In 267 AC, Tywin Lannister returned to the west to attend his father's funeral and set the westerlands in order, and King Aerys decided to accompany him. The king took his eight-year old son Rhaegar, Prince of Dragonstone, and more than half the court. For the better part of the next year, the Seven Kingdoms were ruled from Lannisport and Casterly Rock, where both the king and his Hand were in residence.
Queen Rhaella was left behind in King’s Landing. After suffering miscarriages in 263 and 264, Her Grace was once again pregnant. However, the Princess Shaena was stillborn, much to the queen’s sorrow.*
Pitiful and pitied by no one, why have I come to the ignominy of this wretched state, I who am queen of seven kingdoms, mother to the prince? My guts are torn from me, my child is carried off and removed from me. My babes sleep in dust, and their most unhappy mother is compelled to be irremediably tormented by the memory of the dead. One son remains to my solace, but Casterly Rock is long leagues away, and his father the King guards Rhaegar jealously from my affections. In all things the gods have turned cruel to me, adding sorrow to sorrow. [x]
♛ Alexandra Dowling as Rhaella Targaryen ♛  Click for more info & to DL as a wallpaper
Discussion of Targaryen court fashion below the cut.
*The description up above is not a direct quote. The information can be found in TWOIAF.
The “Pitiful and pitied by no one” speech is paraphrasing Eleanor of Aquitaine.
@bidonica drew me the most perfect drawing of Rhaella wearing clothing like this, but for a while I’ve wanted to manip an outfit that resembled what @bidonica drew, something that was close to my headcanons about what the fashions were in the Targaryen court during the reign of Aerys II. I didn’t want it to look like the show. I imagined high boned collars or ruffs, like the bony frills of a dragon or triceratops and lots of pleats. Pleats were a luxury that wasted a significant amount of fabric, indicating that the wearer was a person of wealth and power. (I know this is show!canon, but I like to think that Tywin’s red pleated velvet sash is a holdover from an earlier (Targaryen) era, 20 years out of style, because none of the other Lannisters wear anything pleated.)
I like to imagine that cloth-of-gold was in high demand during this time (before the rift between Aerys and Tywin widened considerably) to represent the significant Lannister influence at court. (Please pretend Rhaella’s dress is more than just yellow and that it uses a lot of cloth of gold. I tried.jpeg)Â
I wanted to incorporate lots of purple in Rhaella’s gown, both to match her eyes and because Dany favors the color in the books, to make that connection between mother and daughter. You can’t see them very well, but I added purple “amethysts” to Rhaella’s gown, and to the gold jewelry thing hanging down.Â
The other thing that I wanted to include in Rhaella’s outfit was the (asymmetrical) snowy white cloak / sash thing pinned / draped over one shoulder. Supposed to be reminiscent of a bride’s cloak, I wanted to invoke the Westerosi wedding ceremony, in which the bridegroom drapes the cloak of his protection around his bride’s shoulders. However, as you can see, there’s a sort of irony to the way Rhaella is wearing it. It’s not wrapped around Rhaella’s shoulders here, it’s pinned / attached to one shoulder to keep it from falling off, a silent yet very visible condemnation of Aerys’s abuse, his adultery, his absence during her pregnancy (contrast to Tywin being present when Joanna gave birth (and Jaime for Cersei)), his taking Rhaegar away etc. It’s worn sort of like a half-cape but it’s full length, making the use of the left hand impractical, another indicator of wealth and status, as a person who doesn’t need to lift or carry or do practical things because she has attendants and handmaids and servants to do all that stuff for her.Â
Also, I could not manip a pregnancy here without it looking like demonic possession, so please just pretend this is the day Aerys departs and Rhaella’s pregnancy is not showing yet in this picture, ok, thank. This took a loooong time in photoshop and was cobbled together from a lot of different pieces and you can’t even see the details. So if you want to see it larger, please go to this post and follow the links.Â
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I imagine noble Targaryen attendants like Joanna Lannister dressing all in black or grey on formal occasions. The Targaryens themselves depart from their usual smoke-colored attire to wear vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows, making sure they are the center of attention, the flame to which the rest of the Realm is drawn.Â
I'm obviously limited by the images I have to work with, but since I first saw this picture of Elle Fanning, the clothing reminded me of Catelyn Stark's collar, a northern style suitable for colder weather. Â With so many people coming together in King's Landing, I wanted to show the mixing of different styles here as summer ends.Â
The Red Keep is still a political battlefield, though, and fashion is a way to declare one's allegiance, hence the Lannister lion embroidered on Joanna's shoulder and the metal belt around her waist. I imagine the Lannisters to be drawn from ancient Romans or Greeks, with war as an important aspect of their culture, and I think the belts Cersei wears on the show are a reflection of styles in the Westerlands.
As Cersei feels more insecure, she adds more metal to her clothing and her gowns shift from soft pinks to deep crimsons, an attempt to look more and more Lannister, to look like Tywin's true heir. (Tywin feels none of this insecurity. When he isn't wearing armor, he wears severe, unrelieved blacks, both to give him a sombre, dignified look and to show that he is very comfortable with who he is; he doesn't need to wear his House colors 24/7 to prove that.) Â I didn't want much insecurity here, so I went with only one strip of metal for the belt here. (Cersei initially only wears one strip of metal for her belt, and then she doubles it in S2.)Â
I would have liked to show Joanna imitating a loosely-worn Targaryen hairstyle here, but I obviously don't have the GOT costume department on hand. :/
