Sexy Daenerys Targaryen Costume

This was my Daenerys Targaryen costume from Halloween 2014. I’m a huge Game Of Thrones fan so naturally I wanted to go as a character from the HBO drama.

My favorite female character has been Daenerys from the beginning; even with how young she is in the books, I still really connected with her. Most of her looks in the show are more regal than the look I chose. I ended up choosing the outfit she wore for most of season 1, as she traveled through the desert with her Dothraki hoard. I chose this not only because it was easy, but becuase it was sexy. I wanted a smart, sexy costume that wasn’t too revealing. I settled on this look and had absolutely no idea where to start.

The first thing I did to create this Daenerys Targaryen costume was to scour the internet for a wig. If you’re doing this, you need to assess exactly what you need out of this wig. I needed a wig that would look great for one night, so I spent about twenty dollars. I found that this wasn’t the best investment, but as a college student it was perfect for my needs. This year I’ll be purchasing a much more expensive wig that will look much more natural.

I found plenty of tutorials on Pinterest on how to make this Daenerys Targaryen costume – they were all too involved and didn’t give the effect I wanted. Overall I was going for both sexy and smart, and there’s nothing sexier or smarter than someone creative, so I scraped these crazy expensive tutorials and just went for it.

Overall I spent about $30 on this Daenerys Targaryen costume. I was pretty pleased with it and I’d love to share my process with you. I’ll also share a fun tweak you can make to this look to take it from a demure Dany to a killer Khaleesi :)

Daenerys Targaryen Costume Top

This was the easiest part. I just cut a shirt I already owned. I used a brownish grey v neck short sleeve top from Forever 21. You could use any grey or brown top, any thing to get the point across. The great thing about making your own costume is that no one’s carrying around a reference image, so if it’s close, it’s close enough.

I cut the v-neck out first and found that it wasn’t revealing enough for my taste so I cut it a bit more. After that I cut the sleeves off leaving about an inch and a half of fabric as a strap to cover my bra straps. Dany’s top has very jagged edges. When cutting the bottom edge I found it useful to bunch up the fabric as I cut it to give it a more battered look.

Skirt

This was my absolute favorite part of the Daenerys Targaryen costume, it’s also the most involved step.

I headed over to GoodWill with the intent of finding fabric of some sort. I lucked out and found a size 20 suit jacket, which worked well for me as I am a smaller woman, it would be just as easy to go the fabric store and pick up some fabric if this won’t work for you. The jacket was a taupe color with dark brown lining. I used the shell fabric to construct a full skirt and added the lining later for the front panel. It was a bit difficult to peice together enough fabric to cover me. I mostly used fabric from the sleeves and back of the jacket.

For the panel at the front I simply used a sleeve, My skirt was very uneven, which I liked, but was a bit jarring. To remedy this I used the same technique I used on the shirt: I bunched the fabric as I cut along to smooth out the lengths but still keep the tattered feel.

For the top flap I used muslin (a cheap fabric used to test patterns). Muslin is unbleached, which was the perfect color for this part of the look. I wanted white but nothing too white, this is like the color of brown rice and looked really nice.

Accessories

The wig I purchased from eBay. It’s definitely a costume wig and couldn’t be worn everyday but worked perfectly for the costume. I used straight pins to attach it to a styrofoam head. Once it was securely on the head I was able to style the hair. I braided all of the wig in medium size braids to give it a more textured look (as this wig was not heat safe). I left the braids in for a few days to set the style (DO NOT wet the wig before leaving it to set, it will grow mold).

While still attached to the styrofoam head, I unbraided the wig and took small sections from the front and braided them back. With the two braids in my hand I carefully unbraided them halway and braided them together.

The boots and belt were both borrowed.

Daenerys Targaryen Costume Makeup

Emilia Clarke, the actress who plays Daenerys, doesn’t wear much beauty makeup on the show. I wanted to replicate this look, while keeping with my “sexy” theme.

I primed my face with an NYX primer and used a liquid foundation and set with translucent powder. Clarke is a natural brunette with dark eyebrows, as am I. Dany’s brows on the show are a strange greyish color, which comes from her dark brows being covered in concealer. I did the same thing and got a very similar result. I used a liquid concealer that matches my skin tone and Mac’s Brulee shadow to set the concealer.

I contoured my face lightly with the Hoola bronzer by Benefit, I put the bronzer in the hollows of my cheeks and down the sides of my nose to slim it out to appear more like Clarke. I went for a minimal eye look and let my skin take center stage. I used the Urban Decay Naked Palatte on my eyes. I used Naked (a matte shade close to my skin tone) from my lashline to the brow. I next put Buck (a warm matte bronze slightly darker than my skin) in the crease and toward the outside of the eye. I used Virgin (a shimmery pale pink) on the inner corner of my eye and dabbed a bit on the center of my eye. I swept a small amount along my brow bone.

My cheeks are very pink so I went without blush. Dany doesn’t wear lipstick so I just used a neutral one: Forever Frappe by L’Oreal. I don’t suggest you use the same colors I did unless your skin is similar to mine, I just recommend using neutral shades that you feel good in. I also contoured my chest to create the illusion of larger breasts.