SCP 7 (1) pp.

153–155 Intellect Limited 2022

1. Studies in Costume & Performance

2. Volume 7 Number 1
3. © 2022 Intellect Ltd Book Review. English language.
4. https://doi.org/10.1386/scp_00067_5
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6.
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8. GAME OF THRONES: THE COSTUMES, MICHELE CLAPTON AND
9. GINA MCINTYRE (2019)
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11. San Rafael, CA and London: Insight Editions, 440pp.,
12. ISBN 978-1-68383-530-1, h/bk, US$75.00
13.
14. Reviewed by Hilary Davidson, The University of Sydney
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17. Game of Thrones (2011–19) is arguably the greatest feat of costuming ever
18. produced. Over eight seasons, hundreds of cast members and thousands of
19. extras, the HBO television series built a complex world of politics, violence

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20. and magic across a wide range of imaginary cultures and real environmental
21. conditions. Although George R. R. Martin’s saga of various houses competing
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for the Iron Throne of Westeros is based loosely on the fifteenth-century Wars
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23. of the Roses, the fictional world is pure fantasy. Therefore, the costume design
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24. team led mostly by Michele Clapton had free rein in the huge task of invent-
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25. ing dress for all the cultures the show encompassed, from myriad desert lands
26. to the ice-bound north; horse nomads to cosmopolitan courts. Every aspect
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27. of the production design was created afresh from cultural markers inferred
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28. and extrapolated from within the Song of Ice and Fire (as the original series of
29. novels is known).
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30. The results were glorious. With a production budget that threw the same
31. amount of money at each episode as most whole feature films, Clapton’s team
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32. responded to the visual demands of high-definition transmission by load-

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33. ing every costume with thought, meaning, consistency, reflections of char-
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34. acter growth, and minute physical details. Seen fleetingly on screen during
35. the show, discussed on endless fan and costuming boards, the costumes were
36. integral to Game of Thrones’ phenomenal worldwide success. The question
37. then becomes: can a book focussing on the costumes do this staggering body
38. of work justice? Happily, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’.
39. Game of Thrones: The Costumes is written by Clapton with support from
40. Gina McIntyre. The text is written as Clapton’s first-person perspective,
41. creating the impression of a curator tour amongst an exhibition unpacking
42. the design decisions. Reading her insights goes a long way to explaining the
43. extraordinary effectiveness of the final results. The sheer amount of considera-
44. tion that went into every piece is eye-opening.
45. Take for example, a discussion of a simple dress worn by Daenerys
46. Targaryen, then a young, powerless women being used as a pawn in a politi-
47. cal marriage game: ‘I imagined that Viserys [her older brother] would have
48. commissioned Daenerys’s gown based on his memory of seeing a simi-
49. lar garment in the capital when he was much younger’ (326). Although the
50. gown is merely ‘a tube of fabric gathered onto a rope’, it connects back to the
51. exiled siblings’ heritage, the brother’s grasping ambition, and their hopes of
52. returning to said capital as rulers. The references and layers of meaning and

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 Hilary Davidson

allusion only grow from there. As Daenerys becomes the Mother of Dragons, 1.
so the dragon motifs in her costumes increase. When travelling through other 2.
nations, the nascent queen’s clothes constantly reflect propitiation of local 3.
styles and customs – but also recognition of which groups the power lies with, 4.
and the paths that have led her there. Clapton and MacIntyre remind the 5.
reader that every single costume has the same kind of minutiae in its detail- 6.
ing and that nothing is accidental. We learn that the same plants that provide 7.
arrows for House Stark provides the blue-grey dye emblematic of their clan. 8.
The water-bound Iron Islanders lubricate their mostly leather clothing with 9.
fish oil, which stinks to outsiders and increases the grim warriors’ effect upon 10.
them. Clapton never forgets that this is a ‘game of thrones’ and all the char- 11.
acters are dressed meaningfully – down to the seams – for their parts in the 12.
ludic slaughters. 13.
The book’s large 25 cm x 33 cm size and fold-out colour pages offer a 14.
generous platform to indulge in close-ups of the costume details. Characters’ 15.
costumes are presented full length, often with the original design sketch, then 16.
images including the accessories such as footwear and jewellery focus on the 17.
details. The illustrations mix stills from the series with mannequin-mounted 18.
displays set up and photographed especially for the book. The book’s structure 19.

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is organized by the Houses of the competing powers and their followers, and 20.
looks at each character’s wardrobe within these divisions. The Game of Thrones 21.
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is played out over two main landmasses. The island continent of Westeros, 22.
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the main stage, was divided originally into seven kingdoms of geographic, 23.
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cultural and political distinctions. After being united by one monarch on the 24.
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Iron Throne – the ultimate prize – the provinces are now divided into nine 25.
dominant Great Houses of Stark, Lannister, Tully, Targaryen, Arryn, Martell, 26.
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Greyjoy, Tyrell and Baratheon, and many lesser Houses allied to them (like the 27.
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historical Yorks and Lancasters in England). Unallied peoples also inhabit the 28.
island. Across the sea, the larger continent of Essos contains more regions and 29.
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geographies, of which four are shown on screen, each containing many differ- 30.
ent peoples. 31.
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The canvas for creativity is therefore enormous. Despite being a fantasy 32.
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production the design is full of references to real cultures, clothing, textiles 33.
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and dress practices such as kimono, Persian riding boots, samurai and medi- 34.
eval armour, American counterculture, Renaissance velvets. These references 35.
are always used purposefully, and transmuted into distinct Westerosi design 36.
aesthetics. For example, Clapton took ‘the long split skirts that I found in 37.
Japanese and Persian armour, which allowed for movement yet would still 38.
have been warm’ (14), plus techniques of leather-wrapped armour to protect 39.
the northern Stark warriors, as she felt metal armour would transmit cold too 40.
much. Tywin Lannister’s embossed silk velvet funeral robes echoes the luscious 41.
textile wealth of Medici Florence, reflecting House Lannister’s position as the 42.
richest and ruling family, and how his children ‘would have spared no expense 43.
in his burial, [designing] the most elegant, lavish robe possible’, to remember 44.
the patriarch as ‘the fiercest lion of all’ (211). His grandson Joffrey’s costumes 45.
used similar fifteenth-century style velvets, but in ostentatious, ‘over the top’ 46.
patterns selected to show how the sadistic child-king has ‘all the trappings of 47.
wealth but without any restraint or refinement’ (213). The book often allows 48.
dress aficionados to simply revel in the beauty of the pieces; the sheer mate- 49.
rial delight of the embroidery, jewellery, armour, textiles and finishes. Spoiler 50.
warning: the book assumes readers’ full knowledge of the series. If you have 51.
seen it, however, the understanding of the costuming may make you want to 52.

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 Book Reviews

1. go back and watch it all again with the knowledge of the allusions and mean-
2. ings sewn into every ensemble.
3. The publishers clearly understand the main market for this book is fans
4. of the series, and the myriad cosplayers and costumers globally who will
5. pore over the photos, often to recreate them. It is lovely to read a publica-
6. tion which so clearly satisfies its audience and treats screen costume with the
7. same seriousness accorded to historical fashion exhibitions. It competes with
8. a Metropolitan Museum of Art blockbuster catalogue for production values
9. and attention to detail. For anyone who loves dress, clothing, and the series,
10. it’s an equal joy. However, the book has a second possibility as an excellent
11. teaching tool, forming an effortless masterclass in the use of costume design
12. to establish and maintain authenticity in a production’s world. Any student
13. reading this book automatically come away with a better understanding of the
14. principles of best practice costume design.
15. In its cohesion, phenomenal sustained large-scale world-building, accu-
16. racy to each culture, and respect for its own rules of cultural distinction and
17. hierarchies amongst its characters, Game of Thrones’ costumes strangely seem
18. to have more authenticity than many period pieces set in the actual past. They
19. are accurate to their own elaborate rules. Game of Thrones: The Costumes is a

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20. beautiful volume that respects, revels in and celebrates the achievements of
21. this costuming, and is an exemplary reflection of its extraordinary scope.
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23. CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
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24.
Hilary Davidson is a dress and textile historian based between Sydney and
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London. She was curator of fashion and decorative arts at the Museum of
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London and has lectured, taught and broadcast extensively in her field
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on many subjects, including Renaissance dress and magical shoes. She is a
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consultant in archaeological textiles and for the Oxford English Dictionary,
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and is on the editorial board of Fashion Studies. Hilary is currently complet-

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ing a Ph.D. by with publication at La Trobe, and is an honorary associate at
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the University of Sydney. She published Dress in the Age of Jane Austen in
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2019 with Yale University Press. Her second book with the press Jane Austen’s
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Wardrobe will be published in early 2023.
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35. Contact: School of Literature, Arts and Media, John Woolley Building,
36. University Road, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
37. E-mail: hilary.davidson@sydney.edu.au
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39. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4595-4719
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