A (former) Costume Design Graduate reviews House of the Dragon’s Costumes

[@talkson2824]

Nooo, you missed Sir Simon Strong, he has the most amazing drip of the entire season! His clothings are so hilariously extravagant:)

[@samf.s.7731]

I know, the memes about the budget that should have went to fixing Harrenhal going to his drip are super cute 😊

[@Δ-Δ-Δ-Δ]

Grandpappy living his best life and I'm here for it.

[@mele9952]

I love his purple robes sooo much!!

[@shironerisilk]

Something I found very interesting is when Alicent is having her affair, her hair and costumes become a lot more youthful and pretty, like she's feeling young again. I think her costumes are the most expressive about her journey out of all the cast.

[@maybebre]

That is SUCH a good point! & totally agree about the expressiveness of her costumes!

[@stayjers8312]

When Alicent lit a candle for her mother this season, it revealed her name, which was never in the book - Alyrie Florent. This gave me a whole new insight into her wearing of the color blue when she was younger. It wasn't just a youthful, serene color that she felt comfortable in - it was the color of her mother's house! The sigil of House Florent in the books is a fox in a circle of blue flowers. It makes sense that she would wear this color to feel close to her recently-deceased mother (in a less creepy way than when Otto has her wear her mother's dresses to seduce Viserys). Then she wears the Targaryen red and black when she's the dutiful young queen, switches briefly back to a blue dress when she's investigating what happened with Rhaenyra's virtue, and then she's been all green all the time since then. Until she goes on her camping trip this season wearing a teal that might look green at court but looks blue once she's out amongst all the green plants, and then the light blue dress and cloak (with Florent-y flowers on it!) when she makes her appeal to Rhaenyra at Dragonstone. It's like when Helaena said, "I was happier before I was queen," Alicent tried to think back to when she was last happy and remembered her youth, her mother, and studying or praying with Rhaenyra in the sept, and dressed accordingly.

[@maggierappa417]

Omg I did not know this. I think that is so interesting considering Rhaenyras mother was an Arryn if I’m not mistaken, and the color of Arryn is also blue. So Rhaenyra also wears blue to pay homage to her mother, which to me is so interesting. I know people have not liked the show aging Alicent down to have the friendship with Rhaenyra, but I think the show does a fantastic job paralleling to 2 ladies in their different situations

[@stayjers8312]

@@maggierappa417 Totally! It seems like the few times Rhaenyra wears blue it's for private, comfortable moments, so totally makes sense that it would be blue for her Arryn mother. In the books she quarters her banners with Velaryon for Laenor and Arryn for her mother, and while it makes sense visually that the show's not doing that, it's nice that it can come through the clothes. I like that Rhaenyra and Alicent are both out of the usual uniforms of their house colors for their final S2 conversation. It's not always carried off perfectly, but I think the choice to make Alicent & Rhaenyra childhood friends is the best adaptational change they've made!

[@Δ-Δ-Δ-Δ]

It's Alerie, like Loras' and Margaery's Hightower mother. Apart from that, you are a genius. If I were the writer George or the showrunners, I would live for these types of comments.

[@stayjers8312]

@@Δ-Δ-Δ-Δ Huh, my subtitles spell it Alyrie! I like the connection to Margaery’s mother, though - I kind of think of Alicent on the show as another version what could be going on behind Book Margaery’s perfect maiden facade.

[@shironerisilk]

Alys' apron leaves are actually weirwood leaves (the red and white creepy magical trees), so it's almost a spoiler-reference that she's guilty of the magical stuff happening to Daemon.

[@maybebre]

oooooo thanks for telling me, that is SUCH a good piece of info!!!

[@NyikoDoris]

Jace starts the season in his 1x10 outfit (after the wall) because he's still living in a world where Luke is alive and they are a matching set, Rhaena in her traditional red and black dress while Baela is wearing Velaryon blue in 1x8 as she had lived with Rhaenys while she ruled over Driftmark for 6 years so she matches with her grandmother pre-betrothal, only for Baela's 1x10 outfit to now sync to the general vibe of being Jacaerys' betrothed and Rhaenyra's supporter. Then we pick up in season 2 with Baela matching with Rhaena, who has lived on Dragonstone for 6 years and has been wearing the traditional Targaryen colours this whole time, as she (and everyone on Team Black) wait in limbo for the Queen and Crown Prince to come back. After Jace changes into his war outfit, we see the girls match one last time at Luke's funeral because while Rhaena's path is still essentially Team Rhaenyra, she's lost her betrothed, the future she could've had and has no dragon while Baela switches from being primarily Rhaena's sister to now being Jace's future wife and queen. Hence, THEY start to compliment one another as the sisters stop. They each had their pair (Rhaena and Baela, Jace and Luke) but now that Luke's gone, Baela and Jace become a pair, more vibrant as their connection to each other and the war grows, while Rhaena is darker and sad as she's mourning the dragon she never claimed, the egg that never hatched and the life that she could've had all alone because the one she was to evolve with, after breaking from her sister, is dead. I love good costuming because wdym EYE just wrote a KZbin comment about HOTD costumes and what they're telling us about the kids' dynamics??

[@TheEmeraldElf]

Just a note: the green dress young Alicent wears to talk to the grieving King. Is her deceased mother’s dress and her father picked it. The stress of her father’s manipulation of her is shown in her finger nails. Gorgeous dress but not of her choosing.

[@maybebre]

omg I knew there was a dress that was her mother's but for some reason I thought it was later in the season. Thanks for the reminder!

[@ppinkppanther6139]

An interesting detail I noticed with the jewelry is that alicents religious symbol necklace gets smaller and smaller across the seasons as she’s committing more “sins” and aegons mantle piece starts out as small chains and gets bigger and bigger as if to say his chains are larger now that he’s king.

[@dumbledoresgotstyle]

They kept filming during the writers strike for a few reasons. #1 most of the cast are not members of SAG-AFTRA as that is an American union and they are mostly a part of a British union. #2 yes the scripts were written before the strike took place but this also meant no changes could take place during filming as no additional writing could be done during the strike.

[@rexibhazoboa7097]

so the writers are american?

[@dumbledoresgotstyle]

@@rexibhazoboa7097 yes the showrunner/writer Ryan Condal is American and a member of the WGA but he stayed on set in the UK in a non writing capacity. (Per a Vanity Fair article) There are a few other writer credits for the show on IMDB and they’re American as well. *edited for typo

[@Sarcasmhime]

I love that Alicent dress too, but it would be impossible to wear a proper shift under it so it would require laundering and you don't really want to be washing your expensive outer garments if you can avoid it. That's a thing that most modern people don't think about as we tend to throw everything in the machine.

[@MarinaSertaMiranda]

Loved the video!!! Would also love a version with a HOTD/ASOIAF expert -- maybe David Lightbringer, Girl Nettles, Gray Waste Tim, Gray Area... -- merging your knowledge of costumes with a deep knowledge of the story and symbolism in it.

[@KyliaSkydancer]

I do think you sold Mysaria short a little bit. Mysaria has had some very different vibes over the two seasons as she played different roles; prostitute, Daemon's fake wife, White Worm, and now Rhaeneyra's ally, and she has worn different styles of clothing for each.

[@beccac7777]

From what I read, they continued filming not because the writing was done, but because they belonged to a different union… but they couldn’t change the writing. Maybe I’m wrong but that’s what I saw lol. Thank you for this video, the costumes were my favorite for this show the embroidery blows my mind they’ve done so good.

[@PistachioDean]

I much preferred this season to last. I felt like S01 was missing a lot of structure, and also world-building. It sort of just felt like a miss-mash of medieval styles and not like the world established by Michelle Clapton in Game of Thrones. Where this season felt more like high fantasy in the fabrics and silhouettes they offered, as well as bringing in styles established in Game of Thrones by Clapton. I did see a lot of people not liking that though, because it was too on the nose, but I think it was a good way to remind us of the world we're in. Can't recall if you talked about Lady Jeyne Arryn, but I loved her costumes this season - they really felt, to me, more like book outfits, were very regal and carried over those elements from Game of Thrones.

[@maggierappa417]

This is just a little rant, as someone who is not knowledgeable about the world of making costumes: I find it frustrating that during season 1 people were really upset at how cheap they thought the costumes looked. And people really were jumping down people’s throats to make the costumes better. But come season 2, the quality of costumes definitely went up, but at the cost that they probably did not have as much budget for loads of costumes. And then the complaint was that there were not enough costumes and they needed to make more. And not that people can’t think season 1 was a little cheap looking, but people just need to understand that if they’re upping the quality a lot they are probably not gonna have the budget to make as many different costumes. And I don’t know if that’s how it exactly works, but in my head to up the quality your sacrificing the amount of pieces you can make, especially with a cast this large

[@rexibhazoboa7097]

Then the mightly HBO shouldve upped the budget for their most beloved franchise show? It is HBO themselves that set a standard that it seems they cant keep up so this is their fault. Its like complaining that people are not grateful for the one dragon fight we got when HBO themselves hyped up a season full of dragon fights then are shocked that people were pissed that they only got one sequence of it.

[@kyndramb7050]

9:12 looks like a Star Trek costume. Like she's a sexy alien. 😂

[@MaleneMaare]

I'm totally on your team with Game of Thrones. I managed to watch two episodes and I just don't understand the craze. :)

[@zimtschatten1997]

Amaaaazing video🎉❤

[@vrijrein]

Girl, you should watch Game of Thrones for the costumes alone! You'll love the costumes. IMO levels up from HotD, even though, I love those too.

[@mouminnie_mouse23]

i loved hearing about all your insight into the costumes! Generally though while the costumes are obviously pretty intricate I still feel like they're pretty underwhelming--especially considering these are the richest families in Westeros during the most prosperous time of the Targaeryen dynasty. I think they really had the opportunity to showcase that during the pre-timeskip episodes and have Rhaenyra and Alicent in really expensive, regal, bejweled clothing. Given that context regarding wealth, establishment, and prosperity regarding these families, I feel like their clothes are pretty plain (like Young Rhaenyra's yellow day dress, for example). I also feel like there's a conscious lack of jewelry in this show, which again, feels like a missed opportunity.

[@jo_jo_jo]

As a fashion enthusiast who has watched both shows, the last season of HOTD was quite disappointing regarding costumes. One thing I noticed is the use of family emblems in shirtfronts, like Jacaerys, Alyn of Hull and Corlys Velaryon wear. I'm sorry, but it's a rather cheap and ugly way of conveying who belongs to each house. Imagine being a member of one of the richest families of the world and, instead of buying tailored clothes, wearing your surname printed on a shirt. LMAO. That one, as long as some other things I've noticed have made me distance a bit from the show regarding its costume value. I have no idea why Jany Temine left after the first season, but I know one of the original showrunner, Miguel Sapochnick, left after the first season, so I guess there was something brewing there. And the costume direction in the second season has felt a bit directionless. In any case, I liked way more Michele Clapton's work in GoT. Clapton wrote a whole book regarding her experience designing Game of Thrones' wardrobe, which I read a couple of years ago. So let me tell you that I was greatly surprised by the amount of references, influences, techniques and so on that she used. Many of them did not even could be appreciated in the original show, because of lightning, pacing or whatever. Anyhow, let me tell you something: Michele Clapton would have NEVER put the sygil of any character on its shirtfront.

[@PistachioDean]

I think she was more subtle about it, but also not at the same time lol. Like Cersei wouldn't have just the Lannister lions, but she'd have heavily embroidered lion "pauldrons" or a lion necklace, and Dany would have a dragon clasp, or Margaery's rose belt. S01 Cersei did also had huge lion embroidered sleeves, and S07 Sansa had a direworld embroidered on her chest, so at times it's fairly on the nose, but it was always like embroidery or metalwork, rather than slapping a sticker on their chest and calling it a day lol.

[@jo_jo_jo]

@PistachioDean Exactly. One thing is using the family crest for inspiration: using its colours, symbols, textures and applying them thru different methods to convey belonging to that family. But, siriusly, just stamping someone's family crest in the shitfront is lazy. They made me miss the old days when Brynden Tully wore an armour made of fish scales. Now that's an interesting way of portraying his position as Tully's family head.

[@aishan8879]

While I enjoyed this video, and am now subbed (and will watch more of your videos) I wish you hadn't skipped over the detailing. That's what I watch these kinds of videos for (especially as you have a Costume Design background).

[@emmasol3058]

Seriously though! There’s so much AI scattered throughout Pinterest now! It’s scary. Usually I’m pretty good at spotting it. But it’s gotten to a point now where I’m questioning what’s real and what’s fake. There’s these pictures of shirts that look like someone has embroidered a realistic looking heart and lungs on them. And they keep trickling me. I go to see if there’s an Etsy link on them or something, but nope not a real shirt, doesn’t exist. Ugh

[@furtherfrog]

yassified rhaenyra will give me nightmares 😭

[@LorraineVirginie]

Mispronouncing ‘mispronouncing’ is the funniest thing I’ve seen all day 😂

[@paloma_hill]

game of thrones was excruciating, and it got worse and worse and is the reason I'm absolutely not giving house of the dragon a chance. however, am here for the costumes!

[@shironerisilk]

As a bordeline obsessive fan of this universe who stopped watching GOT in season 5 and only hate-watched the finale, I'd recommend you to at least try HOTD S1! It was so good to be excited about that world after such a disappointment haha

[@maybebre]

Even tho I am a GOT hater, I really do love HOTD. But if I had watched game of thrones first I would be much more reluctant about trying out HOTD. So TOTALLY get it, & thanks for sticking around for the video!

[@UltraViolet666]

As someone who recently rematches GOT, HOTD is different. They've made some small mistakes but will never level the stupidity of D&D

[@Rosiebud82]

I kinda agree with about game of thrones. It got worse with each season

[@maybebre]

It definitely doesn't help that for YEARS everybody talked about this show like it was the GOD of tv (pun unintended lol)

[@Rosiebud82]

@@maybebre so true. I stopped watching it around season 4 and didn't finish it

[@HugoGojibiter]

@@maybebreWell for years… it was. Those first four seasons are some of the strongest written seasons of television you’ll find.

[@samf.s.7731]

There's a similar pattern of self sabotage happening with dragon right now. But this is why it hurts right? We know the source material is fantastic, and look at all this amazing work everyone else did on the show. The costumes are definitely a highlight. The SAG-AFTRA strike, the shaving down of the number of episodes without giving the writers the chance to do their work, and fighting with Miguel Sapochnik and having him leave... Those turned out to be more detrimental to the project than a freaking pandemic. 😔 And I doubt it that David Zaslaf would try to rectify any of this, in fact, he will probably give them less to work with. And yes, I definitely disagree with some writing decisions, but their effect is clearly not as detrimental to the show as, I dunno, not actually being able to make it?

[@Rosiebud82]

@@samf.s.7731 I got halfway way through HOtD and honestly didn't want to watch the adult version of the characters yet... So I stopped. I wanted more of the younger ones for maybe another episode or 2? House of the Dragons and Game of thrones aren't the only ones that suffer from this: Stranger things, Umbrella, and Lucifer to name a few