We’ve analyzed in detail the movie costumes of both these spectacular TV shows – Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. They have some of the most amazing outfits, works of art, and at the same time, some costumes are rather ugly and actually worn not properly. But the question is – which show costumes are better? Which design team did a better job of creating the mood of the series? Let’s take another look at their stage costumes, compare them, and find out the answer.
This material is based on the video from YouTube channel “Costume CO”.
Game of Thrones is a fantasy drama series adapted from A Song of Ice and Fire, a series of fantasy novels by George R.R. Martin. The show was created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for HBO, with costumes by Emmy award-winning costume designer Michele Clapton.
House of the Dragon is a prequel series to Game of Thrones created by George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condal for HBO. It's based on Martin's 2018 novel Fire and Blood. The costumes are by costume designer Guild Award winner Jany Temime.
But who did it better? Let's find out. But before we do, to keep this on a level playing field, we will put the costumes in Season 1 of Game of Thrones against Season 1 of House of the Dragon.
The costumes in each show will be judged on the following criteria:
- the design, or how well the designer interpreted the text and told the story of the characters through costume;
- the execution of the costumes – taking them from the design and into outfits that actors wear;
- the Wow Factor, that little bit of awesome that takes a good design and makes it great.
Design
Let's begin with the design, the first step in the process before the costumes are made. This stage often involves meeting with the showrunners, early concept designs, mood boards, and costume renderings with fabric swatches.
Game of Thrones
From the beginning of series, British costume designer Michele Clapton has stated in interviews, she, along with the show creators, wanted to create a world unlike one we know, which is why she borrows elements from other cultures to create clothing for the inhabitants of the fantasy world of Westeros.
Michele Clapton writes in her book Game of Thrones: The Costumes that she looked at clothing from cultures around the world over many centuries – Japanese, Flemish, Siberian, Afghan, Iranian, and Native American to name a few.
According to Screen Rant, the budget to make Season 1 was said to be around 5-6 million per episode. We don’t know how much of that was allocated to costumes. What is sometimes forgotten is the never aired pilot which had to be re-shot with the recasting of actors playing Daenerys and Catelyn Stark.
Michele Clapton's job was challenging, given that she had to create unique looks for the inhabitants of Westeros, but also the exiled prince and princess Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen, the Pentoshi, the Dothraki, and so on.
Using the colors and sigils of their respective houses – the Lannisters, the Starks, the Baratheons, the Tullys, and an early incarnation of the White Walkers – all had their own distinctive wardrobe.
Michele Clapton writes in her book that the costume should make sense in the world and help and advance the storytelling.
While Michele Clapton had never before designed armors, she had to create all of the Kingsguard, the Gold Cloaks, the Lannister, the Stark, and the Night's Watch armors.
Added to this were the tourney armors to celebrate the new hand of the king, including Loras Tyrell, the Hound, and the Mountain to name a few.
Along with the extensive research and her renderings, Michele Clapton wrote in her book that she found inspiration in the early concept drawing of Winterfell that production designer Gemma Jackson’s department had created.
Michele Clapton also made a series of mood boards that represented the different areas of Westeros. She said, “Where a character comes from is indicated through the color and cut of the costume”.
While Michele Clapton and her team read the books and she personally met with George R.R. Martin to discuss the pilot, she had to make changes to the costumes as they were described in the books because she didn't think they would translate well to the screen.
So, for example, Michele Clapton said, “In the book, the Kingsguard armor is white, and I thought this would just be too much, and too hard to film. We of course kept elements of white such as the cloak. And we used white enamel in the process”.
She considered the local materials and trade routes when designing the costumes. The Starks, for instance, she said, have less available to them and are in different circumstances, as they live in cold damp weather. Available to them is wool, leather, fur, and some dyes.
They have to think about warmth and wear the high padded embroidered collars as status rather than jewelry.
The Village People wear a simpler form of this look. They are not ostentatious and are a loving family who are not trying to prove anything.
Now in contrast to the northern houses, Michele Clapton said, the Lannisters are very wealthy, competitive, they live in the capital, and power is important.
She added, “It's warm and on the coast which means there is trade and they don't have to worry about keeping warm. They have a large staff with silks and jewels readily available to them”.
Of clothing of the royal family, she said, “There is an opulence to the court as a society influenced by its environment, with brighter colors, intricate jewelry, exotic fabrics”.
In King's Landing, Michele Clapton used the styles from the medieval period and Renaissance, with the long hanging sleeves and full skirts on the men.
She created an asymmetrical silhouette for the Lannisters. In particular, the kimono style gowns and leather gambesons worn by Jaime, Lancel, and at one point King Robert.
Another unique feature of the Lannisters is the arch panel in the sides of the gowns and the men's doublets.
Michele Compton has stated in interviews that she also took inspiration from the late Alexander McQueen. Other modern sources might be the French fashion designers Madame Gres and Madeleine Vionnet and, in later seasons, American designer Claire McCardell.
House of the Dragon
Next up is House of the Dragon. French costume designer Jany Temime won two Costume Designers Guild Awards for Excellence in Fantasy Film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in 2011 and Excellence in Contemporary Film for Skyfall in 2012. She designed all of the costumes in Season 1 for House of the Dragon.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the budget for House of the Dragon was nearly 20 million per episode but while Game of Thrones had a much lower budget, House of the Dragon was shot during a pandemic.
Jany Temime was required to design costumes for the multi-generational Targaryen Dynasty and its court, while they were at the height of their power. This required a reimagining of the Kingsguard under King Jaehaerys I and King Viserys Targaryen, and the Gold Cloaks under Daemon Targaryen.
It also introduced us to new great houses, like the Velaryons, the Hightowers, and the Strongs.
Jany Temime’s task was complicated, given that the setting of House of the Dragon took place nearly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. Added to this, Season 1 alone took place over multiple years, with several time jumps and a mid-season recasting of principal actors. And while set two centuries before, the costumes still had to look like they were part of the same universe as Game of Thrones.
Before starting the project, Jany Temime told Metro UK, “To be honest, I'd never seen Game of Thrones. I got the offer during quarantine and I thought House of the Dragon was interesting because it was a prequel. Working on a prequel is like starting a new project because it's not directly related to the original”.
She told Grazia, “I thought it was very important to start fresh. We are in a different world. We are about 200 years earlier. It's not in the winter, we are in the spring. We are at the peak of the Targaryen reign”.
She said, “I read Dance of the Dragons – the book the show is based on – to understand the Targaryen family context, and from there I was hooked”.
Jany Temime said, “I started designing the series thinking: ‘Okay, it's about a bunch of houses. They hate each other. They're powerful people who want to be the biggest, the strongest, and they'll kill each other to get that’.
Jany Temime told Motionpictures.org, “I was pretty much on my own in the south of France in my house during the confinement when I designed the show. I'd work during the daytime, send this artist in L.A. my sketches, and the next day I'd look at his renderings, make my corrections and send them back. I had Zoom meetings with Ryan and Miguel every week or two just to show them what I was doing”.
Jany Temime was inspired by other historical eras, such as the Byzantine era, saying, “It was important to think about the Byzantine time, because the gold means power. The rubies and the emeralds as well – everything means wealth”.
For young Rhaenyra’s gown, Jany Temime told Grazia, “I was very inspired by the Moroccan bride when I was designing for the Rhaenyra investiture costume. I found an old image and she had very long earrings and something on the head, and that image just stayed with me”.
In House of the Dragon, you know a lot about the character by what color or shade they are wearing and where their alliances lie.
Like Michele Clapton, who incorporated the house colors and sigils into the costumes, but often in a more subtle way. Jany Temime went further. In an interview with Metro UK, she said, “We have been trying, and I hope succeeding, for every single costume to reflect the colours of the families”.
She told Grazia, “In this world, one of the only ways for the characters to express themselves is colors”.
For adult Rhaenyra and Daemon's wedding attire Jany Temime said “I wanted the same for both because I wanted them to be equal. With the same dress and the same robe, the same way all the dragon handlers have the same, whatever they are female or male. Their wedding is an exchange of blood, very barbaric an archaic way of getting married and I wanted the robe to sort of equal that”.
Jany Temime said that Rhaenyra's headpiece “was inspired by Malaysian headpieces I found in an antique shop”.
The designer has mentioned in interviews that she used a lot of elements from 13th and 14th centuries for costume inspiration, but she also pushed into the 15th and 16th centuries as well. “… Because I wanted to show that they were in the upper tails of their dynasty”.
Now, despite House of the Dragon being a prequel to Game of Thrones, there is a through line. In House of the Dragon, there are repetitions of previous items that were in Game of Thrones – the catspaw dagger, the Sons of the Harpy mask worn by the Crabfeeder, and the Hand of The King Broach, which was modified for the earlier setting.
Considering the Game of Thrones featured multiple houses and introduced us to dozens of characters across continents in Season 1 alone, it's mind-boggling to believe that we knew each character and where they were located in the world, often before they even opened their mouths. That is storytelling through costumes.
Therefore, the winner for design goes to Game of Thrones.
Execution of the costumes
Game of Thrones
Next, let's look at the execution of the design, the stage that takes us from the sketch pad to the screen. This process often happens after the approval of the design, the designer working with the cutters, builders, the cast, and other technicians to bring about their ultimate vision.
For Game of Thrones, Michele Clapton said in an interview that 98% of the costumes were constructed in-house by a team of about 100 dyers, embroiderers, metal and leather workers, and cutters. The Wardrobe Department employed 10 artists whose sole job was just to age each and every costume of the show, whether it be the addition of some sweat to a full-on heavy breakdown.
She told The Hollywood Reporter, “When you are shooting in HD, breaking down a costume can't be done too quickly or it will show. You spend two weeks breaking down, patching, dying, repatching. Then you trash it, age it, then trash it again and repair. You can't just stick a couple of patches on it and spray it with dirt because that is exactly what it will look like on HD televisions. <...> We try to give the costumes a reality based on the land, climate and the food sources. I want you to be able to smell the costumes”.
Almost all of the costumes were made in Belfast, close to where most of the filming was shot, while some of the arms were made in India. Much of the work was also done in Ireland, including some of the bespoke jewelry and crowns. And some of the additional jewelry was purchased from artisans.
Michele Clapton told the Los Angeles Times, “We have everything on site: our armorers, our weavers and our embroiderers. We weave our own fabric with our loom – many of the fabrics are literally made from scratch”.
In Season 1, Michele Clapton used paper silk for the kimono light gowns worn in the capital, while many of the brocades were purchased from fabric suppliers, including the salmon leather worn by Daenerys and her brother Viserys because of its resemblance to dragon scale, and Danny's silk chiffon wedding gown.
All of the gorgeous embroideries on Cersei Lannister, Sansa Stark, Catelyn Stark, and Lysa Arryn's gowns were by principal embroidery artist Michele Carragher, who worked on the show until its conclusion in Season 8.
The armor in Season 1 was by Simon Brindle and his team, who created all of the armor for the men but also Cersei's metal obi sash that she wears with her kimono gowns, along with a filigree armor worn by Daenerys.
House of the Dragon
In House of the Dragon, there are so many incredible details in the costumes. Grazia reported that more than 2,500 costumes were created for the series.
Jany Temime's team was considerably larger than Game of Thrones. Her saying, “We were, at maximum, about 150. I had three cutters; 25 people for the armor, because that's handwork; then I had a department of 20 people breaking down, aging, and printing; 15 people sewing; three people embroidering; two or three leather makers, two fabric buyers, three assistants, and tailors and all the people fitting the costumes on set”.
If you look closely at the costumes, you will see a load of details in the embroidery, fabrics, embellishments, fasteners, and jewelry.
Many of the findings were custom-made for the show.
Jany Temime said, “There isn't a single Targaryen costume where you won't find a dragon somewhere in the weaving or the jewelry or the buttons. They want to show dragons because this is their power. The little hooks on Rhaenyra's dragon-riding outfit are actually dragon legs. If you look closely at the embroidery on Viserys's coat, it's full of dragons made by this artist I work with who really gets in the zone. It took her six months, but in the end, you get an incredible result”.
As mentioned earlier, there are some carryovers from Game of Thrones, as Jany Temime and her team had the original design to lean on. With the aid of two additional embroidery artists, Michele Carragher returned to do her magic on many of the Targaryen costumes in House of the Dragon.
Additionally, the silhouette of the men in King's Landing is very close to the longline doublets worn by the noblemen in Game of Thrones.
And, most likely, a coincidence but there are similar fabrics used in both shows. The dress fabric worn by Helaena was also worn by Joffrey Baratheon, while the black scale fabric worn by Cersei was worn by Lord Larys Strong but in brown.
Most of the fabrics were purchased in London. Some of the fabrics, like Rhaenyra's fealty cloak, the lining of Viserys's hunting cloak, and Alicent's never-used wedding dress were made from the same custom-woven Targaryen fabric.
And unlike Game of Thrones, who use jewelry sparingly, House of the Dragon has it in spades. All of the noblewomen are dripping in gold jewelry and precious stones.
Many of the earrings and necklaces and some rings were purchased off the rack, while other items, like the Livery or Chain of Order worn by both the men and women nobles, Rhaenyra's Velaryon steel necklace, and Alicent's Faith of the Seven pendant appear to be custom-created for the show.
All of the crowns were 3D printed for the show.
Another great thing was all of the hats worn by the women and men at court but also the servants.
One weakness of House of the Dragon costumes, however, is the construction of the costumes, which at times were ill-fitting and worn over contemporary undergarments. This might have been due to Covid, but it's important to remember that other shows, like Wednesday and Andor just to name a few, still managed to knock it out of the park.
Therefore, with its carefully crafted and unique silhouettes in beautiful fabrics and embroideries, the winner for execution is Game of Thrones.
WOW factor
Game of Thrones
The final consideration is the wow factor. A good costume design doesn't necessarily need to have a wow factor to make it great. There are lots of incredible designs that don't have those one or two costumes that cause your jaw to drop. For this section, we’re going to choose what we think is the most iconic costume of the season for each show. This is honestly the hardest part because it's the most subjective.
So, for Game of Thrones, there are many to consider, including Jaime's Kingsguard uniform or Tywin's Lannister armor. But we think the biggest wow costume in Season 1 – because it's so iconic – is Edward Stark's Winterfell costume.
Michele Clapton said of the Stark family patriarch, “Ned Stark has an elegance to him, but he's incredibly practical, I don't want him to look like he ever thinks about what he's wearing”.
She added that, “He was never seen adopting any of the clothing styles of King's Landing <...> and generally chose to keep things functional and practical”.
British actor Sean Bean who portrayed Ned Stark said this of his costume, “What he wears, you know, says something about who he is. So he's not prepared to be flouncing about like the others in gowns and silks and stuff like that”.
While Michele Clapton went through a series of incarnations for Ned, which at one point featured leaping direwolves on the doublet, she landed on this particular costume for the premiere.
According to her original sketch, it consists of a full-length cape made from heavy burned-out wool fabric with crossover leather straps for security when riding, leather trousers and boots, heavily padded undersleeves and skirt for warmth and protection, heavy oiled leather doublet, and a fur pelt.
According to Michele Clapton's book, the wolf collar and cloaks secured by leather cross-body straps were two elements that would become signature parts of the northern character's look.
Because of the weight of the cloaks, they couldn't just be tied around the neck, so Michele Clapton added heavy leather straps to help to distribute the weight. And like a great kilt, the cloaks were meant to be dual purpose – protection and warmth while traveling on horseback and wrapped around the body for warmth while sleeping.
There's an incredible amount of breakdown on Ned's costume. The quilted skirts, normally part of the gambeson, in this case are a separate garment worn on the waist under the jerkin.
Michele Clapton said in an HBO behind-the-scenes video, “I used medieval Northern Europe as a starting point, but the skirts in the men's costumes have a Japanese look to them. We were never bound by the rules of any particular time period”.
House of the Dragon
For our pick from House of the Dragon, while there were many beautiful costumes, like Alicent's green gown and the Velaryon armors, this was an easy choice for us. Featured on all of the promotional material for House of the Dragon, young Rhaenyra's fealty gown from the episode The Heirs of the Dragon is the costume that has that wow factor.
In the debut episode, they saved the best costume for last, as it is ultimately the showstopper.
The red dupioni silk gown is embroidered with Rhaenyra's Dragon Syrax on the front and there is some subtle running stitch and beading detail on the front bodice.
The red underground looks similar to this Alexander McQueen gown.
Jany Temime said, “I wanted the dress to look quite fragile. We see her getting dressed, and I wanted the first image to be of a girl. After that, she put the cape on. I wanted the cape to look heavy – and it actually was. But by putting the cape on, she put the whole kingdom on top of her shoulders”.
The black collar is embellished with more dragon motifs and the gold cloak is made from a custom-woven brocade in the same design as the four-footed dragon sigil worn by Rhaegar Targaryen in a flashback scene in Game of Thrones.
Jany Temime told Metro UK, “We had to find the right balance between something that was too big for her. So I thought maybe instead of making it too big, we should make it too precious. We started adding elements and adding stones and embroidery on it. And then I wanted that crown, which was a sort of an elevation. It was progressive”.
There were lots of discussions online about the headdress, which looks a bit like a French hood, but it appears inspired more by a Russian headdress called a “kokoshnik”.
And she wears the most elaborate Chain of Order in keeping with her father's gold crown, displaying all of the House sigils of Westeros.
Jany Temime said, “It took a long time for that costume to find the right proportion between the heaviness of the empire that she put on her shoulders and the prettiness of it, because she has to look like a little icon”.
Conclusion. Both shows had amazing wow-factor costumes, but Rhaenyra's fealty gown tipped the scales for us. Therefore, the winner for wow factor is House of the Dragon.
With the results now tallied, it's confirmed, Game of Thrones did it better.
