Michele Carragher: Game of Thrones' Embroidery

     If you follow our tumblr, you'll have already seen a post on Michele Carragher. Carragher is the artist behind all the FREAKING AMAZING embroidery in Game of Thrones' costumes. The attention to detail, both in artistry and in commitment to story detail is truly extraordinary. The tumblr post includes pictures and information from her website (which everyone should visit, seriously). Here we'll be doing a comparison between the detail pictures by the artist and the costumes in play during the episodes.

Sansa and Catelyn Stark, Episode 1:

     Getting to see the embroidery up close really adds to the experience of these costumes. In our original post we said that Sansa and Cat were wearing two different versions of the same dress. We can now see the details that set these dresses apart: Sansa's dress has a lot more decoration, including embroidered bows, flowers, and (you guessed it) dragonflies.

     You'll see a lot of this detail to the lives and experiences of the characters in Carragher's work; she's an artist who knows that costumes should tell stories.

     And check out the Tully trout jumping all over Cat's scarf... roll... thing. Whatever. It's awesome.

Cersei, Episode 3:

     This is the first, but by no means last time we'll see this bird-embroidered dress, which is good considering the INSANE AMOUNT OF DETAIL the artist put into it. The bird pattern on the shoulder in repeated throughout the rest of the garment, but it is the only part visible during this scene. (Appropriate, considering the main topic of conversation here concerns Sansa.)

     This dress in all its glory will repeat in future seasons. Larger views of the dress as a whole are available in the artist's Game of Thrones Gallery.

Sansa, Episodes 4, 5 and 8:

     Amazingly, this dress has even more detailing than previously thought, due to Sansa's habit of draping a shawl around her arms.

     It really is a pity (for a lot of reasons) that Sansa and Loras couldn't get married. Sansa's got the embroidered roses down, and we know that Loras appreciates her style.

Arya, Episode 4:

     Our original assessment of this outfit included the observation:

     "The scarf/collar beneath her tunic looks like northern roughspun but is embroidered in  a way that calls to Sansa's richer and delicate roses."

     Sarah is waaaay too smug about this.

     Going forward, we'll be featuring spotlights on the embroidery as we analyze more and more costumes. The seasons to come feature a lot of Michele Carragher's truly extraordinary work. We recommend checking out her website, for the artist's own explanations of her work, which include features on Sansa's wedding dress and the new embroidery technique she invented for Daenerys known as 'Dragonscale.'

     We cannot wait to get back to Dany. 


     Also, it's Fan Art Week over on our tumblr! Every day we'll be featuring the Game of Thrones work of our favorite artists, so come join us for A Dance with Drawings!