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A Game of Clothes
When I try to explain to my fantasy-loathing friends that Game of Thrones is more than fire-breathing dragons and frozen, undead soldiers, I chose a more perceptive explanation. “It’s about politics, war and family drama,” I tell them, but they can’t seem to shake the fact that giants and warlocks don’t exist in real life.
The truth about Game of Thrones is that it’s not just a fantastical survival of the fittest, it’s a game of vitality, friendship, enemies, trust, deception, combat and… fashion! The stitching and smithing that goes into the elaborate costumes tells just as much of a story as the secret conversations behind closed doors. Head costume designer of Game of Thrones, Michele Clapton, works closely with the gifted embroiderer Michele Carragher to create the fantasy drama we all love.
Each house’s clothing represents something unique about the people born into them. From the ornamented lions with ruby eyes sewn onto the dresses of Lady Lanister, to the intricate dragonscales on Daenerys Targaryen’s gowns, the costume designers spend countless hours (sometimes even months) assigning essential elements of each house to the costumes. Clapton explains, “If they live on a windy, rocky island, like the Greyjoys do, then they dress accordingly. They have costumes made of heavy, densely woven cloth that are waxed and painted with fish oil to help keep out the wind. Everything has a reason for being there” (LA Times). Each house requires its own noteworthy and imaginative style that translates to who it represents as a family and the territory they come from.
Not only do the costumes tell the origin of the characters, but they also echo character development. The designer uses the costumes to explain the personalities and idiosyncrasies of each character. Clapton’s costumes “indicate the emotional state of characters through their costumes, and also to indicate their influence over other characters and courts. Sometimes this says so much more than words” (Spin). For example, at the end of Season 4 Episode 8, The Mountain and the Viper we see Sansa, a once powerless hostage and tortured soul, descend the stairs of The Eyrie draped fashionably in all black. This new and elegant dress shows Sansa’s growth from a scared girl to a master of self-preservation and manipulation.
To make the costumes with precision, Clapton starts with heavy research. She looks into how people lived throughout different ages in a variety of climates and environments. She also examines the availability of colors, fabrics and sewing techniques that would exist during each time. Finally, Clapton makes a series of moodboards that epitomize the different cities and regions of Westeros. All of the work that goes in to the costume design could be a TV show in itself - A Game of Clothes.
Written by Taylor Aube. A special thank you to the blog A Game of Clothes for the title inspiration.
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