Easily the biggest fashion moment of the final season of Game of Thrones came at the very end, when Sansa Stark donned a gorgeous gown and took her place as Queen in the North. Hell, it might even be the fashion moment of the series. Longtime Thrones costumes designer did tremendous work here — those are her hands lacing up Sansa at the start of the ending montage, by the way:
There’s already been a lot of ink justly spilled analyzing Sansa’s coronation dress, and now there’s a whole book on the subject. Game of Thrones: The Costumes, which is available to preorder now, dives deep into the sartorial aspects of the show, complete with commentary from Clapton herself. Vanity Fair has a few excerpts where we learn even more Sansa’s iconic final look.
Clapton included a lot of influences in Sansa’s dress; you could even say it tells the story of Sansa’s journey on the show. Perhaps the most heartbreaking detail in the crown, which is modeled after a clasp Robb Stark wore to the Red Wedding, where he was famously butchered along with his mother and pregnant wife.
According to Clapton, by wearing the two direwolves on her crown, she is saying, “the North remembers.” Sniff.
Sansa’s dress includes references to other Stark family members. She never got along famously with her wild sister Arya, but the two did grow to respect each other. Per Clapton, Sansa’s coronation gown includes an asymmetrical cape of the kind Arya wore in the final seasons of the show, something Sansa had made “out of respect for her sister.”
The cape is also padded at the neck and shoulders to give Sansa a silhouette that resembles her father’s. And it’s lined with rabbit fur in tribute to the capes her brothers wore early in the series. Theon, another big influence on Sansa, wore one, too.
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
The fish scales are a reference to Catelyn Stark’s Tully past and the red leaves down one panel to weirwood trees, which are important to the religion of the North. The dress itself is made from the same material as the dress Margaery Tyrell wore when she married Joffrey. The bodice is metal, a reminder that “Sansa continues to armor herself,” something Cersei did throughout the series with her own outfits. There are also feathers down one side of the dress meant to call back to the brief period Sansa spent in dark clothes — her “Dark Sansa” period, if you will. Look closely, and you’ll see a beaded direwolf head among the feathers, which is meant to represent Lady, the direwolf Sansa lost way back in the second episode of the series.
See what I mean about this dress telling Sansa’s story? It’s got references to every stretch of her journey, and to everyone who ever influenced her. Naturally, that also includes Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish, the most controversial of Sansa’s many mentors. “She still wears her needle necklace, which I attached to the metal corset the same way that Littlefinger would hook his dagger onto the fine chain belt he wore,” Clapton writes. “Although Sansa despised Littlefinger, she learned a great deal from him.”
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
Clapton really is remarkable. You can read about more of her work — including her choices for Cersei and Brienne — here. Game of Thrones: The Costumes comes out November 12!
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