Sand Snakes’ nippled breastplates “A mistake”
Last week, Game of Thrones costume designer Michele Clapton gave a talk at the MET as part of their Dressed to Kill: Arms and Armor From Medieval Knights to Game of Thrones. The talk was interesting and historically informative. But New York Magazine had some questions they needed answers to, specifically about costumes for new characters the upcoming Season 5 and their, erm, ornamental decorations.
When asked about the Sand Snakes and the unfortunate points on their armor, she admitted: “it certainly wasn’t my intention to have nippled armor.
“I’m not terribly keen on it. “I don’t see the necessity for it. You don’t do it on men.”
So how did it happen? Turns out it was a mistake.
“It was a result of the structured molds they used to make the armor. “They sand it off to an extent, but they didn’t do it as much as I wanted them to,” Clapton said. And because of the rush in production, she didn’t notice the sanding wasn’t completed until it was too late and shooting had to start. Even then, she said, it wasn’t that noticeable on set, but a trick of the lighting made the nippled effect more visible in the photographs taken that day. “I had the same thought as you. I was surprised when I saw the picture. But I didn’t notice them when I was there. And sometimes you can’t go back and change things.” Her armory team… also didn’t see the problem. “They’re like, ‘No, it’s fine! Don’t change it!’” she told us. “But it was a bad move!”
Let’s hope that in filming the nipples are not nearly as noticeable as they are in these pictures taken by the fans. Considering that George R.R. Martin has himself said he deeply dislikes the idea, and even has the phrase “as useless as nipples on a breastplate” as part of the regularly used Westerosi idioms, it would be embarrassing if that’s all anyone saw and talked about when we finally meet these characters on screen.
The Sand Snakes weren’t the only thing NYMag asked Clapton about though.
Sansa’s outfit was one of the main topics of conversation after “The Mountain and the Viper” ended. I wondered at the time if the raven feathers were symbolic of anything–after all, ravens are one of the animals that can be warged into. Not that we’ve ever seen Sansa warg, but her brother can. Was this some sort of hint down the line?
Well it turns out those feathers are symbolic, but not the way I thought they were. It was, in fact, that ravens bear messages. This was “to deliver her own message about a change in personality.”
“We’ve always known that Sansa makes her own clothes, so it was a very deliberate decision of hers, to change and say, ‘I’m not going to be pushed around. I’m going to take charge.’” Clapton drew our attention to Sansa’s necklace, which has a long spike at the end. Because Arya has her Needle, this is Sansa’s Needle. “It’s her chance to take control,” Clapton said. “When she comes down the stairs, she’s playing with it like, ‘This is me, taking control of this situation.’”
Speaking of Arya, we’ve already seen pictures of her in costume for Season 5, but for those that hadn’t, Clapton confirmed that she’s finally getting something new to wear after three seasons. “
She finally got a few frocks! She was like, ‘Yeah! Yeah! I can’t believe it!’ in the dressing room. She’ll never go back to it,” Clapton laughed. “She was like, ‘I want to set fire to it! I want to throw it in the water!’”
For more on Clapton’s interview, including talk of the Unsullied and White Walker armor, check out NY Magazine interview here.
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