not everyone wears things brilliantly or beautifully, or has the access to do that. I think it's really important that some things don't fit. Some things are slightly odd." http://www.fastcompany.com/3028226/most-creative-people/deciphering-the-hidden-messages-in-game-of-thrones-costumes

Where a character comes from is indicated through the color and cut of the costume. When we first see Sansa [Sophie Turner], she wears things in a Stark way — very well, but they are slightly clumsy and the cloth is rather homespun. As she comes to King’s Landing, her progression is influenced by Cersei [Lena Headey] and her costumes shift. After Cersei does the awful thing of sanctioning the death of Ned Stark [Sansa’s father], Sansa is stuck — you can see her frozen in time. She’s looking like someone who has just killed her father. And then we will see her progression as she slowly withdraws from the look. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/03/creative-minds-game-of-thrones-costume-designer-michele-clapton.html

It’s also interesting to look at Littlefinger’s [Aidan Gillen] journey — he started off very much as a courtier, he was always very organized with his little chain and his notebook, and then suddenly he actually stopped wearing the mantle. He had just little glimpses of turquoise beneath his costume and the slit was cut slightly higher. ... Slowly you realize he ran brothels. His costumes, just slowly, became a little richer. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/03/creative-minds-game-of-thrones-costume-designer-michele-clapton.html

The genius of Jamie Lannister's golden hand next season, which we also get a sneak peak of in the video above, snuck up on Clapton, for example. His sister, Cersei, gifts it to him as a replacement for the one that got chopped off last season. In that vein, Clapton designed it as something Cersei would choose to disguise a deformity that she fears. It's beautiful, ornate, and feminine.

But, the prop actually turned out to embody Jamie's personality in a way Clapton didn't expect. "It became the right thing for Jamie. He's not just this sort of a brutal, sarcastic, callous man. He actually has a really sensitive, quite interesting side." In this case, the character became more like the costume Clapton designed for him. "It was really beautiful in a way," she added. http://www.fastcompany.com/3028226/most-creative-people/deciphering-the-hidden-messages-in-game-of-thrones-costumes

On creating the details on Sansa's wedding gown: "Wedding days should be a joyous event for the bride, but, unfortunately, Sansa's being forced into a marriage that she doesn't want, into the Lannister family. For this dress, Michelle wanted it to be a confined, restricted bodice shape with bare, vulnerable arms. She wanted an embroidered band that would wrap around the bodice and tell Sansa's life story. "Obviously we imagined that the wedding dress has been commissioned by Cersei and the Lannisters for Sansa, and so the embroidery would have come from Cersei's mind. We guessed that it wouldn't be romantic or lovely and girly and pretty with dainty flowers, but a real strong message of dominance, saying that we own you now, Sansa. Michele Carragher on embroidery: "For the wedding band, I started at the back of the waist with some Stark direwolves and Tully fish entwined that represent Sansa's parentage. Then, as we move to the side, the Lannister lion is tangling with the direwolf and emerging on top, representing Sansa being seduced and then controlled by members of the house of Lannister. As it moves up the center, there's a central ascending lion that's got a Baratheon-like crown, a nod to Joffrey's parentage. At the back neck, the Lannister lion is stamped onto it, representing how the Lannisters now have total ownership over this girl who was once a Stark." http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2014/04/04/36776/game-of-thrones-the-woman-behind-the-costumes-intr/

Page 70 – “Costuming King’s Landing” – “One of the mandates early on was to make King’s Landing very distinct from the traditional medieval courts and cities one usually finds in these types of stories. It’s warm and sunny; the climate is somewhat Mediterranean. It’s a lot of fun to do because King’s Landing is a port city, so we have access to color, silks, much more variety. And the Lannisters are a huge presence, so there’s a lot of red, but also pale greens and saffron yellows, and you can use jewelry. There are a lot of choices. As with Winterfell and other regions, I started with the most prominent characters because, in theory, the people are influenced by the head of the society. So Cersei has these kimono-style, wrap-around dresses that influence the other ladies at court and in the city. Even the prostitutes in Littlefinger’s brothel wear a similar-style dress, albeit in a different way. Then there’s Jaime, with his asymmetrical coat, whose influence trickles down to the male characters.” Page 70 “This was a challenge, as I’ve never designed armor before. We started with the Kingsguard, which are totally white in the books. But we felt that wouldn’t translate well on-screen, so we worked gold into the design, while still keeping the signature white cloak. Page 70 Simon Brindle, costume armor supervisor: “The Lannister armor is more militaristic, intimidating, sinister – with a Japanese influence that’s quite disarming. With the Gold Cloaks, there’s a Persian influence in keeping with the Medeterranean look of the city.” Brindle: “I loved the opportunity to work on this series, as you’re not tied down to any one period. This was so freeing. I was intrigued by Michele’s initial designs for the Kingsguard and the Lannister guard. She was looking at eastern influences, Asian, Indian – unusual references for this sort of thing –w hich she mixed with recognizable touchstones from western medieval European armor.”

Page 81 – “Costuming Cersei” – “When we first meet Cersei, she’s in a deeply unhappy marriage but is set in her ways and her style. Then Robert dies and Joffrey takes power, and slowly she gets harder. The bird embroidered on her clothes gives way to more and more lions. I wanted to increase her shell, I guess. Everything’s more ornate, grander, until we finally see her in Episode 209 in a sort of armored corset. I don’t know how strong she really is, but she wants to project that image. I’ve always wanted to do this with her costume, from the start, back when we were doing the pilot.”

Page 161 – “Regarding the family sigils, we generally wanted to avoid having characters wearing them on their chests, like Superman or something, but Viserys is the one character who sports this huge [dragon] sigil doublet. He wears it the whole time, as if to scream, “I’m a Targaryen!” And it gets more battered and dirties as the season goes on and he gets further and further waway from what he wants. It’s a lovely way to reflect this blind hope; the costume fades with him.”

Beyond the Wall
=Essos=

Daenerys Targaryen
=Hair=