Costume designer Jany Temime talks to Tatler about working colour theory into the outfits for the 'Game of Thrones' prequel, why silhouettes matter and what she did to make Matt Smith look powerful
How familiar were you with the Game of Thrones series, and why did you decide to work on House of the Dragon?
Jany Temime (JT): To be honest, I’d never seen Game of Thrones. I got the offer during quarantine, and I thought House of the Dragon was interesting because it was a prequel. Working on a prequel is like starting a new project, because it’s not directly related to the original.
I read Dance of the Dragons—the book the show is based on—to understand the Targaryen family context, and from there I was hooked.
The executive producers Ryan [J. Condal] and Miguel [Sapochnik] were amazing to work with, and we had an amazing cast with lots of new talent, as well as old friends that I’ve worked with for a long time, including Paddy [Considine] and Rhys [Ifans].
Read more: Everything You Need to Know About HBO’s ‘The House of the Dragon’
In Game of Thrones, costumes discerned the characters’ backgrounds, identifying their family and status. With House of the Dragon focusing on the Targaryen family, is there anything in the costumes that signals the individual characters and their intentions?
JT: The main point the showrunners made was that we should design costumes with the colours of each side of the family in mind: red, black and gold, and green and blue.
Having such a strong colour story refined the designs so much. They affected the [silhouettes]—simple and graphic shapes helped to accentuate the colours further—and [forced us] to consider how these colours would appear on screen.