The movie costumes in the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones actually aren’t Emmy Award-winning, but some of them are rather cute and attractive, while others seem strange and out of place. Unfortunately, the color grading of the outfits and the lighting in the show are poor, so we often can’t enjoy the beauty of these show costumes fully. Still, let’s take a closer look at the top-10 GOT Red Wedding costumes so that we could praise or criticize each and every attire to our heart’s content.
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This material is based on the video from YouTube channel “Costume CO”.
The Red Wedding in the Game of Thrones show was a massacre that took place during the War of the Five Kings, arranged by Lord Walder Frey as revenge against Robb Stark, ruling King in the North, for breaking the marriage pact between House Stark and House Frey.
It's not an Emmy Award-winning costume episode but there are some excellent costumes created by series costume designer Michele Clapton. So, let's take a walk down memory lane and have a fresh look at the costumes.
The color grading in this episode is a muddy brown, so, at times, it's hard to tell what is going on with the costumes, but we will do our best.
#10 Talisa Stark
Talisa's costume is at the bottom of the list because, while it's nothing remarkable costume-wise, it's still worth including because of the significance of the scene.
It's a very simple dress made from slub silk, with princess lines that laces up in the back. There is some fullness from the waist down to allow for a slightly protruding belly.
The wardrobe team likely had multiple versions because of the stabbing scene and all of the blood.
Talisa wears a plain antique satin neck shawl. She wore this throughout the series.
Talisa doesn't wear any jewelry, which is typical for the Starks, with the exception of Catelyn Stark who's wearing a wedding ring. But as an observation, no one at the Red Wedding is wearing any jewelry.
#9 Joyeuse Frey
Walder Frey's 15-year-old wife Joyeuse Frey wears a cotehardie, a medieval garment worn by both men and women during the Middle Ages.
While it's difficult to see in some pictures, her dress is made from an over-dyed brocade and there are decorative buttons on the front and fasteners on the side.
All of Walder Frey's daughters wear variations of the cotehardie in an assortment of unflattering bottle-green colors.
The cut of the Frey dresses is also unbecoming, as it emphasizes the tummy. Sought after silhouettes throughout history emphasize the waist, bust, hips, and rear, but not the tummy.
While Michele Clapton hasn't mentioned this in interviews, it appears that she created this silhouette to make the Frey women look as unattractive as possible.
Under the dress, Joyeuse wears a linen shift drawn in at the neck, typical of the Riverlands.
Most of the Frey women also wear a T-shaped leather belt decorated with x's and o's belt mounts. The same one that Walda Bolton wears.
#8 Lothar Frey
Lothar Frey's costume is such a weird thing to wear to a wedding because it's his armor of sorts. That's not to say that it's inappropriate for the occasion.
We see many circumstances in Game of Thrones show where characters are wearing armor for any given occasion – the Tarly's, for instance, are wearing their armor at dinner.
Tom Brooke who plays Lothar in Season 3 has such a unique look about him but we couldn't find many good pictures of him in this costume.
His outfit, however, is later repurposed in Season 6 when he was recast with Daniel Tuite.
He's wearing a quilted gambeson and skirts, typically worn by many of the armies in Westeros under their armor, and this is pretty close to those worn by the Boltons and the Starks. Over that, he has a leather vest and a hardened leather breastplate.
We’re not fans of leather armor and this looks pretty useless, as it just partially covers his chest, but we suppose that despite their father's cutting, the Frey brothers aren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer.
#7 Black Walder
Black Walder or Walder Rivers wears a punched leather armor piece over his gambeson and a cape consisting of a leather yoke from which hang the cartridge pleats of rough cloth.
Like his half-brother, he also wears a cloth coif and leather arming cap.
In the Middle Ages, the arming cap was worn under the helmets of 12th-century knights.
#6 Roose Bolton
When we first examined this costume, we thought that it looked very much like the one that Roose wears to Sansa and Ramsay's wedding but upon closer inspection, it appears as though there are only some elements remaining, specifically the brocade sleeves of his doublet.
The undertunic appears to be a quilted gambeson with a leather vest worn on top.
There is a big deal about Catelyn discovering that Roose is wearing mail under his doublet, but he is wearing a gorget or neck protection over his doublet, which should have been an instant giveaway that something was amiss.
#5 Lord Walder Frey
Walder wears a quilted and studded jerkin and a warm velvet coat, a medieval outer garment.
Walder has a few variations of this sleeveless coat. This one is trimmed with wide bands of embellished ribbon.
In this shot, you can see that while Walder's costumes are broken down, they are very beautifully made.
His jerkin is possibly a brigandine, a form of body armor worn for protection, should it have come to that. The brigandine is a doublet-like jacket that is lined internally with small oblong steel plates riveted to the fabric.
Some of the decorative studs have fallen away, showing that despite his wealth, this is a well-worn garment. The studs are similar to the ones worn on Joyeuse’s dress.
Actor David Bradley must have been very hot wearing this costume because under the robe and the jerkin, he's also wearing a quilted gambeson jacket and skirts, like his sons, a leather vest, trousers, a rough neck cravat, and rotty fingerless gloves.
#4 Catelyn Stark
Catelyn wears this simple linen gown with an undertunic drawn in at the throat.
This is another situation that unless you lighten the image, it looks nearly black when it's more of a blue.
There were likely multiple costumes made because of the large amount of blood spray in the scene.
She wears the embroidered neck double crescent with hanging ties that fasten with a silver Tully brooch. Catelyn Stark actor Michelle Fairley held onto those ties during moments of stress.
This image is a studio shot of the same costume by The Hollywood Reporter, although the shift is a darker color.
As demonstrated, the gown reads more blue than black and has a subtle tone-on-tone motif.
Catelyn previously wore this as an undergown earlier in Season 3.
#3 Roslin Frey
Walder Frey's lovely daughter Roslin is dressed in a beautiful wedding gown, a pleasant surprise to Edmure and a bit of comic relief for the episode.
Roslin's bodice, train, and long hanging sleeves are made from a green-gold brocade.
Under the bodice, she is wearing a creamy silk undertunic, but instead of it being drawn at the throat like the Frey daughters’, it is just above her bust, creating a beautiful neckline.
The bodice is decorated with some gold bobbles along the neckline and a large floral clasp.
There is a medieval silhouette to this dress but it also hearkens to the Regency era, with the bodice similar to a spencer, a crop jacket worn over a shift.
The fabric of her veil is just gorgeous and while it hides her face when she is presented to Edmure, who up until this point had no idea what his wife would look like in this arranged marriage, it's lined in a sheer fabric so that she can see through it.
Edmure wraps her in a marriage cloak, a tradition in Westeros under the Faith of the Seven, where the groom wraps the bride to bring her under his protection.
It doesn't appear that the cloak has the Tully sigil, which is traditional, but there are grapes and vines along the cloak border. Was the Riverland known as a wine region?
Despite her pretty dress, we’re not crazy about her hair, but again, the Frey women or men aren't the most stylish lot.
#2 Robb Stark
Robb Stark is dressed in Stark finery – a black tunic with brocade sleeves.
The coordinating cape is made from a kind of wool bouclé and has a sort of claw-like feature made from the same sleeve brocade with 2 silver Stark clasps holding the cape in place.
The silver Stark dire wolf cape closures are the standout feature.
Theon's costume worn for Sansa's wedding is very similar to Robb's. In Michele Clapton's book “Game of Thrones: The Costumes”, there is a note beside Theon's picture that says that his sleeves and his cloak are both made from brocade as an homage to Catelyn Stark. Michele Clapton says she is one of the only characters to wear brocade, which speaks to her highly sophisticated style.
So, it seems that Robb is wearing the brocade as an homage to Catelyn and then, in turn, Theon is wearing the costume as an homage to Robb.
#1 Edmure Tully
Edmure's costume is probably the best of the lot. Dare we say that he is upstaging the bride.
Tobias Menzies looks great in anything that he wears and, while Edmure is no Joffrey Baratheon, this is an elegant and understated look that captures the spirit of his character.
Edmure is wearing a long lined doublet, a common style for the wealthy lords in Westeros. However, the design is very unique to him.
He wears a similar costume in the final season of Game of Thrones.
The doublet is a gold brocade trimmed in leather with metal plates through which leather ties fasten the coat.
The sleeves are elbow-length but they are slashed, revealing the contrasting undersleeves.
It's hard to see in any of the scenes but he's wearing trousers tucked into tall boots.
But the best part of the costume is this interesting gold sash, possibly made from sari fabric that has been gathered to create this interesting texture.
It's fastened at the front with two gold Tully clasps.
Edmure finishes off the look with a stamped leather belt decorated with bronze belt mounts.
(c) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvp5uWieKSk
Read also:
Mysterious symbolism of Game of Thrones stage costumes
Costumes of Jon Snow from Game of Thrones. Are they historically accurate?
Stage costumes of Olenna Tyrell from Game of Thrones. She’s got charming pillbox hats with wimples
