Game of Thrones Costume Significance: Arya

Hi friends! I'm back again, after a brief weekend hiatus. Hope you all enjoyed this weekend's episode (I know I did) perhaps with a stronger eye for those costume details (OMG Cersei's dress). We're going to approach now my favorite character, and probably the one to break my heart the most, Arya.

Several people have complained of spoilers. PLEASE note, my posts all go as up to date as when I write them. They are chronological, so stop reading if you haven't watched up to 7x02!
Past posts: Sansa: http://imgur.com/a/sNUqD
Dany: http://imgur.com/a/XnDOx
Cersei:http://imgur.com/a/JD7SL
Jon Snow:http://imgur.com/a/gp0w8
Jaime Lannister:http://imgur.com/a/sDRHy
Margaery Tyrell: http://imgur.com/a/4XJnO

Let's begin with our little baby Arya in Winterfell:

OMG so cute. Love the little helmet--she's playing dress-up, but unlike Sansa, who probably enjoys playing dress-up with her mother's gowns, Arya's imagining herself as a warrior. That's a pretty banged up old helmet--it probably is just lying around, and she's having fun. Her cloak has only a small fur collar, as it's still summer.

Such prowess with the bow! Her neckline has these little embellishments, but they aren't very neat. Arya is probably supposed to practice embroidery and sewing by working on her own clothing, but she isn't very good at it. A nice Stark blue-grey there. Notice the stitches on the shoulders--looks a bit like the stitches that holds together much of the leather armor we see. Note also that this is very much a little girl's dress. She's so very young for what she's about to experience.

Dancing lessons! Arya's again got this distinctive high neckline that she wears at this point in her life, along with these light blouses. She's dressed as a boy here, though just for practice--subtle foreshadowing, perhaps? Her hair here and earlier looks like someone tried to put it all up and neat, and braids and bits have just fallen out. She doesn't care.
Crying at Ned in the background.

Similar type of blouse again. The bit of embellishment at the neck is the only thing to remind us of her wealth. Notice how her hair is done just like her father's--she idolizes him. That's a skirt, because she is after all a girl, but it's not a skirt in the Sansa-sense--it's a skirt for battle practice. Arya's not your typical lady at all. This is the outfit she leaves the Red Keep in.

And here's the three-season long costume! Maisie was apparently so fed up with wearing this thing that she was overjoyed when she finally got a new outfit! Lots of fun to play Arya, but you don't get the pretty dresses you do when you play someone like Sansa. She's wearing her old blouse from her dancing lessons, but with a practical jacket over it. Those stitches add some texture, and call back to the stitches on her sleeves in Episode 1. She's still Arya, but hiding it. That's getting harder as she gets older though--the belt she wore since the beginning is now beginning to highlight that she's a girl.

Arya throwing away what makes her Arya. She looks so neat here, so far removed from who she was before. She's trying to become anonymous and faceless, and that's what this outfit shows--no embroidery, no embellishment, just black and white, as befitting the place it belongs to. Her hair is neat and short, but in a style reminding us of a girl more than a boy--she's androgynous here, not really hiding one way or the other.

Cat of the canals! Love how the details on her jacket and around her waist look like fishing nets. She's in such a disguise, taking on this character. Nothing of it really sings of Arya Stark of Winterfell, save again that light linen blouse, though the neckline is slightly different. The gloves, practical for her profession, are also the type of gloves a warrior might wear, showing her as a fighter. This is her, however, dressed as a female for the first time in quite a while.

Blind Beth. Total rags. She almost blends in with the stone behind her. She looks grubby as well, her hair unkempt in contrast with the fun little style of Cat. She's truly taking on each character she's assigned to play for the Faceless Men.

That stitching again! Don't forget that even though she claims to be no one, she is still Arya of House Stark, set on revenge, and refusing to erase her past. Again, very subdued earth tones--she's not sticking out. She looks boyish, androgynous even. That light blouse style is coming up again.

Arya, declaring who she is and that's she's going home. That blouse is back again and even more obvious--the embellishment at the neck is a strong echo of what she wore back in Season 1. Her hair is even styled a bit like Ned's.

And Arya, back in Westeros and choosing to head home. Her outfit actually has major echoes of what Jon and Sansa are wearing--the black, the cloak, the leather belt. The only difference is that she has a leather hood on her cloak rather than fur. After all, though she is trying to reclaim her past, she's very different than when she first left Winterfell, and her links to Jon and Sansa are long ago.

Here's the boyfriend's direterrier, lurking in the shadows just like Arya! Hope you enjoyed and let me know who you'd like me to do next.