Building the Sulon Rebel – 4: Soft kit

What follows is a breakdown of the practical kit I eventually assembled for a Rebel ‘partizan’ persona, based on Sulon around 4-5 years ABY.

I. Soft Kit:

When starting to plan out what clothes a Rebel partisan on Sulon would wear, I didn’t have a lot of reference material to build from; the three Dark Forces novellas are each illustrated by three different artists with wildly different styles, and as typical Star Wars media, tend not to focus on the mundane minutiae of everyday citizens.
This gave me a certain amount of freedom, but I still wanted to keep things fairly conservative while starting out (a wise approach to take while reenacting in general!)

I begin with a plain undershirt in a subdued color (Kyle Katarn wore gray, Luke Skywalker (in Episode V) wore blue-gray), and over that, I wear a

#1 bib-front shirt
This lightweight shirt is obviously inspired by those worn by the Rebel/Alderaanian troopers on board the Tantive IV in Episode IV, but despite the style, the different color (light green instead of blue-gray) make it automatically look less like ‘yet another Rebel fleet trooper’ and more ‘generic GFFA civilian’.

I wound up making a pair of these, so that I can keep one stashed in a dry-bag (sleeping in damp clothes is not a good idea).

These started out as US army dress shirts (65/35 poly/cotton), which I found at the local milisurp/thrift store when I was in college for probably $3 a piece. At one point I think I had five or six of them!

I first carefully removed the pockets from the two best shirts, then deconstructed the third, using the back to make one bib and the two front panels to make the second bib. I added interfacing to stiffen, sewed together, topstitched, and then sewed the long sides onto the buttoned front. I opted to make the bibs permanently attached, instead of using small snaps or Velcro, both of which would be visible if I wanted to leave a corner of the bib folded down (reminiscent of Luke in Episode VI or Han’s Episode V/VI ‘Custer’-style shirt); similarly, I didn’t want to only sew up ¾ of the bib’s side in order to achieve the same look, which I felt would be entirely ‘costume-y’ and inauthentic. As it is, the shirt stays buttoned under the bib, and by unbuttoning the second from the top I can pull it on as a pullover.

While I generally try to stay away from synthetic blends, I like to overthink things. The long justification is that while Episode IV costumes generally used natural fibers, those of Episode VI began to use more synthetic fabrics (Lando’s General shirt and Han’s duster are both poly blends; plus Boushh’s bandoleer, Rebel commando vests and field gear – Brandon Alinger: Star Wars Costumes – The Original Trilogy). As my Rebel persona is based in the post-Battle of Endor period, perhaps clothes made with synthetic fibers are the ‘in’ fashion at the time; therefore, the shirt is a few years behind the times in style, but in a ‘modern’ fabric.
The short answer is that I already had the shirts, they needed a revamp, and I like to avoid uncreative, slavish reproductions of onscreen ensembles!

#3 Light jacket (optional)
This garment provides extra layering for visual interest (see John Mollo’s comments re:RFT’s in SWCOT, p.22), and is intended to be somewhat reminiscent of Han Solo’s various vests and jackets in the Classic Trilogy. It is made from 100% linen (body and lining). The original jacket was modified by removing the collar, using the collar material to make panels to cover buttonholes and pocket buttons, and adding the green lining (itself originally a linen buttonup shirt). Total cost less than $5.

#4 Trousers
The pants I wear for this impression are more modified thrift store finds. I found this $4 pair of cotton blue-gray cargo pants last year, when I was first toying with the idea of how to incorporate elements of GFFA fashion into my everyday wardrobe. Per Lucas’ no-visible-closures rule, they have a button fly and cargo pockets with hidden buttons.
After tailoring the legs to taper towards the ankles and removing pocket-limiting stitches, I then proceeded to wear them to work every day last summer; as my summer job is outdoors and very active, they quickly faded in an authentic manner.
While worn clothes are already a part of the GFFA aesthetic, they are apparently especially appropriate in the commoners’ areas of Baron’s Hed! :
“[Kyle’s clothes] still bore traces of mud and grease would work in his favor. The idea was to fit in, and the citizens of low town weren’t known for their sartorial splendor.” Dark Forces: Rebel Agent, p.103.

#5 Belt
My trousers are held up by a plain leather belt with a Galactic Civil War-appropriate plain rectangle buckle.

#6 Boots
For footwear I have the options of either black East German jackboots (which have been used and abused over the last six years) or the ankle boots and gaiters I use for my Jedi impression. There aren’t a lot of solid depictions of shoes or boots in Sulon contexts, and Kyle Katarn is shown differently every time he’s depicted. Tall boots are a pretty standard element of GFFA style, more reminiscent of Rebel Fleet Troopers, whereas the gaiters are just a solid, less-clunky option to match my belt:

#7 Gloves
The addition of fingerless gloves adds a necessary bit of ‘tactical’/’guerilla’ flavor to the assemblage. These are double suede leather, and had been authentically aged and distressed (through 4 years of guest use) before I got my hands in them. The palms were reinforced with heavy full-grain leather (these are my daily use pair at work, so the leather is necessary for help me brake while ziplining).
The panel over the knuckles was decorated with a persona-appropriate motif taken from an architectural detail in Baron’s Hed (Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight: Level 5. LucasArts, 1997):

Hopefully this gives you a good idea of how following the key elements of in-universe style (while not copying any specific character’s look) can create a custom-but-grounded ‘outer persona’.

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