Well, WHAT. DO. YOU. KNOW.
The people making ‘Game of Thrones‘ are nothing if not creative. The most expensive television show in history has to make things like a fire-breathing dragon torching soldiers 100% believable, so that requires a little bit of creative balancing of the budget.
Basically, what we’re trying to get it is: the Night’s Watch are literally wearing IKEA rugs.
“Alhede or Höjerup?”
Costume designer Michele Clapton dropped the bombshell during a talk at the Getty Museum in L.A. last year, but for some reason it’s picking up steam now (thanks, Quartz).
“These capes are actually IKEA rugs,” she says, about a quarter of the way through. “We cut and we shaved them, and then we added strong leather straps and then breakdown [the process of ageing the clothes with wear and tear], which is like a religion on ‘Game of Thrones’.
“I want the audience to almost smell the costumes. Here they were waxed and frosted so they almost belonged to the landscape.”
It’s the most expensive show in history, and the poor men defending the wall are literally wearing a budget-friendly floor-warmer. Ah well, most of them are dead now, anyway.
Skip to the 27 minute mark or so for the IKEA bit, or just settle in and watch the whole damn thing.
