Another Game of Thrones season 7 leak has happened, and this time IKEA is involved! Apparently, the $10 million per episode show has been using a sneaky IKEA hack on its costumes!
Game of Thrones has been a hit ever since its first episode, and there’s no mystery why: it has gorgeous scenery, it’s filled with fantasy and complex plots, and it keeps you hooked until the very last minute.
Even though the show has a huge fan base and has a $10 million budget per episode, the costume department resorted to an interesting alternative to dress up the characters of the Night’s Watch: $29.99 IKEA rugs as capes!
In a recent talk hosted at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the costume designer Michele Clapton revealed what truly was behind the costumes in Game of Thrones:
“We take anything we can. [...] The budget is the same every year regardless of what we’re filming—it’s okay, but it’s never enough. Sometimes if you’re restricted it makes you move clever about what you’re doing.You can look at things, you can reuse things.”
Apparently, the fictional military battalion has been taking advantage of IKEA’s Rens Sheepskin or Tejn Lampskin rugs to keep themselves warm. The costume designer says the rugs are cut, shaved, dyed, broken down and have leather straps added to have that dirty, worn down look, and then used as capes.
“I want the audience to almost smell the costumes. Here they were waxed and frosted so they belonged to the landscape.”Clapton said authenticity and believability are key when creating each costume piece.
The costume designer won three Emmys for her work on the first five seasons of the HBO series. After taking a break, she returned as chief costume designer for Game of Thrones Season 7.
If you want to get to know more about the show’s costume design process, you can check out the talk here.
