imma keep it real with you chief!!

The Conquerers

Straight out of the Century of Blood, we have the conquerors. In my mind, old Valyria is analogous to the Roman Empire, the way that Westeros is the British isles. Because of this, you can definitely see the Mediterranean influence on their designs. One thing that isn’t though—I gave Valyrian women these headdresses, sort of mimicking the crests of a dragon. I like the theories about the health of the dragons being linked to the way Targ women are treated, and it seems like the sort of cultural memory that would be honored in their regalia. More ‘masculine’ headpieces are modeled by Aegon and Visenya—sort of these simple diadems.

The Velaryons are based on Byzantines, obviously, but I also took a lot of inspiration from the HOTD show. One thing I wanted to try and challenged myself with was making everyone in this extremely inbred family look different and interesting. 

The Conciliator

I feel like the Targaryen’s aren’t quite sure of their place yet here, and I wanted to represent that in the way they dress. Their silhouettes are the same but they’re implementing Andal elements like wimples and *gasp* sleeves. We see an example of the typical Westerosi woman with Jocelyn, she wears an intricately embroidered dress and covers her hair—some Targaryens like Daella have leaned into it and dress in a full Westerosi style.

More daring characters still lean into the Targaryen aesthetic—Aerea, Saera, an Viserra with their more subdued versions of the traditional headpiece and Baelon with his loose tunic.

Side notes: Baelon inherited Aegon’s dragon pin, Alyssa wears Visenya’s earrings, and Rhaena's wearing Rhaenys's necklace. 

The Dance of Dragons

Targaryens, now at the height of their power, feel safer engaging in their Valyrian customs—headdresses and tunics are back! But here, fashion choices are used to create a stark divide between greens and blacks.

Where as the Blacks lean into tradition to support Rhaenyra’s claim, the Greens plead their case to the small folk, and dress the part.

Rhaenyra is using fashion as a tool to legitimize herself, she wears Visenya’s earrings and necklace, Alyssa’s necklace (gifted to her by Daemon), and a crown that combines both her mother’s tiara and her father’s crown. Her hair is styled in the short waves of the conquerer, and she’s even added some extra bangles and accents to the traditional headdress.

Alicent, on the other hand, is dressed like the perfect pious Westerosi noblewoman. Her hair, loose (because she isn’t so vain to groom it) and covered with a veil. Her bodice is simple but embroidered, all done by her hand to her industriousness. She also (much to Rhaenyra’s chagrin) inherited Visenya’s crown—refusing the more complicated crowns of Rhaenys and Alyssane. This crown will become thematically significant and Jaehaera wears it too.

Rhaenys inherited Rhaenys’ necklace, I like to imagine it made it down Rhaeny’s 1’s line down to Rhaenys 2, and then she gifted it to her daughter. Daenaera Velaryon wears Alyssa Velaryon's crown.

Embers of the Dance/Great Bastards

No one is particularly keen to flaunt Targaryen uniqueness following the dance—and we see a pretty strong pivot to Westerosi fashions. Aegon III is the only one really holding out for that aesthetic, but none of this kids adopt it.

Larra Rogare of Lys is based on Minoan fashion! 

Daena inherits Rhaenys II’s necklace and Baela’s diadem. A little further down the line, Betha Blackwood is wearing Rhaenys II's necklace as well.

We all get our first Dornish characters! Miryah and Dyanna. I wanted Dornish fashion to look especially different from any other familiar fashions, so they’re based in the aesthetics of the Tuareg people. 

All of Rhaegal’s family looks a little wacky—I wanted them to not-quite fit in to the rest of Westerosi fashion–with Alys’s unbound unveiled hair, aelora’s dark veil and Aelor’s ruffled collar. Alys did get Alyssane’s necklace though, passed down through the Arryn ladies by Daella.

Mother of Dragons

Here, we see some more westerosi fashion. Nothing particularly crazy in Aegon's kids --- Rhaelle wears Jocelyn Baratheon's necklace. As for Rhaella --- she wears the crown that was originally Visenya's.

I'm doing R+L=J here, not for any statement on the theory, but just cause I wanted to draw Lyanna and Jon. The Starks are based on the aesthetics of the Sami people. If you zoom in really close on Jon, his eyes are a dark, dark purple.

Rhaegar is wearing Westerosi embroidery, but instead of his house colors, he's had little blue flowers stitched around the neckline. Wonder why...