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Costumes


storm.131

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Hi everyone,



I always appreciate the costume design in these types of shows.



The work of the designers and people who actually turn the designs into reality, is superb. I especially love the designs for the northern/colder settings.



What are your thoughts on the costumes in Game of Thrones?


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  • 5 weeks later...

I love the costumes and I really wish they'd include an in-depth extra on the DVDs/Blu Rays showing the production process. If you can ever get along to one of the exhibitions you should definitely go because you can get close enough to them to see the amazing level of detail.



But actually one of my favourite things is that there is an entire section of the costume department that are devoted to "breaking down" the costumes after they're made so they don't look as "new" on camera.

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I would love to see a special feature about the costumes too. Hopefully they'll include it on the season 4 dvd release.



It's interesting you mention the "breaking down" process because the worn out costumes, to me, are the most brilliant costumes in the series. The Hound's battered armour and chain mail, that frayed tunic Arya wears made of laced up fabric strips, the way the cloaks are dirty at the hems, the salt stains on the costumes of the Greyjoys, etc. It's all so real.



However I am a bit disappointed with the costumes for the royal court in King's Landing and the wealthy folk of Essos. I think they should be more obviously lavish to reflect the characters' station in life. Probably not as colourful and cartoonish as the descriptions of costumes in the books but still more luxurious than they are in the show.


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I do think the costumes are a bit drab. I think this is because they are a bit old fashioned, nineties neutrals and cultural fusion styles.



Most modern films highlight contrasting colours for thematic reasons or to emphasise certain things, orange and teal, used to some extent with show Dany, to emphasis skin tones, explosions, night-time light and blue sky (which I hate when done with obvious colour correction but works really well when done with on-set lighting, costume and set dressing), red and green to emphasise blood, red make up, fluorescent lighting and green landscapes or just plain blue to make everything seem dreary which is used on most British films which want to appear "serious".



Then you have people who use different colours every scene to create a mood. Wes Anderson always uses a range of colour and they really create a sense of place. They may seem over the top in stills but once you get actors moving around in them they only add to the characters and setting. When Oberyn spent the whole time in bright yellow it didn't look cartoonish because after you have seen it for a second it just becomes part of his character and there is another aspect of this in that muted, pastels only suit certain people and people with a bit of melanin actually need brighter or deeper colours or they look either washed out or tired (which I do think applies to Natalie Dormer). Would a deep green dress really look strange on a noble woman in a medieval setting?



I don't understand why people think it would be cartoonish to have bright colours. Plenty of film directors use a vibrant colour palette and make it work and as there is so much bleakness against the colours it would never turn into "Attack the Block". They would also be limited to using colours with looked like they came from natural dyes so things like vivid green, purple or even true blacks for anyone but the very rich and the NW would be out anyway. One of the reasons the Lannisters and KL are so watchable is that there is sure to be plenty of interest on screen rather than just miserable grey and brown. Bright colour also works as a great contrast to emphasise the grit. Think of something like the movie Fargo. It is basically colourful all the time until something nasty happens then it switches to white/black/brown without you really noticing.



I do think that for show only, watchers when the camera goes back to the Starks or the watch, they think "Oh we are back to the boring, worthy storyline. We just have to sit through this until the fun part comes back on." There are also plenty of people who didn't know that the Freys and Greyjoys were separate families because the production team decided to go with the same colour palette for both. They wanted to do a bit of teal colour correction on the Greyjoy scenes to emphasise the sea and bleakness but at the same time cut out the gold to also add to the desolateness when that could have been used as both a contrast to add interest to the scenes and as a marker to separate them out from all the other bleakness in the show.


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I do think the costumes are a bit drab. I think this is because they are a bit old fashioned, nineties neutrals and cultural fusion styles.

I think they are going for George's parallel universe medieval setting. The dyes and such colorings as brights were not known in Europe

until late in history.

I remember Richard Lester when he was researching for his Four Musketeers film (1974) he found that even in the 17th century they did not

have bright colors in Europe. This film is my favorite version of the Three Musketeers.

I am amazed by the leather work, if that's real leather, I don't think anyone wears bright leathers either.

I like the sort of 'tunic' people wear , some people, with the kind of 'rolled' high collar , something intriguing about Arya's costume.

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The costumes to me are also kinda boring. It seems that after Nolan's batman everyone tries to go for the ''gritty and mature'' looks. When I was reading the books I was imagining the armors completely differently. Where was Renly's emerald armor and his golden antlers? Where was Loras's cloak of flowers? Or the snow white armors of the kingsguard?



I mean, obviously the costumes are still good whithin the style they were going for, but I really think they should have been a little more brave with them.



The only exception is Oberyn though, with his bright yellow tunic. It's like you have to be an exotic character to wear bright colours.

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I would love to see a special feature about the costumes too. Hopefully they'll include it on the season 4 dvd release.

It's interesting you mention the "breaking down" process because the worn out costumes, to me, are the most brilliant costumes in the series. The Hound's battered armour and chain mail, that frayed tunic Arya wears made of laced up fabric strips, the way the cloaks are dirty at the hems, etc. It's all so real.

However I am a bit disappointed with the costumes for the royal court in King's Landing and the wealthy folk of Essos. I think they should be more obviously lavish to reflect the characters' station in life. Probably not as colourful and cartoonish as the descriptions of costumes in the books but still more luxurious than they are in the show.

It's not the colours that bother me about the Essos (well, Dany) and KL people - it's the lack of variety. Everything has been toned down from the books it's true, but even if wealthy people wouldn't have dozens and dozens of dresses, I'm kind of surprised by Margaery's lack of dresses. She seems to be wearing that blue dress from S3 all the way to the wedding. Then she changed into a black version for mourning.

I like Cersei's dresses and the way she moves from wearing pastel colours in S1 to "reclaiming" her house colours in S2.

I'm generally not bothered by lack of house colours though.

Gimme all the scuffed and frayed edges...Stannis' armour (surprise surprise!) is my favourite - I can imagine he wore them when he was smashing Victarion Greyjoy's fleet :p And we know we put it to good use at Blackwater.

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YeT




I like when the ladies take their costumes off.





Yep, the nudity adds to the appeal of the show LOL



Stannisismyking, I agree with most of what you've said. Regarding house colours, I too don't think we need the house colours to be used as much as they are in the books, however green and gold being the colours of the Tyrells, it's odd that Margaery seems to wear almost exclusively blue and gold (and like you said, all her dresses look similar).



One design I forgot to mention which I think is brilliant, is the leather fish scale tunics of the Tullys.

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The costumes are absolutely amazing. Looking at them, I am absolutely blown away by the intricate details hand embroidered on each one. Margaery's dress was one of the most amazing dresses I've ever seen. The costumes tell a story just as much as the dialogue does.


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