Michele Clapton discusses the symbolism behind the costumes in Game of Thrones season 7

Anyone who’s even glanced at some of the advance photos for Game of Thrones season 7 can tell that costume designer Michele Clapton is bringing her A-game this year. Talking to INSIDER, she expounded on her design philosophy, and how many layers of meaning are packed into each of the outfits she designs. For example, take a look at Cersei’s new black-and-red number:

“You know Dany is now moved from the heat of [Meereen] and she’s come north, so we obviously see her covered much more than we’re used to,” Clapton said. “And then her army is the Unsullied, so we’re trying to blend it all in and make them become a force.”

"With Dany especially, people used to say, “Well, why doesn’t she wear red?” Now you do finally start seeing it creeping in through the scaling and embroidery on her dresses. It’s just a touch. And she now has this fantastic new chain we’ve created. I didn’t want her to have a crown, I wanted her to have a chain. And she has a red sash hanging from it, which is slightly scaled and pleated as well."

And why can’t Dany have a crown? Because she isn’t queen yet, obviously, and Clapton doesn’t think Dany would wear a crown “before it was due.”

"You can see in the way [Dany is] dressing that she’s almost assuming the power but not quite. With all the colors and the details and the essence — it just becomes stronger. The width of the shoulders give her strength, the chain gives her strength. I tried to make the cut of the costumes just slightly more like a uniform and almost less feminine."

Clapton also notes that Dany’s current outfits bear some resemblance to the ones her brother Viserys wore in season 1 — he had a big Targaryen sigil on his chest and Dany has a chain with dragon heads on it. She’s embracing the symbolism.

But of course, Dany isn’t the only person with designs on the Iron Throne. Cersei Lannister, its current occupant, would rather like to keep it, thank you very much. Like Dany, she’s going with a very dark color scheme this year. “[S]he’s attained the throne and there’s a strength in her embroidery,” Clapton says. “It’s actually quite ornate and over the top and that’s a precursor in a funny way — it’s the last gasp before something else, in my sense. It’s a weird flamboyance, but it’s quite hard as well.

"And we’ve also shortened her dress so it makes her less vulnerable. She can move and she can be a little bit like Dany in a way, because it’s not quite as restrictive. [Cersei] always had strong collars and strong shoulders, so I thought this [dress] should take it the furthest I can take it before it’s not there."

It’s a little unsettling to hear Clapton talk about Cersei’s outfit being the “last gasp before something else.” With rumors of her impending death swirling, her fans may have reason to be nervous.

But as Clapton points out, all of the characters are on their way somewhere or other, and their costumes just reflect where they are at the moment. “”[I]t’s still a journey and it will be interesting to see where they go,” she said. “Season seven hasn’t been released yet, so the things you have seen are just a part of the journey.” Count us in. And for more of Clapton’s insights, head to INSIDER.

Meanwhile, TIME talked to two of the still photographers responsible for taking some of the lovely, high-detail shots above: Helen Sloan and Macall Polay. What is life like for a still photographer on this show? “I’m kind of everywhere for Game of Thrones, because it’s just so gigantic,” said Polay, “I’m shooting, no joke, the embroidery on the inside of Cersei’s dress, which probably the viewer can’t see, but the detail to everything on that show is so incredible.”

Overall, Polay tries to be “as stealth as possible,” getting close enough to actors to take candid shots but not so close as to annoy anyone. This can be hard, since as Sloan explains, working on Game of Thrones is a hectic job at best:

"There’s no sort of normal day on Game of Thrones. One day we’re kind of on a nice boat in the middle of a lake and the next day we’re setting fire to Dave the stuntman and chucking him off the side of said boat. You have to just approach each day as it comes."

For Sloan, the most difficult task she’s undertaken was trying to shoot the Battle of the Bastards. “It was just chaos,” she said. “I’m standing there and there’s 360 degrees of cool stuff to take photos of. You’re constantly going, ‘I’m not getting everything, I’m not covering it.’ There’s just so much going on.”

Next: HBO reveals the lineup for the Game of Thrones panel at the San Diego Comic-Con

All the same, Sloan thinks it’ll be difficult to go back to “normal life” after Game of Thrones is done. “It’ll be like that romance that you just never get over.” And it’s coming for all of us.