The Game of Thrones Gang Gussied Up and Got Back Together on the Season 8 Premiere Red Carpet
Entertainment
If your Game of Thrones rewatches have blurred your reality, last night’s Season 8 premiere at Radio City Music Hall was a good reminder that the people who died on the teevee are actually still alive IRL, and also have really well-placed stylists. Above, it’s the still-powering-through it Brienne of Tarth a.k.a. Gwendoline Christie, channeling dragon-fire in my top five dead or alive designer Iris Van Herpen, the person whose couture is most aligned with GoT style costuming (or, perhaps, the designer most likely to make fashion out of fabricated faux dragon skin).
Dany’s crew really pulled through for her last night, though I am of the mind that none of them will make it past the finale. Emilia Clarke embodied Daenerys’s icy regalness in a gorgeous Valentino, and Nathalie Emmanuel complimented her in tangerine-dream tulle. Jacob Anderson, aka Grey Worm, did his thing in a mock turtleneck with suit, my fave man-look at the moment.
Game of Thrones’s offscreen mythology is almost as solid as its scripted one: Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams grew up together as Sansa and Arya and became best friends… Kit Harington and Rose Leslie fell in love while portraying Jon Snow and Ygritte the Wildling… Joe Dempsie proved to us all that Chris from Skins was actually the hottest one. Love endures! The men are looking fly and I appreciate Sophie and Maisie’s matching embellishments, but the true winner here is Rose’s red vine cascade of a gown, a delicate but bold one-shoulder look. And it’s the color of fresh blood!
Lotta people got toasted by King’s Landing, which is probably something we should remember going into the final season. Charles Dance and Jack Gleeson were both felled by their families and also perhaps by these suits. Natalie Dormer’s one-shoulder zebra stripe is fine, but I would have liked to have seen her in something chartreuse, the color of wildfire. Truly missed referential opportunity.
Peter Dinklage’s nehru collar is fit for the Hand of the Queen, and wife Erica Schmidt’s lush velvet gown does invoke goth royalty. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is giving you best suit of the night, though, in a fun brocade he definitely bought with gold coins. Sibel Kikelli found a decently Shae silhouette in an unfussy chiffon floral.
It’s the magic people! George R.R. Martin and Isaac Hempstead Wright definitely got dressed together in the morning, because no one is more Three-Eyed Raven than the guy who presumably knows what’s next for Westeros, even if literally no one else does. Kristian Nairn, finally freed of Hodor, is dressed exactly like a techno DJ who throws Raves of Thrones on the side.
Here’s a red carpet psycho-drama for you…
… which is Oberyn getting back at the Mountain, aka the extremely natty Pedro Pascal and Hafpor Julius Bjornsson…
… but he ultimately accepted his fate.
More dead-but-alive people because television isn’t real: Esmé Bianco, aka Ros, dressed like a Lannister (more revenge); Jason Momoa, with Lisa Bonét in a fringed stunner, is back in blush again, but I’m mad he didn’t do the Khal eyeliner. Sean Bean is a good sport for rejoining the cast after all this time, and as it turns out cleans up nicely when his fake head is not grimy and on a spike!
Carice Van Houten is making a statement in sleek, gleaming white, and that statement is probably something like “I don’t actually do blood magic in my spare time.” Maybe Kristofer Hivju, with Gry Molvaer Hivju, does, though—that pocket square is fire. Liam Cunningham is your library zaddy in a tan suit and blue tie, respect.
The Greyjoys look so good after they shower, man! Pilou Asbæk’s seafarer suit is paying decent homage to the fact that Euron’s a pirate who communed with the sea-gods, and Alfie Allen looks slightly less beaten down than the ol’ Reek days, though that suit could use a tailor. Jerome Flynn is showing you that he’s as fun a guy as Bronn, lowkey the best character. Special to my fellow Game of Thrones goss freaks: Note that Cersei did not come to this event!
Hanna Murray looks like a princess in gleaming yellow; John Bradley and Iain Glenn are just doing regular suits. I like to think they are all BFFs in reality, because my entire life is completely ensconced in Thrones narratives now.
Aidan Gillen (with Camille O’Sullivan) is keeping it crisp in a nicely tailored suit, as is the Hound Rory McCann. Indira Varma’s in one of my favorite looks of the night—never underestimate a hot-pink trouser!—as Pedro Pascal reminds her of what they once had ON THE TELEVISION. GAME OF THRONES IS NOT REAL, PEOPLE. IF YOU NEED PROOF…
Here are some people who were not in Game of Thrones, but still showed up and showed out and, maybe, are making the case to be cast in the spin-off series via their looks. Dascha Polanco’s caped bodysuit and Phoebe Robinson’s iron crown are fit for warring queens, but I also think Jessica Williams’s incredible sequin frock and Sarah Paulson’s gilded hem are magically royal. Can these people cast them already? If not, I shall cast them in my fanfic, Game of Oh God Why Is a Fantasy Series on Cable Television Dictating My Entire Life. See you on the other side of April 14.