A high fantasy series like The Wheel of Time boasts countless moving parts, much of which occurs behind the scenes. Season 3 ramps up the creativity, scope and scale, taking everything to a new level.
If you found yourself drawn to the intricate hair/makeup stylings and envy-inducing costumes, look no further than Davina Lamont and Sharon Gilham. Davina is the hair, makeup and prosthetic department head for the series, while Sharon is the costume designer.
Recently, I had the privilege of chatting with Davina and Sharon about crafting looks unique to each character in The Wheel of Time, how they work closely together and more.
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This interview has been condensed for length and clarity.
Davina Lamont and Sharon Gilham
Melody McCune: My first question is for both of you. What are your career origin stories? How did you get into your respective fields?
Davina Lamont: I wanted to be a sound engineer. Back in my day, you used to do stuff like a work experience. So, I went to a local television station and did work experience there, and passed the makeup room. I had a quick glance through the door. Six months later, I started training for a year in makeup, and after that, my career started taking off. Back then, you also did a lot of free work, so I did free stuff as a trainee and worked my way up.
After that, about five years later, I was on one of the biggest properties globally and probably to date – The Lord of the Rings. I started off in small television stuff, and then Lord of the Rings. Ever since, it’s been one milestone to the next. I had a lucky career break.
Sharon Gilham: Mine was also not a straight line — I studied languages in my early 20s. I was living in Spain, and I had a eureka moment while making costumes for a small theater production. I was sitting at a sewing machine and thought, “I wonder if this is a job that you get paid for?” Anyway, I went to art school and did a degree for three years. After graduation, I was very lucky to meet a costume designer who was the same age as me, who taught me everything. She just landed Snatch, the Guy Ritchie film. I assisted her on that, and the rest is history.
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The Wheel of Time Season 3
MM: For Davina — Season 3 has a variety of hair and makeup looks. What was the process for you behind developing looks unique to each character?
DL: It started with conversations with Rafe [Judkins], the showrunner, and obviously Sharon as well. We had a lot of conversations about the cultures. Sharon would start to put her looks together. Once the characters started coming in, I’d do a lot of photo-realistic, Photoshop versions and concepts after discussions. On hand, I had something like 400-plus wigs, which I was very lucky to have. That sort of stuff doesn’t happen often; you never get the luxury of that. I had a huge workshop I could draw from. I was lucky to have everything on hand and a huge team to build it from.
For me, once the concepts were approved, it was a matter of that and how much time we had to put the character together. I think we totaled three to four fittings per character. Probably 2,000-plus fittings throughout the show. And that’s not including the stunts we had coming through. It was a big beast of a show.
The Aes Sedai
MM: For Sharon — I love how personalized the costumes are for each Ajah among the Aes Sedai, and this is especially on display during the fight sequence in episode one. What were your influences behind these costume designs?
SG: There’s a lot of information in the books. Robert Jordan really loves to write lots of details about costumes and clothing, which is really helpful. I would start off with all that information. Each Ajah is obviously a color that’s allocated to the group they work in. Those groups are divided by function in the White Tower. So, some people would be the warriors in green, some are the keepers of knowledge in brown, the military in red, etc. I did mood boards based on those colors.
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Then, I used the idea of different textiles and fabrics for each group. The browns were in tweeds and wools; less airy, floaty fabrics. The blues were the spies, so their fabrics had a lot of movement to them. So, I took these functions and found a fabric or a look that I thought would work for that particular function. The grays, they are the negotiators, so their clothing is kind of woven together – like weaving people back together and having conversations.
There’s also the place the main characters come from — there’s also an influence from that as well. It gets bigger and bigger from there. But it helps to give each person a very clear identity.
Collaboration
MM: You worked together closely this season to bring these looks to life. What was that like? How did your departments interact or communicate during this process?
SG: We worked really closely with each other every step of the way. It was very much a conversation. We influenced each other in terms of how the costume might develop and work.
DL: We were pretty much in sync with a lot of the characters. It was almost like we were in each other’s brains, going each and every step of the way with the cultures we were building. I would say, “I’m gonna build this,” and you’d be so excited and vice versa. Once I saw images of what you were doing, it was almost like we were cheering each other on. We were really in sync. You don’t get that often. And there were times where we had to turn left or right, or we had to pivot a bit, but if you have everything on hand, it’s [still] very cohesive.
Making It Work
SG: When we were developing Queen Morgase’s (Olivia Williams) big collar, we wanted to make it into a funnel thing – like a vase with a funnel down the back. I showed it to Davina, and she was like, “Yeah, that’s great, but how is the wig gonna work?” And I was like, “The wig could just come down the back of the funnel.” Everything is always a conversation and a collaboration. In those circumstances, neither of us went, “Well, that’s my idea and I’m not gonna change it.” It was like, “Okay, let’s think again. How can we make this work for both of us?”
Rhuidean
MM: Back to Davina — Episode 4 is such a pivotal episode for Rand and Moiraine. What was it like crafting distinct looks for Rand’s ancestors, in particular, and what went behind creating Moiraine’s look when she’s inside the rings?
DL: That was a tough one. That was up there with one of the toughest episodes I’ve ever had to do. The director was fantastic with pooling ideas and with how he was going to execute them. It was a big task. Starting off, we had many meetings. I started putting concepts together for Rand. At that stage, we knew Josha [Stradowski] wanted to play all the characters.
So, I put concepts together for all his looks — contact lenses and facial hair. We started building and testing, and the great thing about Josha is that once we put him into character, he wanted to go away and spend a good couple of hours in full costume and makeup through the testing period so that he had an understanding of what he needed to do for his character. We did a lot of testing in Prague. It was great to see him put all these characters into play, and he was fantastic.
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Moiraine’s Salty Look
When it came to Moiraine, Rosamund [Pike] is completely collaborative. We just kept talking, with Sharon as well, about the looks we were gonna put her into and what previous looks we had done that we could use. When it came to her salty look, your skin starts drying as soon as you enter Rhuidean. It’s the drying effect that we wanted to show. I knew that at the start of prep. So, we spent a good week finding products that would stay on the skin and wouldn’t irritate it. We used salts to create this 3D effect and make that blow off into the eyes. We tested for four or five days to get the end result.
Tanchico
MM: For Sharon — The Tanchico costume designs are so fun, especially the unique veils each character wears. What inspired you to essentially redefine veils?
SG: I didn’t want to do just a bridal veil — a simple piece of fabric hanging down. I wanted to make it more interesting and also create something that shows different social scales – the hierarchy within that place. Lower classes, upper classes and everything in between. I also didn’t want to do anything that resembled a burka. After researching it, we bought some fabrics. I wanted to use these semi-transparent fabrics, and also bought some fabrics with texture.
We tried putting them over someone’s face, and I was like, “How about we try pulling it back over their face?” Depending on the fabric, the face becomes really distorted underneath. It’s supposed to be dangerous and dark and weird, and you feel very uncomfortable. It’s very odd. You can’t make proper eye contact.
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We also did veils with lips drawn on top of the veil or eyes cut out, but in the wrong place, and it has this surrealist feel as well. It started to make for some really exciting images. It was so much fun to design, and great to go on set and see all these people with these strange looks going on.
The Aiel
MM: For Davina — This season focuses heavily on the Aiel. How did you transform blonde and brunette actors into redheads?
DL: That was a lot of fun. We spent six months out of the year building these wigs. We ended up making 150 in my wig shop. I also had 60 human hair lace-front wigs. There was a strike at that stage, and a lot of people were out of work; therefore, Alex Rouse and her team could solely focus on making the wigs.
Not everyone can suit red hair. We had to focus on what type of red would really suit their skin tones. They also had to look weathered and like they spent their whole lives in the desert. So, it was a pretty huge undertaking for my team.
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New Characters
MM: For Sharon — Season 3 boasts a lot of new characters from different cultures and tribes. How did you go about crafting unique designs for these characters?
SG: The starting point is always the books and the amount of detail they contain. You also have groups of people who could belong to a culture, a nation or a different type of group, like the Forsaken. Or they come from the most futuristic point in The Wheel of Time. You can have all these influences from contemporary or even slightly futuristic worlds mixed in with very gritty people like the Aiel. Each time you have a new culture and a new group, you have to make a set of vocabulary for that group and a set of rules, which are partly based on the books and partly on my designs and ideas.
Then, you can start to play and expand within that. When Rafe first told me about the Aiel, I thought it was gonna be the most boring thing ever because it was people in beige clothing and I love color. But when you’re pushed into a constrictive space, sometimes you become the most creative. And that world develops in a really interesting way. You can see just how far you can go with texture, color, patterns and fabrics to make something really interesting.
Favorite Looks
MM: Do you have a favorite look from this season?
DL: My Rand – you can’t really go past all the Rands I had to take on. I also love the whole of episode four. There’s so much going on. You had all the cast made up as Forsaken.
I love Tanchico, and I love what we did with the Aiel and Cold Rocks Hold. This whole season has been my absolute favorite. To be able to do this much in one season is unheard of, I think.
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SG: It’s hard to say. Even in the first two episodes, we had to create so many different looks for the Aes Sedai. For me, that was using a lot of fashion influences like Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen. I’m a massive fan of his work because it was always so experimental and pushed the boundaries. Then, we had the world of Andor, Queen Morgase and Lord Gaebril (Nuno Lopes) — two flamboyant shows of strength of character and who they are.
There are 12 changes for Moiraine throughout the show. Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe) has many costumes. And each time, you’re trying to find a new angle on some spectacular outfit. I love details, texture and putting little Easter eggs into the costumes. This world is so rich in writing and storytelling. You can go to town with all the costumes. So, it’s very hard to choose one.
On the Horizon
MM: What else is on the horizon for you both, career-wise?
DL: We’re both on the same show at the moment. We can say it’s called Ride or Die with Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham. It’s completely different from what I have done in a long time — action, adventure. It’s definitely keeping me busy, that’s for sure. That’s what I’m up to at the moment.
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SG: There are a few things floating around the ether, but nothing we can say is concrete. We are always happy to be working together because we have such a good creative relationship and friendship. We can totally understand each other and push each other, and we’re just waiting for another job like The Wheel of Time.
Thank you, Davina and Sharon, for chatting with GGA!
The Wheel of Time Seasons 1 through 3 are now streaming on Prime Video.
Zoë Robins Talks Nynaeve’s Arc in THE WHEEL OF TIME Season 3
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What I do: I'm GGA's Managing Editor, a Senior Contributor, and Press Coordinator. I manage, contribute, and coordinate. Sometimes all at once. Joking aside, I oversee day-to-day operations for GGA, write, edit, and assess interview opportunities/press events.
Who I am: Before moving to Los Angeles after studying theater in college, I was born and raised in Amish country, Ohio. No, I am not Amish, even if I sometimes sport a modest bonnet.
Bylines in: Tell-Tale TV, Culturess, Sideshow Collectibles, and inkMend on Medium.
Critic: Rotten Tomatoes, CherryPicks, and the Hollywood Creative Alliance.
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