The 10 most powerful looks from The Wheel of Time season 2

The second season of The Wheel of Time has concluded, and a good time was had by all. We thrilled to the twists and turns of the story, marveled at the sights of sounds of Falme and Cairhien, and paused the episode midway through to point and say, “What in the world are they wearing?”

Well, maybe not all of us did that, but the costume department on this show was definitely working overtime this season to whip up some memorable outfits. Let’s take a sartorial journey through Randland and remember the 10 most powerful outfits from The Wheel of Time season 2:

10. High Lord Turak: Go big or go home

The costumes on The Wheel of Time are, generally speaking, a lot. The designers like big, they like gaudy, they like to make an impact, and the invasion of the Seanchan people from across the ocean gave them a great opportunity to indulge their wildest fantasies.

The Seanchan are supposed to be different, alien. Their clothes should follow suit. High Lord Turak’s multicolored, multilayered, multi-dimensional robe is a good example. It’s ornate to the point of being impractical to wear; how are you going to walk through doorways with that big boney bedframe behind your head? But the opulence is part of the point; it emphasizes how strange and foreign these foreign strangers are. No one in Rand’s life, not even the most fashionable Aes Sedai, could ever imagine wearing that. The Seanchan are something brand new.

And we have to talk about the three-foot long nails at some point, but that can wait.

9. Aviendah: Roughin’ it, by Prada

From the wildly ornate to the deceptively simple, the Aiel warrior Aviendah wears a sleek travel outfit made of simple fabrics and colored exclusively in shades of brown. If the Seanchan people wear clothes so elaborate they’re hard to move in, the Aiel are all about functionality. These people live in the deep desert, where every day can be a struggle. They don’t have any time for ornamentation. They’re worried about survival.

At the same time, there’s something very chic about the clean lines and monochrome coloring about Aviendah’s outfit. I can see her marching like a warrior queen down a runway in this. And while the outfit is simple, it’s not boring to look at. The combination of fabrics gives it a tactile look; you think about how it feels to wear when you see it. And the shades of brown are gradated in a way that you’re always looking where you’re supposed to look.

Also, who doesn’t like a hood?