Emmy winning Game of Thrones costume designer Michele Clapton will not return for the hit HBO show's sixth season.

This is a big deal.  Michele Clapton’s costume work and the part she played in adaption George RR Martin’s novels to the television is huge, I mean she won 2 Emmys for it.  From season one on, the color choices, style of dress, and hidden detail in the embroidering really made the characters come to life.

The costumes went way beyond just dressing characters in the colors of their Great House like red and gold for Lannisters, or Grey and White for Stark.  Her costumes for Dorne, the various cities in Essos, and the Wildlings were nothing short of great.  I’m certain all the people that cosplay as Game of Thrones characters will miss her influence on the show.

A lot of people departed Westeros in Sunday’s season five finale of Game of Thrones — and now there’s one more: costume designer Michele Clapton will also exit after five seasons.

The two-time Emmy winner announced her departure in an interview with Fashionista.com. “I feel like I’ve covered all bases now. It was really important to me,” she said, “knowing that I was going to leave, to actually design costumes for each [geographic] area [of Westeros] so it’s complete. In my head, anyway, it’s a complete look I left.”

Clapton gave Cersei (Lena Headey) and the other Lannisters a gold colored palette, to match their wealth and royal status. Daenerys Targaryan (Emilia Clarke) arrived in Meereen in blue gowns — but in season five, switched to white and pale grey, as a way of “removing her from reality.” The costumes for Dorne were colorful, feminine and chiffon — and for the Sand Snakes, purposefully sexy. Sansa Stark’s (Sophie Turner) looks are all dark and brooding — except for her wedding look, which mirrored the royal norther way her mother Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) dressed.

So it appears season six will have a new look along with its new plotlines. Shooting on season six of Game of Thrones starts in July in Belfast.

HBO did not respond to a request for comment on Clapton’s departure.

Source: THR