Michele Clapton and Kevin Alexander detail Royal Wedding costumes and hairstyles

Fashionista has debuted their new weekly feature, “Fashion of the Realm,” which will be inspired by each new episode of Game of Thrones. In their first feature they talk with costume designer Michele Clapton and hair designer Kevin Alexander to get the details on Margaery’s gown, and the ladies’ wedding hairstyles.

Spanning nearly 6 weeks and 3 fittings, inspired by the Tyrell House Sigil, Margaery’s wedding gown was created with painstaking detail.

Fashionista: How did you craft all the roses?
Michele Clapton: They were hand rolled and stitched. And there were a lot! The thorns were also hand-made in leather.

Any symbolism in the dress?
The fabric is a linen silk mix and has leaves woven into it. This led beautifully into my idea of a creeping  briar rose that, although pretty, will draw blood if you catch yourself on its thorns and can end up smothering its host. Pretty but dangerous!

What about that crown?
The idea of the briar rose is continued into the crown where it wraps around the Baratheon antlers [Joffrey’s sigil]. This was to show her creeping influence, which is not lost on Cersei.

Clapton also explains the other women’s wedding attire. Most of the court now follows Margaery’s style as a show of support for their new Queen, while Cersei remains comfortably in her wine color palette and aggressive necklines. Sansa, however, too scared to show her support for Margaery, and unwilling to conform to Cersei’s influence, is dressed very plainly, closely resembling her mother’s style.

Hair designer Kevin Alexander details perhaps the last time we will see Sansa sporting a capital hairstyle, and Margaery’s statement mound of hair.

Someday perhaps Sansa will be rid of King’s Landing and free to romp around in airy, floaty dresses. In the meantime, though, her hair was fabulous. The trick? “Hair sausages,” said Alexander. Think hair doughnuts, except long. He sewed two together and laid them on top of her head ear-to-ear, then cross-crossed braids over it. He added a cluster of knotted pearls as an adornment.

Let’s not let that dress overshadow this incredible mound of hair. Alexander was inspired by a waterfall for this look. To get the height at the crown, he used a flower-pot shaped five-inch tall cage. He braided her real hair very tightly, then placed the wig and cage onto the braids as a base. He then covered the cage with extra hair, and then curled the hair. This scene took a week to shoot, so Natalie Dormer had to go through a two-hour process each day to get this style. “With the heat we were in, it was a lot for the actors to go through,” Alexander said. There were no hair disasters, though. “We used lots and lots of setting lotion.”

For more from Michele Clapton’s interview and details on Cersei’s hairstyle visit Fashionista.

• Published on 04/16/2014 at 5:27 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 12:42 PM CDT