As we round the corner on the end of Game of Thrones, only one thing is certain: no matter who comes out on top, every final player will be dressed fabulously. Emmy-winning costume designer Michele Clapton still has a number of extraordinary looks coming up (have you seen Cersei’s new red dress?)—but when it’s all said and done and we close the book on Game of Thrones, you’ll have a chance to peruse the best of the robes, gowns, coats, and suits of armor that made up the rich fabric of Westeros in Insight Editions’ upcoming book, Game of Thrones: The Costumes. In a recent interview, Clapton previewed the collection, and teased the one fashion evolution we’ve all been sleeping on.

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Game of Thrones: The Costumes is part of a new four-part retrospective book series, the first of which will be out on May 28; other entries in the series include Game of Thrones: The Storyboards, by lead storyboard artist William Simpson; The Art of Game of Thrones; and The Photography of Game of Thrones, by principal unit photographer Helen Sloan.

Iconic looks from everyone’s favorite Westerosi power couple/aunt and nephew grace the cover of the book, which you can pre-order here.

Courtesy of Insight Editions

Vanity Fair: Which character’s style journey have you loved creating the most?

Michele Clapton: All of the women, really, especially Sansa. Her style is closest to my personal taste, maybe because she’s closest to me in height! I also loved creating the armies, their armor, and the looks of each city.

Was it challenging or fun to dress all the Essos warm-weather characters for the cold North in Season 8?

Yes! I decided that Dany would provide padded doublets and trousers for her Unsullied troops, to still maintain their silhouette and uniformity. With the Dothraki, whose ethos is to take what is not theirs through force, I thought it much more interesting to have them take trophies from the fight with the Lannisters—their army coats and elements of their armor. There is so much evidence of this happening in battles throughout history. I also took reference from the hill tribes that I had created in an earlier season, and had them weave rabbit skins and whatever else they could find to create protection. They had to look wild and crazy to the northerners.

Which culture or location did you most enjoy creating costumes for, and why?

I loved Braavos; it was so distinct and complete. I loved how Arya sat within it. I particularly like the bankers wearing their sabots [a kind of clog] for interiors—it was a play on the French peasant (and others) that put their sabots on to go outside to do “dirty work.” To me, it implied that banking is a dirty business.

How would you advise people who maybe aren’t as keen observers to evaluate the costuming more knowledgeably? Are there things we should take note of in this book when looking for clues or knowledge about a character?

Well, I guess it is so often subliminal, because [costumes] shouldn’t dominate, and it’s different for every character. Sometimes people will see links or messages that improve their viewing; sometimes they interpret them in a different way than I do, and that’s really interesting to read. I always use color to tell stories.

Since these costumes are pseudo-historical, were there costumes where you used some specific modern techniques or materials in surprising ways?

We try to keep our methods of making the costumes as correct as we possibly can, with lots of hand stitching. But with the masks for the Sons of Harpy, we decided, in part, to embrace technology. We first created a sculpt in clay to determine the shape of the mask. We then decided to apply the surface texture that I had found on an origami paper mask by scanning the clay mask, and applying the texture on the computer. We then had that printed in a 3-D scanner. Once we received the first few masks back, I realized that they were far too uniform, so I hand sanded them in different ways to make them more individual. They then re-scanned these to create a variety. When these came back to us, we sanded and broke into them again, then applied gold leaf, and aged them.

What was the biggest reaction a performer had to seeing his or her new costume?

Lena Headey loved her coronation look, and Pedro Pascal kept his Oberyn on after his fitting. Pilou Asbæk said his Euron Greyjoy rock-star look was epic!

Is there a character whose style journey didn’t get a lot of notice, but you really loved personally?

Maybe Littlefinger. It was great to work with Aidan Gillen on his character. We discussed trying to show how his confidence grew, the little details in his costume that reflected his complicated existence. All quite subtle, as it should be. Aidan and I really enjoyed his development.