The argument “oh, it’s a fantasy, it is not supposed to be real!” always drives me crazy. Fantasy doesn’t mean nonsense or lack of logic! It IS supposed to feel real!

My mind is not as analytical as most, so I usually just go with my gut feeling of what looks “right” and what looks “off”. Thank you for your analysis, it really helps me clarify and process why I felt the costumes in RoP felt odd. One thing that really bugged me was the Southlands, how is it that some people wear thick sheepskin and hats while others appear to be half naked, and how everyone’s clothes are dull, colorless, and filthy, while Bronwyn’s outfit is colorful and clean. To me, she stood out like a sore thumb because it was inconsistent with the rest of the population. Maybe that’s the show’s way of depicting how great she is lol.

OMG you're right I didn't even notice all the other printed patterns (aside from the scale shirts) I knew they looked flat, and something seemed off, and it's because they are printed. I'd say the sad theme I am seeing is that costumes are moving away from having accurate styles and materials with lots of rich textures, and just "accessorizing!" over a simple base costume instead. Which is not the same thing.

Fantasy does not mean "anything goes". Every fantasy setting is still supposed to be a "real world": a plausible location where people are born, live their lives, and die. Those worlds need to follow some sort of internal logic; they need to look like they are real places. The simple fact of the matter is, everything in these worlds that is not inherently fantastical (the Force, magic, elves, faster than light travel, et al.) should be as grounded in reality as possible. Simply from a storytelling perspective, it makes it that much easier to accept the fantasy because it gives us a foundation to build upon. Low key, this has become one of my favorite channels. I like the breakdowns of costuming way more than I would have expected.

Fantasy is brought alive by the grounding in reality! Especially in costume design! You learn so much about a character just from what they are wearing! They made the Elves look like Vulcans… Elves were terrifyingly immortal and as they fled Middle Earth, it enhanced the sense of fear that ran through the current of PJ’s trilogy. But also, where there’s a whip? There’s a way… (search KZfaq if you’re not familiar, haha) 😂

Watching RoP I felt that the costumes were off but couldn't articulate why exactly - your videos are so helpful!!

Power Rangers had better costumes than this terrible show

All this talk about costumes, but I just noticed - in the still from Moria - that Durin's and Disa's chairs look actually really cool, so I guess - yeah, kudos to whoever designed them. And then the shot of the "real Outlander wedding dress vs fake copy" popped up over the shot and I just spluttered my tea lol 😀

Another issue, aside from the many brought up, is simple colour coding. Let's take a look at Numenor and the Southlands: the former, the island kingdom, we see an overwhelming display of blue, gold (or goldish) tailored (well, made to LOOK tailored), mix between togas, dresses, robes and capes. The Southlanders however, wear rough leathers, sheepskins, with the overwhelming colour being washed out pale blue or greys and browns. The clothes, overall, look rough and meant to be worn year-round. Except Bronwyn. As Lana Marie mentioned, not only is her dress design vastly different, but the colour is too: it's a deep, rich, blue colour. Numenor's colour. Slap on some jewelry and she wouldn't look out of place _in_ Numenor, and that's a major failing in my eyes, since different cultures, status and wealth is essentially erased in a show where they tout "different peoples and cultures coming together" - but to me, they all look the same. The costume design overall is incredibly homogeneous.

I cannot sew but I appreciate people who can. Fantastic video and I enjoy listening to your insights!

Man what they did to my boy Elendil at 7.00. With that helmet he literally looks like Asterix, it gave him some sort of a cartoonish look not to mention that during the Southlands battle scene there is a moment when that helmet wobbles on his head to the point that it almost falls of when fighting, it looked both funny & cheap like he needed to wear some sort of a helmet different than the others (to signal status & military prowess) and someone came : "hey wear this, it's from a costume party where i was dressed as Asterix" 😄

I like when people can explain, what we can feel but can’t explain for ourselves. Interesting topic and analysis.

Thank you it was good to hear somebody talk about the costume design from your point of view. It was very educational for me at least.

I totally agree with the "fantasy needs to be gorunded in reality"! Ppl going "ItS jUsT fAnTaSy" are showing a clear lack of common sense and the desire to simply shut their brain off when consuming. They are free to do this ofc, but they would be better advised to keep their uninformed opinion to their own private pleasure, and not bother other ppl with it.

Well done. One of the things I noticed was the roman and Greek influences.. Tolkien particularly said that his world was not influenced by Greek or Roman myths, culture or geography. (so no short Italian (American) matrons in the story. In height I am between a dwarf and hobbit!) The only excuse for Greek styles in Numenor was if the designer thought it was Atlantis as Plato described it. I honestly wondered if Mt Doom wasn't one our Italian volcanoes, but sincerely, I think Middle Earth is 'other worldly' I tat lace. It isn't quite as time consuming as pillow lace or needlelace, but lace, particularly, is time consuming. It has a fascinating history. Countries could go bankrupt buying it... skilled lace makers, kidnapped. It is possible to make machine lace look less mass produced. I really think I'm done with Rings of power. They are too hostile to Tolkien fans, and sometimes, it is easier to just ignore confused and ignorant people. They obviously don't want me to watch it.

The Southlander woman’s blue dresses bothered me for som reason. I feel like because she was the only one in the village wearing a saturated color and how did she obtain blue dye in that region, especially with little money?

The more I look that ripple effect silk, the more I think, it might actually be a type of silky fabric called moiré. It looks pretty much like a glued down rayon mix moire would. I have also seen some horsehair upholstery fabrics made in similar way, but those were like very old vintage ones and in UK. With the level of attention the showrunners put into this project I doubt they would go looking for something so heritage.

This answered so many of my questions. Many things appeared so off and cheap for me in comparison to LOTR and I couldn't understand why. Galadriel green dress was nice, but it looked Egyptian, her blue dress had japanese motives while the numenorians and the elven leaf crowns looked roman. This alone shows the lack of imagination from dressing department in Rings of power. It is unfortunate considering how much money was sunk in the project. It would be outrageous if they win Emmy for this but we see.

You remind me of one of my German friend. She has similar ellegence in her voice as well. Keep shining.

I'd understand having to make cuts with costume design if it was a small studio or something, but this is Amazon. You can't tell me that they're lacking funds. I've heard that this show had the largest budget of all times, and that it was much higher than the one the LotR films were made with. And despite of that, the costume department of LotR knocked it out of the park and then some with what they created. I've seen a replica of one of Arwen's dresses that cost around € 3000.

Thank you for sharing your expertise in an area few of us understand. And although we may not understand the underlying art, we can very much see and experience the results. The summary I take from your analyses continues to be, in essence, for the budget at play Amazon could have and should have done better. Looking forward to your next video. I agree a peek at undergarments (excuse the pun!) would be worthwhile. Certainly an area of design we average folks only appreciate when it’s done wrong.

Wonderful breakdown as usual! Materials are so important. Even for things like cosplay, I'm always really picky about the materials I choose as it makes a world of difference to how good an outfit looks and feels by the end. I'm looking forward to the discussion of undergarments as it's really not something that gets covered as much but can also have a lot of impact on an outfit imo. As for things I'd like to see in the future, I'd love more videos breaking down The Great's outfits! It takes a special balance to have things 'not entirely accurate' while still fitting the story and characters as well as TG does. When S3 starts, would you consider doing full episode reviews of the series? I just don't see people talking about it enough ^^

You've made very insightful and persuasive comments on the RoP costume in this video and the previous ones. You don't come across as a hater--just someone with a critical eye and comments. Thank you.

My mind was blown by that vid about the cost of luxury fabrics 🤯 i mean sure, ofc they were expensive but i had no idea they were THAT expensive 😬 in any case, thank you once again for expanding my lackluster knowledge about topics like these... You're an awesome lady 😁 also... I'm super stoked about the *undergarments* video 😏😏

Are you thinking of doing any more costume redesign videos? Your previous ones were really good, would love to see you redesign a Harefoot costume for instance.

Awww! I love your videos so much! Great analysis!

Again, thanks for pointing out poor choices the creators made that are beyond the excuse of time and budget restraints, such as how Bronwyn's outfit is inconsistent with every other villager's. I never noticed, but now that I look at it: yeah. It just doesn't make sense at all. And I realize it's a fantasy TV show so I don't need historical accuracy down to the techniques, materials, and dyes available, but Gil-galad's costume really does look like cheap 60s polyester gold lamé, and the scales of Numenor's costumes while cool sure do look awfully plastic.

You got good eye. At first I thought that wavy pattern of Adars armor was to resemble damascus steel and to show that ancient elven smiths could do a breastplate out of it. I haven't noticed same pattern on Gil-Galad's golden necklace nor Elrond's clothes. Nonetheless Adars mail and plate breastplate is still only one that look nice compared to other ones.

I think the bright colors works better in The Great because the show is a satire. From the get-go the show was presenting the story as "an occasionally true story" and the bright color palette on historically accurate clothing helps immerse us in that absurdity. Bright colors and creative choices in clothing doesn't work in Rings of Power because the show presents the story as a gritty fantasy drama, so adding in random modern fabrics and colors doesn't work because we as an audience were not prepped for any modern additions.

I clicked immediately when I saw the new upload :)

You're the woman of culture

I didn't like most of the RoP costume designs, but there were some that would have been fine either in another show, or at the very least, would have looked a lot better if they appeared to be tailored to the actors. None of it looks bespoke at all. Which isn't always a bad thing, you know, for example in the LotR trilogy, there were some orcs who would get the full on prosthetics, but then less and less as you went back and some of them were just straight up wearing masks. So not all of the RoP actors would have to have costumes perfectly tailored to them, but for heaven's sake, at least tailor the ones who have the most lines and screen time! One of the most egregious examples to me are the Numenorian helmets. Now, I did not like the Numenorian armor design in general, though I thought the idea of scales could have worked if they'd done it differently, and I think I am one of the few people who actually liked the design of the helmets. But GOOD GRIEF the helmets look like they'd fall off if you looked at one of them wrong! It's like they made the helmets for full grown men and put little baby boys in them with their heads bobbling around inside. Obviously the helmets can't be 100% authentic, because they'd cover more of the face if they were and you need to be able to see the actor's expressions. LotR did this as well, allowing the audience to see more of the actor's face. But at least the helmets fit their heads! You weren't worried the whole scene if a breeze would take the helmet off!

Maybe amazon wants to sell the costumes on amazon

their armor looked like the once worn by spanish conquistadores and their dresses looked like they're from ptolemaic egypt or greek. i even saw a hoplite helmet worn by orcs and the elves wore gallic helmets and it made them looked like roman legionaires. 🤣

I agree with another person's comment that I'd like to see more videos with your costume redesigns. I really enjoyed the other ones you did! Like how might you have designed the numenorian people's clothing or the southland woman (can't remember her name because it didn't strike me as important).

I'm no costume expert but even I started observing problems with the quality look very early on. I could sense something was "off".

Mark Wallis there at about 4.30 minutes in.

👍🏻

I’m very brunch drunk and very excited to watch this 🎉

Well done m'lady, we may reach out to u for some consideration in shaping our Preflood Earth world....delightful video and EXSURGE TOLKIEN.

Costumes in RoP were rather cheap and lazy, like much of the rest of the show. I'm not watching the second season.

Costumes should at least look good enough that you can tell what show they are from. But TROP, WOT, and lesser fantasy productions, all look like their costumes came from the same Ren Fest.

Is it just me or do all the helmets sit too high on everyones heads?🤔

All costumes in ROP look false and cheap... Thanks for explaining

What’s off about the hair is it’s too modern. I seeing these pictures none of the hair looks accurate. The short hair for the elves is just so wrong looking. And yeah their is no consistency with the costumes and also it all looks so cheap!

yeah sure, it's fantasy therefore doesn't need to be historically accurate...but it needs to be aesthetically pleasing and most importantly serves the plot and the characters! In which case this show did neither, it was just plain bad costume designs.

Short hair of elves? The writers are gay, but they don't admit to it. Obviously

Its the armor that bugs me. Numenoreans should look like hardcore ancient Greeks/Romans on fantasy steroids.

Gil galad's costume is so bad, it literally looks like a 15$ party shop costume with that insanely cheap ''gold'' look. I can not believe someone looked at that and thought '' yes, this is elven''