Many “Game of Thrones” characters have changed their looks over the course of eight seasons and 10 years of filming — but Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) are among the most transformed.
Both start out on the hit HBO show as noblewomen in bright gowns. As they become political power players, their wardrobes morph, too. Going into the eighth and final season on Sunday, they stand as two formidable rulers in black: Cersei is the queen of Westeros, while Sansa rules in her half-brother’s stead as unofficial queen in the North.
Early on, Sansa can be viewed as Cersei’s protégé. It’s not a loving relationship, but a formative one. “Even though she loathes her, Sansa learned so much from Cersei, [who is] a woman in a man’s world,” Emmy-winning costume designer Michele Clapton tells The Post via email. “She doesn’t dress in a submissive way.”
Clapton takes us through some of the clashing duo’s most iconic looks. “I try to show how confident or insecure a character is feeling through costume,” she says. Read on for more of their style evolutions.
Cersei Queen in the shadows HBO
Cersei began the show married to King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) while secretly carrying on a taboo romance with her twin, Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).
“When we first met her, her fabrics and colors were softer, the imagery [on] her costumes were birds in swirls of stitches,” says Clapton. “It was supposed to speak of her feelings of being trapped — bird in a cage.”
Cersei was always a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but she was restricted by a patriarchal world. Her position as Queen gave her power, but she had to be deferential to her husband and father — and after her husband died, her sadistic son, Joffrey, took the throne.
Consolidating power HBO
Teenage Joffrey was a more malleable king than Robert, so adviser Cersei starts to dress in a more commanding fashion. Plus, she’s got to compete with Joffrey’s queen-to-be, a young, witty Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer) in seasons 2 through 4.
“The silhouette changes when Margaery comes on the scene,” says Clapton. Cersei’s version of “power dressing” involved sturdier fabrics and sculptural, open necklines that show off “heavy, symbolic jewelry to insist visually of her rightful place within the family.”
Clapton adds that they started to incorporate shades of red and make Cersei’s family’s symbol, the Lannister Lion, more prominent.
Ruling with an iron fist HBO
After Cersei’s father and two remaining children die in seasons 4 and 5, she sees her most radical transformation yet. She begins dressing in black to mourn her children’s deaths, and her flowing, blond hair is shorn off as her sordid incestuous affair is discovered by the extreme religious sect that has taken over King’s Landing.
Still, in the season 6 finale, she exerts her revenge and uses explosives to blow up the city, and her enemies (including Margaery) with it. She’s then crowned queen in a stamped leather dress with an armor-like quality. As others rivals emerge, including Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Cersei’s look “becomes more war-like,” says Claption, including chainmail.
Sansa Winterfell princess HBO
In the first season, the sheltered Sansa dresses in pale blue, a color lighter than her family’s dark shade, to show she’s ambitious and could marry a prince. “She uses this more sophisticated color to elevate herself,” says Clapton.
When she first arrives at King’s Landing as a suitor for Joffrey, Clapton says she “embraces Cersei’s style, and to some degree her color palette” — the Lannister’s rival red — “not understanding its meaning.”
When her father, Ned (Sean Bean), is executed at the hand of the Lannisters at the end of Season 1, it’s the first step in Sansa’s dramatic evolution. “We see her tentatively try to move back to the style and colors of Winterfell, but she can’t draw attention to herself. So she stays mostly in mauve, hovering between the two tones of red and blue,” says Clapton.
Languishing in wedlock HBO
Clapton highlights Sansa’s two wedding looks as seminal moments: first to Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) in Season 4, and her second to the sadistic Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) in Season 5. She chose neither marriage, but both showed her a hard truth: There’s no handsome prince waiting to save her. She must save herself.
For her wedding to Ramsay, her dress “is a ghostly homage to her parents: Her father’s fur collar, her mother’s coat and clasps,” says Clapton. Even though she’s entering a dangerous union, “she still retains a strength within.”
The unofficial Queen in the North HBO
In season 6, Sansa escapes Ramsay’s clutches and reunites with her half-brother, Jon Snow (Kit Harington). Together, they battle to win back their ancestral home from Ramsay’s family. Sansa ensures victory by leveraging her political skills for crucial reinforcements, and gets her revenge on her brutal husband by feeding him to his own dogs. Jon is proclaimed King in the North — but Sansa rules as his proxy in Season 7 when he leaves to go North of the Wall (and to sway Daenerys into becoming an ally).
“Ultimately we see Sansa express her grown-up self through her costumes in seasons 7 and 8,” Clapton says. She wears a thick “protective” belt, and “somber” dark layers and furs, reminiscent of her parents. “The looks are born out of her journey and experience.”
