In defense of ‘close enough’

Let’s talk about fish-lady sweaters for a second.
When a Mon Calamari showed up in The Mandalorian Chapter 11 wearing an off-the-rack fisherman’s sweater, the community lost no time in memeifying it before hopping on Amazon to snatch up one or two for themselves. I find it encouraging that people are interested in costuming a common civilian for once (instead of the rare-in-universe but over-represented-in-cosplay Jedi/Sith/Mando/bounty hunter ‘player classes’)…but if I was looking to put together a GFFA dockworker impression, I definitely wouldn’t go out and buy the exact onscreen sweater—and not just because they’re probably now very scarce! Here’s why.

1) doing so would create a cookie-cutter effect. Imagine—post-COVID—getting together with a couple other folks at an event to do some in-character, immersive, nautical GFFA interpretation: if everybody is wearing the exact same sweater, waders, and rubber mask, they look like carbon copies instead of actual people: individuality is needed!
Why should we assume the dockworkers of Trask have only one style of sweater available? After all, members of a given profession tend to wear the same type of clothing, but not the exact same outfit–and we have many references in Star Wars materials where a character is recognized (as a farmer, spacer, etc.) by their clothing. Living by the ocean is dangerous in any galaxy, and in the case of the Irish Aran sweater, having different designs served a purpose: each design was associated with a specific family, so that if someone got washed overboard, their waterlogged corpse could be identified by their family’s sweater pattern!

2) Speaking practically, the sweater everyone’s buying up is 100% cotton, which is the last fabric you would want in wet conditions. For maximum authenticity, you can’t go wrong with the original: 100% pure Irish wool, ideally with plenty of natural lanolin for water repellency. The price is a bit higher, but if you want things right, you should usually expect to pay more.

I should point out that ‘close-enough’ is not the same thing as “meh, good enough”: we’re talking about in-universe variations on styles seen onscreen, not terrycloth-bathrobe Jedi, props made of foam and wood putty, or 3D-printed gear ‘finished’ with a single application of spray filler and one coat of spraypaint. As we can hopefully see above, assuming they are well made and of as authentic materials as possible, using similar (but not identical) items can be useful for fleshing out and adding variety to the Galaxy Far, Far Away.

I’ve noticed the gearhead (i.e. prop-focused) side of the SW community is subject to this myopia as well. A while back, I came across a thread at the RPF in which one member was showing off his newly-acquired vintage Kobold flash unit, which were used for Original Trilogy droid caller props. However, he was patronizingly told by another member, “It’s not accurate, but I suppose it’s not bad for costuming if you can’t get a correct one for a decent price”, insinuating that the only correct droid caller is one made from the model usually associated with Han Solo’s belt gear.

However, some quick image-searching turned up a handful of other Kobold models, and even similar—but still not identical—units made by manufacturers like Linhof, Leitz, or Wetzlar, any of which would make a great base for a Droid Caller! When you go to the sporting goods store, there isn’t One kind of flashlight on the shelf, there are different models to choose from; they may have different features, but they’re still roughly similar…why would the GFFA be any different? Truly, the shortsightedness of rabid Star Wars fans with more money than sense, unable to see or think beyond the limited onscreen examples, continues to astonish me.

Obviously, yes: just as you would for a Face Character’s outfit, if you’re looking to specifically replicate Han’s droid caller or Ben Kenobi’s lightsaber hilt, you should do your best to find the most accurate components. However, good living history is less concerned with elite heroic characters, so if I’m shopping for authentic parts for A generic lightsaber I’m not overly concerned if something is the exact found part used in 1976, and to overlook these close-enough components is a disservice to the potential richness of the galactic setting.

Can you think of any examples of gear or garments that fall into the ‘close-enough’ category? Come discuss in the SWLH facebook group or leave your thoughts below !

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