Sansa Stark
Sansa Stark (played by Sophie Turner) has really evolved these past 7 seasons. She went from innocent powerless girl to a more mature young woman ready to play the game of thrones. At the start of the series Sansa wore simple cotton fabrics with cute designs stitched on. She's really skilled in sewing and mostly makes her own clothes. This shows creativity and industry. But like an insecure teenage girl Sansa often wore what everyone else wore, imitating their style in an attempt to fit in.
Sansa has pale skin and auburn hair so her colors are often pale or blue, gray and even mauve as a color palette. By the end of Season 1, Sansa started dressing like a Southern Lady and wearing silk dresses with overflowing sleeves and simple gold belts and accessories. She's to be the future queen consort but she's not as ostentatious as Cersei which made her unthreatening to the Queen Mother. I feel that's why Cersei "took it easy" on poor Sansa. "Little Dove" was mostly a chide at Sansa's meek character which more often annoyed Cersei but other times she felt a bit bad for her so in quiet moments the nickname had some degree of pity.
Season 3, Sansa's look became more in line with the Northern style. She wore her hair down instead of in that fancy roll and pig tails. She wore the Southern style of dress but nothing too bright or colorful. The somber colors of dark powder blue, silver, and mauve reflected her somber mood being a prisoner in King's Landing now tossed aside to be used as a pawn for the Lannisters. Her wedding dress was a mixture of grey and gold. Grey for the Starks and Gold for the Lannisters but the stitching on the dress was lions showing that the Lannisters now owned Sansa completely.
Sansa's accessories varied from dragonflies to lions. Dragonflies symbolize change and the change and change in the perspective of self realization, the kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life. Sansa begins to realize the harsh reality of her situation when Joffrey beheads her father. She realizes he's not a kind charming prince but a monster and that those kinds of romances are fairytales. She would wear the Lannister Lion necklace but to me it was like putting a collar on Sansa by the Lannisters who held her prisoner. She was theirs to command. She didn't wear the necklace again until her marriage to Tyrion. Sansa then creates a hard outer shell trying to be a "good" girl for Joffrey to escape his punishment and even after he abuses her she stands up and walks with her head held high only to cry in private. She doesn't wear the wolf symbol as for a while it was a source of shame as well as a target on her back. The Starks were seen as rebels and traitors defying their king and so to wear even a hint of Stark color or symbolism was a mark of death. When Margery informs Sansa that she was betrothed to Loris, Sansa shows her gratitude by changing her hair style to match Lady Margery. She stops however when she she's told that she's to marry Tyrion.
By the end of season 4 and a bit during season 5, Sansa makes a dress using Raven feathers and uses dark fabrics. She's dressed as a mocking bird, the sigil of House Baelish. She feels she has found a true champion in Littlefinger who killed her Aunt Lysa when she tried to hurl Sansa through the Moon Door in a jealous rage and who also killed Joffrey to protect her and to avenge Catelyn's death. Sansa even wears the same kind of cloak as Littlefinger and dyed her hair to help herself blend in. Yet once she is abandoned by Baelish to a cruel husband Sansa abandons these colors. As far as accessories Sansa wears a necklace that resembles the Phi symbol with a needle hanging on the end of a chain. The needle is Sansa's weapon, her ability to create an identity to suit her environment but still a hold on her old identity as a Stark girl. The Phi symbol is the Golden Ratio, a symbol of harmony, creativity, and balance. Sansa feels she found that with Lord Baelish but the illusion shatters when she is forced to flee Ramsay.
Her wedding dress in Season 5 was interesting. It was white a symbol of purity and innocence and on Sansa's dress were the sigils of her mother's House Tully, the fish. I found it curious that she should use Catelyn's sigil for her wedding and perhaps it's an echo of the Red Wedding. The Houses Tully and Stark have both suffered for and at weddings. She still doesn't wear the wolf even though she has returned home. The Stark Wolf is still a dangerous symbol to parade around. Sansa would rather associate herself with Tully perhaps? A fish seems much less threatening to a skinned man than a wolf and Sansa wants to project an air of innocence to make herself seem nonthreatening which has been her strategy to gage pity from others and from her abusers who might leave her alone for the most part. Of course that didn't work.
Season 6 and 7 we see Sansa take up the wolf sigil of her house to show her Stark pride. No longer ashamed of who she is or where she comes from Sansa dresses like a Northern Lady. She stitched the wolf into her gown and even imprinted the Stark sigil on a leather belt for Jon in the fashion of their father's Lordly furs. She now seeks to honor her house and avenge her slain relatives though she is still new to the game and may make mistakes that will hurt Jon and his cause. And she wears the Phi symbol again perhaps because she is attempting harmony with her half brother Jon Snow as they try to rule the North together.
Margery Tyrell
Margery Tyrell (played by Natalie Dormer) is a rose with thorns hidden beneath her petals. She is Cersei-Light. She's ambitious but seems to have more compassion. Margery seeks to use charm and persuasion rather than through fear or brute force and she obtains the results with better fortune. She wears bright summer/spring colors and the colors of her house green and gold. Blue, green, gold, and grey: Blue, grey and green when she was married to Renly Baratheon to perhaps make herself seem more demure or mature so that she may be taken seriously as a queen or perhaps grey was a storm color as Baratheon hails from the Stormlands and Margery's outfits were to convey her house's allegiance to House Baratheon that claims descent from the gods of wind and sea.
Margery's style of dress is quite provocative and revealing. She's not afraid to use all of her physical charms to achieve her goals. Like a deadly flower her beauty distracts from her ulterior political motives. This show of skin evokes jealousy from Cersei who is threatened by the young beauty. As far as accessories go Margery sports the Tyrell Rose in most of her gowns. One rose was rose gold, a combination of red and gold to combine her royal status with her sexual energy which she uses to advance her political career.
When she married into the House Baratheon, Margery sported the antlers of the Baratheon Stag on her silver crown. Silver is a feminine metal, malleable and perhaps a call to the moon goddess of Greek myth Artemis goddess of the wild and tamer of wild beasts, the virgin huntress who's symbol is also the stag. Margery is no virgin but she does seem to be a skilled huntress when it comes to marriage and the throne and could tame even a mad lion such as Joffrey. She is anything but weak and adapts to her surroundings accordingly to remain in power.
In season 6, Margery is stripped of her finery and given a simple cotton shift of a peasant. It was meant to strip her of her identity but Margery remained strong. She remained cool and calculating for the most part, testing the waters on occasion and plan accordingly for her next move. Then when she was freed from the Black Cells her fashion sense became much more conservative. No skin at all and her colors are darker and less flashy to match the religious climate that had taken hold of the city. Her crown was gold with stag horns but the Tyrell rose resting on the front in rose gold. Gold is more of a masculine metal. Margery wanted to show her commitment to her husband and the faith (however hollow) by completely changing her fashion sense. Yet still the rose forever symbolized Margery's true personality. "Growing Strong" was her motto as well as her family's as Margery lived by that code to be a rose, sweet and beautiful but beneath her petals and leaves were sharp thorns of intellect and winter may come but spring always followed and the rose always returned with it. Margery adapted and tried to weather the storm but in the end she still lost.
Margery has fallen but Sansa still lives. I'll miss Margery's wit and fashion sense most of all. Next blog post will be about Cersei Lannister and Danaerys Targaryen.
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