Two of the biggest problems with HOTD's costuming is that it's simultaneously *too* similar to GOT, despite being centuries ago, and all over the place. Clothing would have been similar within a time period but class and cultural differences would also influence style. Both Alicients had costumes that doesn't indicate a cohesive Hightower look beyond green. With ROP, the costumes had rhyme and reason because the designer designed for each culture and actually worked on the Hobbit movies too.
Yeah, like, one thing Michelle Clapton did very well in GoT was making the different regions in Westeros and Essos look distinctive, and stay coherent about it. I'd argue the quality went down in the later seasons, but the basic ideas and concepts were there throughout, and for the most part, they had decent wigs! And keep in mind season 1 of GoT didn't have that big of a budget and it still looked better than HotD!
Like, I can see a few Tudor references here and there (Alicent has a veil that looks like a French hood from time to time, Rhaenyra has a gown that looks like an Elizabethan era dress with the white collar and all), but I don't really get why it's "Tudor-inspired", given the ASOIAF universe is basically an AU of medieval England (Aegon I is William the Conqueror, Rhaenyra is Empress Matilda, ASOIAF itself is the Wars of the Roses). The styling is just not different enough for me to really notice how it changed from one period to another - and you don't need to make it more simplistic, just give me something. Hell, they could have gotten away with a Roman-inspired look where Rhaenyra, Rhaenys and Laena wear hairstyles like this:
And if you want Alicent to be a Livia Drusilla type where she presents herself as a "traditional woman" who doesn't have time to look frivolous, you could go with something like this:
Seriously, have fun with it! You could also have the Hightowers with the traditional Roman inspired fashion, and have the Targaryens decked out like Byzantine emperors. Like, you'd THINK the fall of the Targaryen dynasty would lead to huge changes in dress, because the Targs would probably opt for Valyrian fashions that the court would have tried to emulate, and then Robert Baratheon basically throws all of that out of the window and the "fashionable" style is now pretty much dictated by Cersei, since she's the queen.
Kate Hawley meanwhile is the costume designer for RoP, and she did design for opera, AND IT SHOWS. She also did the costumes for Crimson Peak - which is probably one of the best I've ever seen in a period drama, and I'm not even kidding. Take for instance Edith and Lucille - Edith is a rich heiress, so she wears silhouettes that were in vogue at the time and has a Gibson Girl look to her:
And even then, even if the silhouette is pretty much prefectly accurate, she's still able to have fun with it! The fabrics used here weren't necesarily used in the Edwardian era, but the idea was to use some that looked similar to butterfly wings, and it works!
Lucille, meanwhile, wears gowns with a silhouette that was in vogue in the 1870s-1880s, with the bustles and all, but not anymore. It looks out of place during the evening party where she plays the piano for everyone, and her clothing is one of the things that awakens Edith's father's suspicion. It would be one thing if she was an old lady (since they tended to wear dresses that had gone of fashion 20-30 years ago, hence why in P&P 2005, you'll see Mrs. Bennet wearing a rococo dress at the Netherfield ball), but Lucille isn't that old.
And the thing is, the Sharpes are low on money, but fashion was meant to be sustainable at that time and Lucille could easily adjust her dresses to have a more fashionable silhouette, and use the removed fabric for other stuff, instead of having to buy something new. She chooses not to, and it's deliberate, probably because the dresses she wears belonged to her mother.
See? That's thought and care right there.
Meanwhile, see this dress? Alicent Hightower wishes she looked that good:
And the thing is, with all the pleating, the belt thingy she has, it would be so easy to mess up and have her dress look frumpy. The belt is perfectly adjusted and provides the watery effect it's supposed to have, the pleating is nice, and the dress actually looks like it was made specifically for her. Which makes sense, because Galadriel is a Noldo princess and she'd absolutely have her clothing tailor-made, and have it be from the best Elven seamstresses you can find. It looks so simple at first, but the more you look at it, the more you see all the little details it has. And they didn't mess up her hair, either (and anyone who's read the Silmarillon knows Galadriel's hair is important!). They used Morfydd Clark's natural hair, added extensions, made sure there were golden and silver undertones, and voilà.
And the costume department did their homework when it comes to the design - they took inspiration from pre-Raphaelite artists when it comes to the Elves, and also a little bit for Númenor as well - which makes sense given the connection they have to Elves, but they still look distinctive, with plenty of little details referring to Elros' origins here and there. Bronwyn has a dress that looks different from the other villagers, yes, but given she's a healer, she'd probably know how to dye her clothes and would dress more lightly due to spending a lot of time outside looking for herbs. The Dwarves look VERY different from the rest, and Disa has some great outfits, but you can tell their clothes became the way they were given they spend more of their time underground. The Harfoots seem to be wearing stuff they found while travelling, since they don't seem to have equipment to weave cloth and they often seem like they're wearing stuff that's too big for them. And I'm only scratching the surface here.
