How Game of Thrones is influencing the way we dress

Sansa Stark

"Fallen kings, defeated by a fearless and heroic sisterhood. Bright and brave warrior queens they were, are, and forever will be.” You’d be forgiven for thinking you’d tuned in to a medieval fantasy, but not so — these were the notes handed out to journalists at designer Elie Saab’s haute couture show in Paris earlier this month. He couldn’t have made the plotline any clearer: Game of Thrones, the television epic that returns to the box this week (Sky Soho and Neon from Monday July 17) has found a place on his mood board.

Since the show first aired in 2011, parallels have been drawn between Game of Thrones and, say, the revival of folksy appliques at Dolce and Gabbana, or the wave of Roman gowns at Valentino and Alberta Ferretti. Most would say that the influence was subconscious, but a few brands, like Helmut Lang, have declared more literal interpretations, with Manish Arora even playing the theme song as his catwalk backing music in 2015.

Fans obsess over the visually rich, fictional world rendered by British costume designer Michele Clapton and the army of embroiderers, jewellers, seamstresses and armourers that she employs to clothe the Seven Kingdoms. Their costumes provide a subplot, highlighting a character’s power or weakness, as well as distinguishing tribes, status and climate.

Perhaps most importantly, they define characters that are worthy of being placed on pedestals as fashion plate, both by viewers in search of escapism and by designers. “Costume is always a fundamental device to present a character’s personality,” says Michele Carragher, the principal costume embroiderer, responsible for crafting the micro-details that we salivate over in HD. Working with Clapton, she “will discuss a character’s backstory, traits, and personal journey within the script and this will all go towards influencing my design”.

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