Put yourself in the shoes of Game of Thrones costume designer Michele Clapton. The biggest wedding of the series since, er, the red wedding of season three, is coming up. Margarey Tyrell is marrying King Joffrey, the most evil man in the seven realms. How do you dress the sweet bride in her evolving signature style without pissing off Cersai, the cold mother-in-law, and even her future husband lest he decides to cut off her head (because who knows where his whims will take him)?

“The wedding dress took five to six weeks to make,” Clapton told Fashionista, “the fabric was a linen silk mix and had leaves woven into it. This led beautifully into my idea of a creeping briar rose that, although pretty, will draw blood if you catch yourself on its thorns and can end up smothering its host. Pretty but dangerous!”

The symbolism isn't lost on die-hard fans, especially because we all know what ended up happening.

“The idea of the briar rose is continued into the crown where it wraps around the Baratheon antlers [Joffrey's sigil],” Clapton says. “This was to show her creeping influence, which is not lost on Cersai.”

And you thought it was just a white dress.

Game of Thrones isn't just a geek show, though you can bet the boys on The Big Bang Theory would be totally obsessed with it. Its popularity has slowly saturated all audience demographics, becoming the most downloaded show in history, and its influence is such that it's now beginning to influence one of the most elitist industries of all: fashion.

Everything about the show is meticulous, so it's no surprise the fashion is too. There have been stories in US Vogue and Vanity Fair about it. Tumblr is abound with blogs dedicated to it. And even designers in the high fashion world are referencing it.

Clapton has been given the stupendous job of creating clothes for a completely original world, with seven vastly different kingdoms each with their own climate. Rather than relying purely on fantasy, she's drawn on her past experience in fashion, melded it with art and here we are. The detail is dizzying, down to the last gold thread.

Every rose and thorn on Margarey's wedding dress for example, was handstitched, while Cersai's dress was “heavily embroidered with Lannister imagery – it's a dress of weight and power,” Clapton says.

The costumes are significant in the books and this is reflected throughout the series. Designers like Alexander McQueen have been an inspiration for some of the outfits, most notably Margarey Tyrell's funnel dress in season two, which was drawn from a famous McQueen dress of Bjork's. But increasingly, we're seeing the opposite: Game of Thrones is influencing the runways. Helmut Lang's Autumn/Winter 2012 collection was based on Game of Thrones, say designers Nicole and Michael Covolos. The collection was all about layering leather and fur, signifying wearable armour and acknowledging the everyday battles people face in real life.

More subtly, there have been a number of collections who look like they've been inspired by a weekend-long Game of Thrones marathon. Here, we've found runway looks who've either been inspired by the show or vice versa, so you can fulfil every fashion fantasy you've ever had about Game of Thrones.