Secrets of the Clothes You See on TV

For fans of Masterpiece PBS’s Downton Abbey, the scene in which the youngest Crawley sister, Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay), emerges for dinner in something other than a dress was pivotal. “In 1916 it would have been a shock for the aristocracy to see a girl in pants; this was a defining act for the character,” explains Downton’s Emmy-winning costume designer, Susannah Buxton. Audiences went wild for the progressive outfit. It even got its own Twitter feed, @SybilHaremPants. (Sample tweet: “Yay!! My mistress expecting!! I may be out of use for a while.”)

Even people who don’t watch AMC’s Mad Men know its fashion influence (hello, hourglasses everywhere!), but what had we never seen on the show until this season? A mini-dress. “It’s 1966, and Megan [Don Draper’s second wife] is young and modern, and she’s up on fashion,” says costume designer Janie Bryant, explaining her choice to go short for actress Jessica Paré’s birthday-party performance of “Zou Bisou Bisou.” Megan’s song and look went viral—by the end of the week, the scene had been viewed over half a million times on YouTube. Everyone seemed to have an opinion on the clip, including Bryant: “I love the moment in which she puts her leg up and you can really see the fishnet hose. It’s like, ‘Look how chic this girl is!’ ”

Yes, HBO’s Game of Thrones is a fantasy show with, you know, direwolves, but frankly, the clothes are real- life hot. Case in point: Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) spent much of this past season searching for her stolen baby dragons, and this is her costume for the scene in which she finds them. “Throughout the season Daenerys is taking on a more masculine, leadership role, and this outfit is the culmination of that,” shares Thrones costume designer Michele Clapton, who works with a team of more than 90 people. “It’s actually a man’s cloak, which she sees as a sign of strength, that she’s fashioned into a dress. This look tells us a lot about Daenerys’ character.”