Lifestyle
Rachel Kushner's new espionage thriller may be her coolest book yet
![Rachel Kushner's new espionage thriller may be her coolest book yet Rachel Kushner's new espionage thriller may be her coolest book yet](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1106x622+107+646/resize/1400/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F48%2Fd7%2F05be3b0c4156aa2addd1646aba37%2Fcreation-lake-9781982116521-hr.jpg)
Crater Lake
Simon and Schuster
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Simon and Schuster
Rachel Kushner is one tough customer. She disdains sentimentality and traditional storytelling, instead challenging readers to keep up with her and not to flinch.
In acclaimed novels like The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room, Kushner has written about political extremists, motorcycle daredevils and artists living on cigarettes and turpentine fumes. Given a literary track record studded with broken glass, it’s surprising that Kushner has taken so long to try her hand at one of the bleakest genres of them all.
Creation Lake is an espionage thriller sealed tight in the soiled plastic wrap of noir. Existential dread and exhaustion are its signature moods; double-crossing, seduction and sudden death its plot devices. Orson Welles fans may find themselves humming the iconic theme music from The Third Man as they read Kushner’s latest novel: She’s Welles’ partner-in-grime in terms of her stylized depictions of the world as a spiritual and moral vacuum.
![Brilliant But Devastating, 'The Mars Room' Chronicles Life Behind Bars](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/05/03/2018-05-03-themarsroom_mg_9668-ebogle_sq-8c02c90da8ad80faf3b2447ee61932c5861458fa.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg)
The main character of Creation Lake is a hard-drinking, good-looking, 34-year-old American woman called Sadie Smith — at least that’s her name for the time being. Sadie has been known by lots of names — aliases — in her work as an undercover agent, at first for the FBI; more recently, for anonymous private clients. That’s all we know of Sadie’s backstory: Like many fictional spies, she arrives on the page scrubbed of a personal past.
Sadie’s current assignment requires infiltrating a radical farming collective in a remote region of France. Local water supplies there are being diverted into planned “megabasins” for the use of agricultural corporations. Some of the construction equipment of those corporations has been sabotaged and the “anarchists” living on that collective are the prime suspects.
Deploying her self-described “bland” good looks and a breast augmentation, Sadie initiates what’s known in the spy trade as a “cold bump” — a seemingly random encounter with a filmmaker named Lucien who’s an old friend of the co-op’s leader. Soon enough, she and Lucien are living together and Sadie wields her status as his girlfriend to insinuate herself into the anarchist group.
![Racing From Art To Revolution And Back Again In 'The Flamethrowers'](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/03/26/flamethrowerscover_sq-d01684433ee8c999e04cd1edecaef322d2e6e068.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg)
But, seductive as Sadie is, she meets her match in an intellectual seducer of sorts: an elderly philosopher named Bruno who advocates pre-industrial — even pre-historic — modes of living and serves as a guru to the anarchists. For months, Sadie has been monitoring Bruno’s emails back and forth with the group, hoping to find incriminating sabotage plans.
Even as she dismisses him as a “lunatic,” Sadie becomes intrigued by Bruno’s rejection of modern life and his decision to retreat underground long ago and live in a network of caves beneath his farm. “We are headed toward extinction in a shiny, driverless car [Bruno writes in one of his emails], and the question is: How do we exit this car?” The idea of making an exit from her own “car” — her own vacant life of disguises — takes possession of Sadie.
You don’t read Kushner for the “relatability” of her characters or even, particularly, for what happens in her novels. Instead, she draws readers in with her dead-on language and the yellow-tipping-to-orange threat-alert atmosphere of the worlds she imagines. Here, for instance, are snippets of an extended passage where Sadie makes a pit stop on her drive from Paris to the secluded region where the collective is located. Pulling into the parking lot of an abandoned inn Sadie tells us:
The air was damp and warm and close, like human breath. The lot was crisscrossed with patterned ruts from truck tires. …
It felt like a place of aftermath, where something had happened.
I peed in the wooded area beyond the open lot. While squatting, I encountered a pair of women’s Day-Glo-orange underpants snagged in the bushes at eye level.
This did not seem odd. Truck ruts and panties snagged on a bush: that’s “Europe.” The real Europe is not a posh café …
The real Europe is a borderless network of supply and transport. …
A girl or woman fallen on hard times … had left her underwear in these woods. Big deal. Her world is full of disposability.
Like Bruno-the-philosopher, Kushner is a dazzling chronicler of end times. The only thing that isn’t disposable in her novels is her own singular voice as a writer.
![A group of children gather to hear a story under a tree in Central Park on Oct. 23, 2017.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3168x3168+0+1968/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb2%2F1c%2Fe8e758694443900d63f4099b07ed%2Fgettyimages-865529952.jpg)
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Lifestyle
What happens when a leather mama and a latex daddy fall in love?
![What happens when a leather mama and a latex daddy fall in love? What happens when a leather mama and a latex daddy fall in love?](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d0466f9/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5473x2873+0+2105/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F97%2F36%2F836abf2e41778d15703b47f2d066%2Fimg0582-final.jpg)
Zana Bayne and Mariano Cortez are two of the most low-key yet cultishly-loved designers in L.A. dealing in leather and latex, respectively. They also happen to be a couple. Zana wears Zana Bayne corset, Black Suede Studio boots, Calzedonia tights, Pinsy bodysuit. Mariano wears BustedBrand shirt and pants, Ugo Cacciatori bracelet, Other People’s Property rings.
In a lofty space streaming with hot light on Los Angeles Street, there is a dressing room with heavy red curtains and a door in the shape of a butt plug. A mirror inside captures your reflection in its familiar curvature, and, of course, you pull out your phone to take a picture — because when have you ever seen a butt plug-shaped dressing room before? Across the room, a Wassily-style chair sunbathes in the corner, with a handmade burgundy leather base and back, studs running along the seams. The chair has straps on its armchairs — made for wrists to slip into — with custom silver buckles in the shape of an outstretched woman’s physique. Vintage fetish magazines line the glass table in the center of the room, which smells of fresh paint, leather and latex. On a warm afternoon in August, this space is still under construction, but soon it will be a store: the shared world of Zana Bayne and Mariano Cortez, a physical manifestation of their creative partnership and personal relationship.
Bayne and Cortez are two of the most low-key yet cultishly-loved designers in L.A. dealing in leather and latex, respectively. What people come to Bayne for is her specific style, where all details are meticulously done by hand, and where hardware reigns supreme. (She made the aforementioned chair.) A Zana Bayne piece feels structural to the point of sculptural — a leather crystal-studded corset flaring with hip ruffles that unfold like an accordion; a lace-up corset eyelet skirt that creates a soft, voluptuous curve line away from the body. The pieces are instantly recognizable as hers: hand-laced rivets holding together a bustier in the shape of a broken heart, the way one of her spiked choker handbags seems to defy gravity. Cortez is the Latex King of Los Angeles, known for developing new techniques with the material, or imagining it in completely new contexts. In Cortez’s hands, latex becomes printed as leopard and cowhide, it becomes evening wear, sportswear or business casual — from a football tank to a floor-length dress to a blazer.
![Zana Bayne and Mariano Cortez of Bustedbrand for Image Issue 29](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/1f77e3d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5689x7111+0+0/resize/2000x2500!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8f%2F38%2F84444cf34df0953f4faac7f263ea%2Fimg0455-final.jpg)
And they happen to be in a relationship. Sitting in the room with Cortez and Bayne, there is a gravitational pull that can be felt when in the presence of opposites who speak the same language. Leather and latex being their shared dialect. Fashion is a small world, fashion inspired by fetish wear is even smaller. There is a mutual understanding between the two designers, both about the practical things — like impossible schedules or the kind of obsessive nature you must have to be successful — and the big things, like living a life in dedication to your practice, or what it means to blend the realms of subculture, art and fashion. “What we do is so blood, sweat and tears — every iota of your being at times — and if you aren’t in it, it’s really hard to understand for certain people,” Bayne says.
In February, Bayne posted an image of a photo strip of her and Cortez and captioned it: “Leather mama & latex daddy.” The store, called FETISH and launching in October, is somehow the culmination of this exact description. Which takes us back to the beginning: What happens when a leather mama and a latex daddy fall in love?
![starburst graphic section divider](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/305effe/2147483647/strip/true/crop/800x89+0+0/resize/2000x223!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F50%2F81%2Fa7d10d6745a8afe948c7ee3154f4%2Fig-29-starburst-clear-div.png)
Walking into Cortez’s studio in the fashion district, you are first hit by the distinct smell of rubber, filling your nostrils, washing over your brain in a haze of strangely intimate comfort. Cortez and Bayne are wearing all black in 90-degree heat while sipping on green juices. She is in a Nine Inch Nails 2008 tour T-shirt, thrown over a slip dress with fishnets on, and Cortez is in a T-shirt, cargo shorts and boots. They tell me that earlier that day, Chappell Roan wore a custom Bustedbrand X Zana Bayne look on stage at Lollapalooza for what was said to be the festival’s biggest audience ever. Roan jumped around in a hot pink and electric blue lucha libre wrestler’s outfit made of latex, with iridescent leather accessories including a belt, mask, shin guards and wrist and upper arm cuffs. Bayne started with accessories early in her career — first creating a single harness — back when she was an obsessive fashion documentarian with the blog Garbage Dress, and was enamored by the transformative qualities a small piece could have on an outfit, an aura. “There’s something about a strap of leather and a buckle that can really make people go wild,” she says. “I’m still not sick of exploring that.”
![Zana Bayne and Mariano Cortez of Bustedbrand for Image Issue 29](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ff98d57/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5978x7971+0+0/resize/2000x2667!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F97%2F60%2F617bfe004a9894a112921afaf280%2Fimg0299-final.jpg)
Cortez and Bayne started their brands at different times, both literally and culturally speaking. In 2011, when Zana Bayne was formed, there were fewer people making harnesses intended to wear at a concert or party, or in broad daylight. Bayne was one of the designers to open that world up for designers like Cortez, who would officially start his brand in 2018. Back then, anything that was made of leather with some rivets would be pigeonholed as strictly fetish wear, Bayne remembers, and there was little focus on the actual quality or design of the garment, which is what her brand was driven by. The term “post-fetish” was something her brand created to describe the kind of clothing she was making (mostly as a diversion for press, which in the 2010s loved to throw “BDSM” in a headline when covering the brand). Her work was rooted in and inspired by bondage, but she decidedly did not position itself as a bondage brand. “That term didn’t exist,” Bayne says. “The term post-fetish was, like, apres ski, like, postmodernism. It was a word play thing, and it worked. Now, there’s hundreds of brands. There isn’t a void to be filled anymore, because it’s its own monster.”
Cortez likes to think of his work as a bridge between fetish and ready-to-wear. “It still comes from a fashion standpoint — my interest was in latex material and what it could be,” says Cortez. “Respecting the roots of what people created this for, and then turning it into a more practical [garment].” One of the many iterations of designer Vivienne Westwood’s iconic boutique, Worlds End which she opened with then-partner Malcom McLaren in the ’70s, was famously dubbed “SEX,” with a huge sign in pink squeaky letters at the top. The store sold fetish wear and had whips and chains on display. Their slogan was: “rubberwear for the office.”
For both Cortez’s and Bayne’s designs, something special happens when they are seen, when they are out in the world. This is when they come to life, when the natural tension of wearing fetish-inspired wear — like one of Bayne’s spiked triangle bras, or Cortez’s latex cat suits — in a new context rises to the surface and you can see it in action. For the wearer, there is also an obvious dedication necessary to wear the pieces — both leather and latex, specifically latex, require a particular care process, and getting a piece by Bayne or Cortez on is an entire process on its own. There’s an intensity to the materials that, no matter the context, remains. There is a satisfaction to seeing Beyoncé wearing a full latex outfit on the cover of “Cowboy Carter,” which Cortez designed, or Ariana Grande wearing a full custom lavender leather look in the video for “Rain on Me,” which Bayne made. While on some level it feels as if they are positioning themselves towards the subversive through the code of fabric, it is also a straightforward appreciation of the designs themselves.
![starburst graphic section divider](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/305effe/2147483647/strip/true/crop/800x89+0+0/resize/2000x223!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F50%2F81%2Fa7d10d6745a8afe948c7ee3154f4%2Fig-29-starburst-clear-div.png)
Bayne is mostly self-taught. She grew up in San Francisco, where she attended the San Francisco Art Institute and got a degree in conceptual art. “The first corsets I made came out of nightlife and subculture,” she says. “In San Francisco at that time, everyone was doing everything all at once. You go from a leather bar to a drag show to a punk show to a noise show. We’d go to soul night and then some rave off the train tracks. It was just this mix of subcultures and fashion.” Then she moved to New York, which is when her brand got its legs. Slowly and organically, stylists were pulling pieces for their clients, custom celebrity requests started coming in and eventually she became a highlight at New York Fashion Week. “All of a sudden I was making things out of my bedroom for Lady Gaga,” Bayne says.
Cortez is from Temecula, where he grew up in punk scenes, going to the desert, skating and doing BMX — which people still recognize him from, Bayne adds. He got injured at one point from BMX, and wasn’t able to walk for a year, which is when he put all his energy into learning about fashion on Tumblr. He moved to L.A. as a teenager, where he got an internship-turned-job at L.A. Roxx, a custom design house specializing in leather. They’d get calls from people constantly, inquiring if they worked with latex, which piqued Cortez’s interest. “It was curiosity,” he says. “People not knowing, also me not knowing, just made me dive deeper.” He’d go on to learn the craft under an L.A. fetish latex designer before starting Bustedbrand on his own terms.
Cortez knew of Bayne’s brand long before he started his own, and says that a lot of her designs were a big inspiration when he started out, and still are. Bayne quips in response: “I thought that some things looked slightly familiar. However, I always maintained the opinion that Busted had the coolest latex designs, the most relevant designs, and that their branding was better than anyone else’s who was in the game. I was both somewhat annoyed and appreciative. I couldn’t help but be like, ‘Yeah, you’re doing a great job.’”
Bayne is a Virgo, Cortez is a Pisces — sister signs that, in theory, are on opposite sides of the spectrum, but, in practice, serve as each other’s balance. It checks: Cortez is quiet and stoic, with a subtle warmth that reveals itself as he gets comfortable, while Bayne’s dark humor, sharp intellect and charisma serve as a magnet. Cortez regularly giggles at her dry jokes. It’s clear they share a shorthand, inside things that they don’t care to explain. They seem to complement each other in ways beyond just a shared aesthetic. “I think we’re both very stubborn people,” Bayne says. “An interesting thing to learn was how we’re saying the same thing, but in totally different ways.”
![Zana and Mariano standing.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7f3e977/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5732x7165+0+0/resize/2000x2500!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F79%2Fb57ad5444149a64f533edc2f021d%2Fimg0275-final.jpg)
Zana wears Zana Bayne dress, Bustedbrand bra and underwear, Givenchy shoes, The Great Frog and Other People’s Property rings. Mariano wears BustedBrand T-shirt and jeans, Other People’s Property bracelet and rings.
Their work kept being featured in the same editorials, on the same artists for years — Beyoncé, being one. People would come into Bayne’s studio carrying a Bustedbrand bag. And she’d think: “There it is again.” They’d physically been in the same room many times as well, and were cordial to each other, but hadn’t communicated beyond a head nod. “I’m mean,” Bayne jokes.
“She made a personal [Instagram] account and I had followed [it],” Cortez remembers. “Then I saw she started hanging out with my friend, Britton [Litow], and I asked, ‘What’s up with Zana?’ I told her I was interested.” Litow texted Cortez a couple days later and said that Bayne was interested. “I was like, ‘He can ask me out,’” Bayne says. No moves were made until Litow’s birthday dinner a couple months later at Mr. Chow, when she sat Cortez and Bayne next to each other. “He was wearing sunglasses,” Bayne remembers. “At night.” Their first date was at a bar where Bayne wore a “really intense outfit,” which was one of her own pieces.
Being in a relationship with another designer has been a comfort for Cortez. He’d never been able to share the highs and lows of the business with anyone else like this. “Zana definitely helps me be a little less one-track mind and enjoy what just happened,” he says. “That’s been pretty leveling, grounding. It’s been really nice that we share these experiences.”
“It’s really cliche for people to say, ‘I want to be with someone who challenges me.’ And I’ve never felt that way before. That’s never something I’ve looked for, but I think we definitely challenge each other,” Bayne says. “You remind me of what I love about what we do and where it can possibly go.”
Bayne says Cortez is constantly curious, with a brain full of “a million question marks at all times.” “I think curiosity has brought me to a lot of really interesting new techniques,” he responds. There is a spaceship-looking machine behind him that takes up an entire corner of the massive studio space, a laser cutter that he uses for his latex work. This is part of a production system Cortez developed for himself, which has further allowed him to think of latex in new ways, including using traditional garment techniques like sewing — something you usually don’t do with latex — which makes it possible to create some of his silhouettes, like a voluminous bomber jacket or a boxer short.
![Zana on black gown.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/34a0b6e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4667x5834+0+0/resize/2000x2500!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa4%2Fcb%2F8e2b9eb04b559ec1d3dd636d9442%2Fimg0702-final-final.jpg)
Zana wears Rick Owens gown, JW PEI shoes, Other People’s Property rings, The Great Frog rings, Alighieri earrings.
![Mariano in suit.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9ad3c89/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6192x7740+0+0/resize/2000x2500!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F61%2F9d%2F79b88b9646ffa1573bc1422a1872%2Fimg0528-final.jpg)
Mariano wears Entire Studios suit and tank top, Akila sunglasses, Other People’s Property bracelet and rings.
(Natalia Mantini / For The Times)
It’s a moment of expansion for Bayne as well, who is in the process of releasing a run of non-leather items for the first time inspired by the visual language she’s built over the last 13 years.
Charli XCX starts bumping on the speaker that is connected to Cortez’s phone — “maybe we go like one notch down?” Bayne asks, laughing. Charli wore one of Bayne’s skirts for a recent spread in British GQ. A non-exhaustive list of Bayne’s clients — mostly custom — include Rei Kawakubo, Kim Petras, Eartheater, Kim Kardashian, Brooke Candy, Doja Cat, Debbie Harry and she’s in the process of making some pieces for L.A. billboard icon Angelyne. For Cortez, that list includes 2 Chainz, Rico Nasty, Hailey Bieber, Ye, among others. They’ve collaborated on custom looks for artists, including Roan. And earlier this year, they collaborated on an exclusive collection, featuring micro triangle bras and belts in classic Bayne construction with a Bustedbrand flair through the leopard print and star appliques. “We have brands that work seamlessly together,” Bayne says. “It’s a no brainer.”
![starburst graphic section divider](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/305effe/2147483647/strip/true/crop/800x89+0+0/resize/2000x223!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F50%2F81%2Fa7d10d6745a8afe948c7ee3154f4%2Fig-29-starburst-clear-div.png)
The ultimate collaboration will be the new store opening. Cortez’s father built the butt plug cut-out for the fitting room. “I told him it was a spike,” Cortez says, laughing. “The next day after I sent him the photo and the dimensions he was like, ‘That’s a butt plug.’”
Cortez and Bayne want the space to feel “clean and sexy.” “We’re building our universe,” Bayne says, which means the store will feature their pieces and exclusive collaborations, but it will also be a home to their musical inspirations, beloved objects and design references. They want the experience to be one of discovery. “There’s beauty, there’s severity with what we do, but there’s going to be playful elements,” Bayne says. The store is also an opportunity to continue presenting leather and latex in the contexts in which Cortez and Bayne imagine them in. Spending time in the space itself feels like sitting in on a conversation between Bayne and Cortez, which is a rarity, given the intentional mysteriousness around them as a couple.
“It’s really special what we get to do, and what we do [is] really f—ing hard,” Bayne says. “It takes a chunk of your soul constantly, but there’s got to be a part of us that loves what we do.”
“I told myself that the other day,” Cortez says. “I love what I do. And I’m glad I get to share it with Zana.”
![Zana wears black gown and Mariano wears black suit.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e0ce41e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5473x7083+0+0/resize/2000x2588!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F97%2F36%2F836abf2e41778d15703b47f2d066%2Fimg0582-final.jpg)
![Zana Bayne Bustedbrand](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7995b45/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3600x1929+0+0/resize/2000x1072!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5f%2F23%2Fc9417e8d4379b06d76e3217d6ada%2Fig-29-image-maker-zana-bayne-bustedbrand-light.png)
Makeup Selena Ruiz
Hair Adrian Arredondo
Lighting Nick Shamblott
Lifestyle
How you could own the Iron Throne or Jon Snow's sword from 'Game of Thrones'
![How you could own the Iron Throne or Jon Snow's sword from 'Game of Thrones' How you could own the Iron Throne or Jon Snow's sword from 'Game of Thrones'](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2048x1152+0+107/resize/1400/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F95%2F46%2F5d8ce07243e18719d35b622c5afa%2Fjorah-mormont-iain-glen-armor-ensemble-with-longsword-from-game-of-thrones-hbo-original-2011-2019-season-3-dressed-by-paul-bisnette-and-toni-weidman-photojoshdavidjordan.jpg)
Jorah Mormont armor ensemble with longsword from Game of Thrones dressed by Paul Bisnette and Toni Weidman.
Heritage Auctions
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Heritage Auctions
It’s been five years since Game of Thrones wrapped, Jon Snow headed north of The Wall with the wildings and Arya Stark voyaged west of Westeros.
Regardless of how you feel about the show’s divisive finale, there’s no doubt that the costumes, gear and props used in the show helped transport millions of people across the globe to this fantastical world.
And for the next month, fans will have a chance to bid on items used in the iconic TV show. More than 2,000 costumes, props, set decorations and other items used on the show will be auctioned off by Heritage Auctions in Dallas, TX.
The auction house and HBO, where Game of Thrones is available, worked together earlier this year to curate the selection of items. They ranged from Jon Snow’s sword, Longclaw, to the dress worn by Emilia Clarke when Daenerys Targaryen met her tragic end after a turn to madness.
![A White Walker ensemble used in Game of Thrones.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2048x1366+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F45%2F6a%2Fde37adc74085823946760d6c3812%2Fwhite-walker-ensemble-with-hero-ice-sword-from-game-of-thrones-hbo-original-2011-2019-season-7-photojoshdavidjordan.jpg)
A White Walker ensemble used in Game of Thrones.
Heritage Auctions
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Heritage Auctions
The items sat in a warehouse in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where some parts of the show was filmed. They remained there in case HBO needed them for future shows, like House of the Dragon that just wrapped its second season, according to Joe Maddalena, executive VP of Heritage Auctions, who spoke to Morning Edition.
“Game of Thrones was a cultural phenomenon, still talked about to this very day. And you have just this legion of fans around the world who want more,” Maddalena said. “So we thought, working with HBO, that we would be able to give fans around the world an opportunity to reconnect with their favorite television show and to own something from Jon Snow, Daenerys or Cersei or Tyrion that means something to you. To have a studio-sanctioned auction where things are coming directly from the archive… it’s truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Maddalena said that seeing the items first-hand felt surreal, adding that the magic of TV is you never know how something used in a show is truly like until you actually touch it.
“What’s amazing is how well-made everything is,” Maddalena said. “The costumes are bespoke. I mean, the workmanship, the amount of detail, they’re amazing. It’s like literally going back in a time machine to hundreds of years past, and these costumes, they appear real.”
![Jaime Lannister Kingsguard armor ensemble](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2579x7770+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F02%2Fdd%2F65f3afe742b587a963f6d359a9f3%2Fc109a953-67ba-4667-8d8c-886b803fecbd-0.jpg)
Jaime Lannister Kingsguard armor ensemble
Heritage Auctions
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Heritage Auctions
So what’s for sale?
Heritage Auctions has more than 900 lots for sale, according to a news release.
Among the featured items that have opening bids in the four-to-five-digit range are Jaime Lannister’s full Kingsguard armor, his golden hand, the Iron Throne and Arya Stark’s sword, Needle.
“We literally have every moment of the show, so there’s something for every fan out there,” Maddalena said. “If there’s something you’ve been after or a moment in the show at any different level, we probably have it in the auction.”
Many fans are likely to be priced out of owning many of these items, but Maddalena said he feels the catalog is accessible to fans and that some items could sell for as low as $500.
“If you want some dragonglass, it’s there. If you want one of Dany’s [dragon] eggs, they’re there. We have little baby dragons,” Maddalena said. “I just think it’s so accessible for everybody.”
Fans can bid on items right here. The auction is scheduled for Oct. 10-12.
The radio version of this story was written by Lisa Thomson and produced by Nina Kravinsky. The digital was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.
Lifestyle
Dak Prescott 'Absolutely' Worth Record-Setting Deal, Drew Pearson Says
![Dak Prescott 'Absolutely' Worth Record-Setting Deal, Drew Pearson Says Dak Prescott 'Absolutely' Worth Record-Setting Deal, Drew Pearson Says](https://imagez.tmz.com/image/80/16by9/2024/09/09/806a265a06724c459dc202450b3ee51f_xl.jpg)
TMZSports.com
Dak Prescott is now the highest-paid player in the NFL — over guys like Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Josh Allen — and according to Dallas Cowboys legend Drew Pearson … the QB is worth every penny.
The star signal-caller agreed to a four-year, $240 million contract extension on Sunday morning — just before Dallas took on Cleveland in its season-opener — and when TMZ Sports talked with Drew about the record-setting deal … he told us the QB is deserving of it all.
“Look at the quarterbacks around the league,” Pearson said. “Teams are struggling to find good quarterbacks. They’re looking down the depth chart to see who’s available.”
Of course, there were haters all over social media who disagreed … pointing to Dak’s 2-5 playoff record as the No. 1 reason he shouldn’t have gotten the big money.
However, Pearson said Prescott’s exactly the kind of leader Dallas needs — comparing the 31-year-old to Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman and even Tony Romo.
“He says all the right things,” Pearson said, “and he says those things because he believes it.”
So far, the deal’s looked pretty good … as Prescott played well in a 33-17 blowout win over the Browns.
He won’t have to wait long to keep proving it — the Cowboys play next this Sunday at home against the Saints — and Drew says the offense is going to have to score a bunch to get to 2-0.
As for the next big contract negotiation Dallas will have to get through with defensive superstar Micah Parsons … Pearson says he’s confident that after Jerry Jones got Prescott and CeeDee Lamb‘s deals done — Parsons’ won’t be far behind.
“He’ll get his,” Pearson said.
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