In eight seasons of Game of Thrones we watched both heroes and villains gradually grow to become infinitely braver warriors, for better or worse, from the day we first met them to the day they either perished or survived the bloodbath that was the race to the Iron Throne.
Naturally, then, for many there was a drastic evolution in style. If you took the words right out of the key players’ mouths, their costumes would still tell the same story – and more.
Michele Clapton is responsible for almost all of the major looks from Game of Thrones and spoke to Metro.co.uk about the style evolution of Cersei Lannister (played by Lena Headey).
‘When we first meet Cersei she’s a women who thinks she could be really strong but she’s held down by men – her father and her husband always treat her badly,’ Michele began.
‘So she was supposed to look easily available, her clothes could fall off very easily and was very prim until we see her at the end with the red and the black; I guess it is this journey where she found strength but in the wrong way. She got strength but she was awful with it.’
But there were subtle details in Cersei’s outfits which really allowed us into The Protector of The Seven Kingdoms when she was otherwise fraught with emotional barriers. While Cersei was central to Game of Thrones, her wall was constantly up; her heart closely guarded.
‘There was the idea that the studding was covering her belly and the only softness she had was for her children so even then she was protecting them,’ explained Michele.
‘Her outfits went from black to red and the story was to show how dark she was – there were glimmers of red and blood and a lot of block colour. A lot of story-telling is though colour. When she needed to show power she armoured up and sometimes wrong.’
Perhaps the only adversary to really cause Cersei to tremble was Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer), who wed King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) and later his younger brother Tommen (Dean-Chalres Chapman), subsequently becoming Queen Consort.
Though, Cersei soon put an end to that when she blew her up in a blazing wildfire.
Cersei’s outfits were another window to the rivalry with her daughter-in-law.
‘When she was with Margaery, Margaery wore less and less and Cersei wore more and more,’ Michele continued. ‘That was intentional, the more clothes Margaery lost the more she left on. So ultimately she lost that battle.’
Michele spoke to Metro.co.uk at a special Game of Thrones Celebration at London’s BFI Southbank this week.
The final season of Game of Thrones and the full series boxset is available on DVD and Blu-ray from 2nd December.
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