The Best in Westerosi Couture, As Seen on Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei Lannister, and More
Winter has been coming to Westeros for six seasons, and with the seventh, it’s finally here. In addition to bringing the looming threat of zombie overlords, winter has apparently also inspired the lords and ladies of Westeros to more statement outerwear, bigger brooches, and more inventive ways to wear fur. (Even if it’s Ikea couture. Lookin’ at you, Jon Snow.) Costume designer Michele Clapton has been the visionary behind Game of Thrones’s elaborate looks for the past seven seasons, but it’s clear she has taken cues from the runway, whether for Cersei Lannister’s Balmain-inspired gowns, Euron Greyjoy’s Rick Owens-meets-Yeezy-meets-Pirates of the Caribbean aesthetic, or Daenerys Targeryen’s Fendi furs. It’s no wonder Dolce & Gabbana tapped Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington as two of its new faces earlier this year. See all the best looks in the Seven Kingdoms from Game of Thrones Season 7, here.
1Cersei Lannister, Episode 1
Though Game of Thrones’s fictional fantasy world presumably takes place centuries before our contemporary—how else do you explain the lack of wifi?—Cersei Lannister’s Balmain-inspired looks are light years ahead of Olivier Rousteing’s own imaginings.
2Euron Greyjoy, Episode 2
When Euron Greyjoy, the usurper uncle of the Ironborn siblings Yara and Theon, washed ashore at King’s Landing earlier this season, he did it with a whole new look: close-cropped hair, a strategically scruffy beard, and a draped leather look that some viewers likened to Rick Owens or early Yeezy. (By way of Pirates of the Caribbean, naturally.)
3Jon Snow, Episode 5
Jon Snow might not show off the greatest variety in his wardrobe choices—his staples of black cloaks and black furs don’t leave much room for experimentation, it seems—but what he lacks in originality he makes up in resourcefulness. Take, for example, his aforementioned furs: Clapton revealed in an interview last year that Jon Snow’s plush capes are made of Ikea rugs, shaved down, cut to size, and fastened in place with leather straps. What, you’ve never curled up in your $30 Rens?
4Sansa Stark, Episode 5
Westeros’s foremost mall goth wears body chains, harnesses, and, like her stepbrother, plenty of fur. Also like Jon, her look doesn’t change much from week to week; that doesn’t make it any less fabulous. It’s like Hot Topic, but make it diva and top it off with a wolf brooch.
5Daenerys Targaryen, Episode 6
When Daenerys—don’t call her Dany—swoops in on dragonback to save Jon Snow et al. from the White Walkers and their Army of the Dead who are steadily closing in, it wasn’t yet another dragons-vs.-humans battle sequence that inspired awe in viewers. No, it was Daenerys’s black-and-white fur coat, which radiated power with its structured silhouette and strong shoulders. Some proposed it looked something like Fendi couture; others, the pelt of Jon Snow’s missing direwolf Ghost. Plus, her collection of dragon brooches rivals only Sansa’s collection of wolf brooches.
6Arya Stark, Episode 6
When Arya Stark first arrived at the House of Black and White to train to become a Faceless Man, she dumped her old clothes and her silver into the harbor, hiding only her beloved sword Needle as a reminder of the murder list she still had to check off. With her old digs rotting at the bottom of a canal somewhere in Braavos, Arya has reinvented herself as an almost-Faceless woman with a whole new wardrobe. She’s apparently fond of quilting in all its shapes: In the first episode, she wears a quilted vest with an embroidered jacket over the top; in the most recent, episode 6, it’s an asymmetrical quilted capelet.
