BEST DEFENSE: COSTUMES AND ARMOR How Kate Hawley and the costume department channeled rich mythologies into their battle garments
T he Rings of Power costume department immersed themselves in the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as his broad range of influences from Scandinavian mythology to the art of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Costume Designer Kate Hawley says the huge moodboards they created from these foundations “became anchors for us about how to interpret the costuming in this world and to try and create the mood and spirit.” Just as Tolkien did, the armor of the series was developed from real-world historical research, from the Crusades, which inspired the Elven penchant for chainmail, to Napoleon’s army on the Russian front, and American soldiers in Vietnam. The designs needed to be grounded in our world, but twisted to create something fantastical. Each of the regions of Middle-earth required unique custom armor, calling for Hawley and her team to equip multiple types of soldiers. The costume department on The Rings of Power quickly expanded, developing an in-house armor and props department, as well as more traditional departments like cutting and barding. Everything had to be crafted specifically for the series as the cultures themselves needed to be built from the ground up. Hawley feels that, “There was a lot that we could refer to, but we had to make it our own and make it work in our world.” The armor of Arondir and the Wood-Elves illustrates this approach beautifully. The Elves are a species who not only live in the trees but become a part of them. For their costumes, Hawley says that, “Me and my costume team responded in an organic way to everything.
We had the idea of doing a woodgrain chest plate. We had amazing technicians, props people, and a beautiful sculptor who spent ages sculpting these chest plates to look like real wood.” Into these bark-like designs, Hawley wanted to carve a design founded in real-world pagan mythology, which fascinated Tolkien. “I looked at classical images of the Green Man and that world of pagan worship. The Elves’ home is the land, so we came up with a classical armor with the face of the Green Man on it with leaves, which we brought together with designs by the Pre-Raphaelite William Morris.” The standard Númenor armor, like that of the Wood-Elves, reflects the landscape in which their civilization lies. The architecture is akin to a Mediterranean coastal city, designed by Production Designer Ramsey Avery with intricate street sets and a huge wharf by the water. “There is a lot of Atlantis in Númenor. We used imagery of the sea and Hippocampus, the seahorse. While the Elves have stars and moons, the Númenóreans have the sun. It reminds me of Icarus flying too close to the sun and the mortality these people face.” The different armor designs create a visual form of conflict, one clearly established through rich, contrasting mythologies. One of the first costumes Hawley had to design was the armor worn by Galadriel on her thousand-year hunt for vengeance. “It’s almost like the Crusades,” she says, referring to her historical touchstones. “We also looked at Tolkien’s very specific descriptions of armor. He described the Elves as wearing a lot of chainmail,
“Me and my costume team responded in an organic way to everything…We had amazing technicians, props people, and a beautiful sculptor…”
so we went to that rather than plate armor.” As always with her work on the series, the task was to find the framework and then take things to the next level, even if that meant making things harder. “There’s a lot of imagery in the chainmail, and it was all labor-intensive, hand-linked work. We chose a certain weight that made things more of a challenge, but it had a movement and a drape to it that suggested an Elven quality.”
For the radiant sun armor of Queen Regent Míriel, Hawley “tried to echo what I call the ‘Second Age silhouette and simplicity’ while also incorporating the materiality and richness of Númenor in it. A sense of the old world, with the coral armor and the shell as a decorative element. Then there’s the secret elements of jewelry, pins, and rings, gifts given between kings and daughters.”
— Kate Hawley, Costume Designer
Left: Costume Designer Kate Hawley’s team was inspired by pagan mythology and the Elves’ respect for nature for the bark-like design of the Green Man on Arondir’s (Ismael Cruz Córdova) chest plate.
Top Left: Costumers relied on Tolkien’s description of Elves wearing chainmail in their design process for Galadriel’s (Morfydd Clark) armor. Top Right: Númenórean armor design reflects the landscape in which they live.
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