#Sharon Gilham

[fuckyeahcostumedramas]

Rosamund Pike  as Moiraine Damodred in The Wheel of Time (TV Series, 2021 - Present).

[aquitainequeen]

So I finally gave in and I'm watching The Wheel of Time on the mother's Amazon Prime.

I've enjoyed it thus far. Season Two is far more exciting than Season One, naturally, since the latter had the utterly unenviable task of setting up all the main characters and the general world; but I was delighted by the fact that in the very first episode Rand wears a woolly jumper.

The costumes in general are just excellent, really. There's the inevitable leather waistcoats and standard medieval fantasy outfits, but Season 2 in particular have really pushed the boat out with the Seanchan and I'm totally in love with Cairhien:

And I love Sharon Gilham's inspiration for the designs:

Gilham cites the cultural influences in Cairhien being Japanese and French. She notes, “I gave all the cultures in The Wheel of Time a color palette as well as a set of silhouettes which made them instantly distinctive and different from each other. In this case I combined Japanese kimono shapes with exaggerated skirts with full petticoats in the style of traditional French costume.” The diadem indicates Moiraine’s social standing, while other crowd members will wear headdresses reminiscent of French traditional headwear.

Nerdist: GET AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON 2 COSTUME SKETCHES; written by Amy Ratcliffe

It's bizarre; in my day-to-day life I really don't care much about clothes or fashion, but in fantasy or science fiction it's the make or break for me. Do I believe that people in this culture would actually wear these clothes, or are they just meant to populate a background? But again, right from the get go, Rand was wearing a woolly jumper. Matt was wearing what, to my eyes, was basically an ankle length cardigan. We get to see Anvaere putting on each piece of her outfit, showing us how it all works. Suroth wears layers! So many layers of robes!!! Most certainly I believe that these characters would actually wear these clothes.

[cressida-jayoungr]

One Dress a Day Challenge

August: Fantasy & Sci-Fi

Wheel of Time (season 2) / Sophie Okonedo as Siuan Sanche

I'm cheating slightly by featuring a costume that technically hasn't appeared yet (the second season starts in a few days). But I ran across these advance pictures and really liked the effect. The designer is Sharon Gilham. Here's the description of the costume from Nerdist:

"Siuan’s costume became simplified[!] as they discussed the character. Here, flowers and natural elements woven together with delicate goldwork make up her headdress. The robes have three layers. There’s a gold satin crepe jumpsuit layer, a heavily decorated mid layer of wool and matte sequins, and a shoulder capelet made of a mix of original early 20th century embroidered silk. The back of the cape design includes representation of the seven colors of Aes Sedai Ajahs. Siuan wears a gold great serpent ring on her left middle finger."

[mashithamel]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sharon Gilham (@sharon_gilham_costume_design)

[hahnspoetry]

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Sharon Gilham’s costume design for Selene / Lanfear is amazing

[yea-verity]

More pictures from the amazon live interview with Davina Lamont, Sharon Gilham, and Damian Holbrook

[markantonys]

there was a great interview with sharon gilham (costume designer) where she gave an intriguing tease about a new character in s3! (this bit starts around the 45-minute mark)

they are "something else"

"not like anything from season 2 or anything you've seen before"

they required a major collaboration between the costume & makeup departments

she paraphrased rafe as describing them as "a really really important, really highly complex character who's coming for one scene only in episode 7 or 8" [that was more that she couldn't remember the episode number, not that rafe wasn't sure at the time what episode they would be in; she did specify that it was at the end of the season because she was saying they were almost out of budget and had this dropped on them lmao so the episode in question does definitely seem to be 7 or 8]

i don't know what to think! lots of people are speculating the finn which fits the first few points, but i'm skeptical because i wouldn't qualify them as "really important, highly complex" characters (and it did definitely sound like one specific character, not a group of characters, though we could have mat meet just one finn). same goes for other creature-y characters like shaidar haran - not that important or complex of a character, unless they plan to bulk him up a lot compared to the books, which is possible. it's also possible sharon/rafe meant visually complex rather than complex characterization-wise, but even with that, i personally wouldn't consider the finn or shaidar haran to be as important as she made it sound like this character is. maybe the gholam could fit the parameters of important & (visually) complex?

i'm also skeptical of mordeth because mashadar was just its own thing not tied to a person in s1 and i kinda doubt they'd introduce him now, but maybe some kind of mordeth-inspired padan fain powerup is possible? or a slayer TAR powerup where he becomes freaky-looking? but the phrasing implies to me that this is a new character who isn't in any other scene in s3, rather than an existing character who gets a powerup to look different.

tuon is a possibility, but would her aesthetic really be THAT different from the high blood we saw in s2? i don't know, maybe it would! another seanchan possibility is the empress herself; it would be so sick if tuon was in multiple scenes in the tanchico plotline and we get to know her not realizing who she is, and then at the very end of the season she goes home and we find out she's the daughter of the seanchan empress. the literal empress would be a good candidate for looking like nothing we'd ever seen before because she'd surely have to be the most over-the-top person in the world. and Mama Tuon could maybe fit the bill of a "really important" character if they bring some of tuon's backstory onscreen and give her a storyline within the court of the nine moons in s4 before heading back to the westlands in s5, thus giving her mom a significant role and making a lot more out of the mommy issues that were hinted at in the books, but even in that scenario it feels like a stretch to consider Mama Tuon THAT important (but again, we just can't know how they might decide to bulk up characters; no one would've ever considered liandrin important based on the books!)

the only other possibility i'm thinking of is a new forsaken, with my strongest guesses being sammael or graendal (since they were both namedropped in s3, and there's also an alleged sammael audition script), and a smaller guess of asmodean (i'd assume we would see him in more than one scene in s3). but here we also run into the question of, how different would they be from the forsaken we've already seen? plus, would they require a "major" collaboration with the makeup department? sammael maaaaybe, depending on how they do his scar.

any standard westland character (aes sedai, political leader or noble, aiel, etc) i wouldn't think would have particularly wild aesthetics, so i'm discounting all those (like cadsuane), but you never know.

i'm sure there's about a hundred other possibilities i'm not thinking of right now! what do you guys think?

[cozcat]

Costuming the Amyrlin, part 1

I've been thinking for a while about how I love Siuan's costumes - both as pieces in themselves, and for what they might mean as they continue to tell this story. So here we are.

Please note: this post only contains spoilers for the show. Part 2 of this post will contain spoilers for the books as well, and will be linked at the end.

When we see Siuan as Amyrlin, we see her in incredibly elaborate, detailed clothing - it's intricate, it's clearly expensive, it's incredibly structured. These are the outfits that she exerts her power in - within the White Tower or outside of it, the Amyrlin stands alongside kings and queens, and that is made clear the second she walks onscreen.

It bears little resemblance to what we see her wearing in private - those moments where does not have to be the Amyrlin more than she is Siuan, because these are not the clothes of Siuan Sanche, these are the vestments of the Amyrlin Seat. But do you want to know what it does remind me of? Papal regalia.

I would not be surprised at all to find out that Isis Mussenden and Sharon Gilham intentionally channelled religious regalia, given that Siuan is often described as the wizard pope. The clothing sets expectations for those that see them, and they let person and position be the same - it's a clear purpose, and these garments achieve it. Both colour-wise and structurally, there is a strong resemblance there. Costuming is a visual cue for viewers, so when Siuan walks on in something that evokes religious authority or royalty, viewers know instantly what that means.

(Though a bonus thing for the colour of Siuan's clothing? Look what happens when you blend the seven colours of the Ajahs together...

Thank you @fuel-prices for the handy dandy image.

There is a very strong resemblance in colour. And as a side note - this is the only outfit we see her in that entirely obscures her tattoos. But we have Tairen paisley visible on the cuffs. Be it the visible tattoos or the paisley, Siuan does not shy away from where she is from.)

And the thing with both religious wear and Siuan's costumes is that I very much doubt that anybody wearing those clothes is wearing them for fun. A person in a position of power and authority is expected to look the part. Siuan needs people to think of people her as the gold standard of an Amyrlin, because she needs to deflect all belief that she could be anything otherwise. Siuan needs to look the part - Maigan straight up says that Siuan is losing her grip on the Tower: Siuan cannot afford any more doubt cast upon her. She and Moiraine have a shared mission - and in order for Siuan to succeed in her half of it, and to allow Moiraine to succeed in her half, she needs to maintain that power, and that control. Siuan is pragmatic, a planner - she's sensible! She knows she needs to be every part the Amyrlin wherever she can afford to be. So, as she would put it - why rock the boat by rebelling against the image expected of her?

And so, Siuan's costumes may not resemble what the books suggested that she wore, but they convey exactly what they need to - power, and prestige, and a unique position of authority.

I've gone into more detail on the way they might use the costuming so far for forthcoming events in part 2 of this post. Please note: book spoilers to The Gathering Storm.

[amemoryofwot]

Sharon Gilham showing up with the Green Ajah costumes like

[nalebifrie]

Details in Verins costum from an interview with Sharon Gilham

[mashithamel]

Heroes of the Horn by Sharon Gilham on Instagram

[biggoldbelt]

Sharon Gilham & Davina Lamont Interview | The Wheel of Time Season 2 | Prime Video

Sharon Gilham & Davina Lamont Interview by Big Gold Belt Media Sharon Gilham (Costume Designer) + Davina Lamont (Makeup and Hair designer)–Synopsis:In the Amazon Original series The Wheel of Time, Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski, Gran Turismo) learns he is The Dragon Reborn—a dangerous figure from history destined to save the world … or break it. Desperate to protect him from the Dark One, an army…

[fuckyeahcostumedramas]

Sophie Okonedo in “The Wheel of Time” (2021 - Present).

[sesiondemadrugada]

The Nun (Corin Hardy, 2018).