In an era where the Internet has turned mass culture into micro-cultures, Game Of Thrones is one of the few water cooler shows we have left. Everyone from hardcore fantasy nerds to Mr. Skin subscribers (not a mutually exclusive group, granted) can find something to love in HBO’s hit series. Even the fashion crowd is into it: Game Of Thrones-inspired looks have been popping up on runways since the show began, and the fashion news site Fashionista even offers a weekly recap of the show.
Game Of Thrones’ high-fashion reputation is all due to the efforts of costume designer Michele Clapton and her team, who perform the painstaking work of sewing (often by hand) the intricately detailed costumes worn on the show. One of these artisans is Michele Carragher, a London-based textile artist whose full time job is to create embroidery pieces for the show’s costumes. Michele may spend weeks on a piece that appears on screen for 10 seconds, and even invented a new embroidery technique called Dragonscale for a dress Daenerys Targaryen wears on the show.
For those with even a passing interest in fashion, Michele Carragher’s blog is well worth a look, as it provides both insight into the design team’s creative process (Sansa Stark’s wedding dress is meant to symbolically represent her life “from [her] Tully and Stark beginnings to [her] entanglement with the Lannisters”) and an opportunity to really appreciate the beautiful, meticulous work that goes into each and every costume. And if all this bores you, hang in there— there’ll probably be some butts in the next scene.