Valentino is on a roll when it comes to red-carpet wear. Since the 2019 awards season kicked off, we have seen Pierpaolo Piccioli’s team help Lady Gaga realise her tribute to Judy Garland via Cinderella-esque couture, create a superhero-blue caped gown for Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel tour wardrobe, and dress countless stars in runway looks in between.
Last night, it was Emilia Clarke’s turn to work with the house. For the Game of Thrones season eight premiere, where she joined co-stars Sophie Turner, Gwendoline Christie and Maisie Williams in waving goodbye to the fantastical franchise, Clarke wore a voluminous grey tulle Valentino gown with a pale blue slip underneath. Across the chest panel was written the poem, “Leave your door open for me I might sleepwalk into your dreams” in gemstones. Was it a reference to some lost medieval scripture from Winterfell? Will it become a significant message in the final episodes? The jury is out, according to Vogue’s GoT correspondent.
The Radio City Music Hall celebration comes weeks after the 32-year-old revealed that her personal journey has been as tumultuous as her character, Daenerys Targaryen’s. After wrapping the first season, Clarke suffered a life-threatening aneurysm at 24 years old, with another one following a few years later. “I looked as though I had been through a war more gruesome than any that Daenerys experienced,” the actor wrote of her brain surgery.
The aphasia Clarke experienced after her treatment – a condition that left her unable to remember her own full name – left her future unclear. “I could see my life ahead, and it wasn’t worth living. I am an actor; I need to remember my lines,” she said of the extreme worry around cognitive loss. The inspiring outcome of her illness? The launch of a charity, SameYou, which aims to support funding for neuro-rehabilitation. Clarke announced the initiative via Instagram, with her GoT family immediately chiming in with messages of support.
Last night, however, was all about celebration, and as her stylist Petra Flannery commented of the poetic undertones of the gown, Clarke looked just “dreamy”.
