Project: Spacer’s Duffel (part 2)

It’s been awhile since I’ve checked in on this project, which was stuck on the back burner for much of last year but has been moving forwards slowly but surely. Inspired by a description of typical spacers traveling the spacelanes with a sturdy duffel bag (FFG Edge of the Empire: Enter the Unknown p.53), my goal is to create an in-universe ‘steamer trunk’ covered with souvenirs of galactic travel for use with my New Republic Archeological Corps impression.

Before getting too carried away with the weathering and distressing, I wanted to first add a few in-universe patches! A brief browse through Etsy or facebook’s SW Patch Collectors group will reveal a mind-boggling number and variety of Star Wars-themed embroidery, but somewhat unsurprisingly the vast majority are not suitable for living history purposes: face characters, divergent stylistic interpretations, pop culture mashups, event commemoratives, and general ‘novelty’ designs (i.e. things that make me ask, “WHYYYY?”) abound. If that group is any indication, lots of folks want patches that let others know they are a Star Wars Fan, but not so many are interested in authentically inhabiting the Star Wars setting…disappointing. However, a few daring individuals have been producing patches that actually reflect an in-universe style!

Mike Farnham has been doing a neat bit of business by reproducing designs from the Galaxy’s Edge parks as iron-on patches. A lot of the designs (originally themed drink coasters I understand) refer to their on-site restaurant or are far too mainstream-fan-service-y/meta* for my preference, but some of them seem believably in-universe to me, so I’ve snagged several over the last few months and have been handsewing them onto my duffel. So far, I’ve got one for the T-16 Skyhopper, Gamorrean Ale (brewed on Gamorr!), ‘Blue Bantha’ (is it a brand of livestock feed? A jizz/jatz band? Who knows?), and ‘Chandrilia Star Lines’—the company running the future hotel resort at GE.
_{(*i.e. why would a drink from Tatooine be named after rancors?–Jabba’s pet was a one-off discovery. A Dathomir-themed rancor drink, on the other hand, I could get behind.)}

Another outfit putting out great in-universe items is Ryloth Relics. While their offerings skew a little more towards the ‘faction branding’ that I normally warn against, they at least include more than just standard mythosaurs, starbirds, Imp cogs, and Jedi symbols – branching out into some specific planetary cultures, Imperial and Republic fleets and units, plus logos for several of the post-Disney Rebel cells (more on those in a future post).
In addition to a beautiful royal Alderaanian pin (for my partner’s space-themed jacket), I picked up patches for the Onaka pirate gang, anti-fascist ‘No Pasaran!’, Chiss Ascendancy (though their isolationism makes it a little tricky to work into a ‘common’ impression, the PVC stands out from its embroidered peers and does feels a little ‘alien’), and an insignia that is apparently used on a protagonist ship in the Rebels show (though it looks suspiciously like a generic thranta, so who’s to say where it’s from?).
The pirate patch I roughly tacked onto a scrap of red denim and then sewed onto my duffel—the idea being that I had tangled with a member of Hondo’s pirates and then cut the patch off his clothing as a souvenir—oh no, I’ve collected a tRoPhY!! 😉

While like, 99.9% of facebook’s SW Patch Collectors group is Definitely Not For Me, I did manage to find someone selling reproductions of the patch on Bossk’s flightsuit. I was kind of surprised that in 41 years nobody has come up with an explanation of what it represents or stands for, but as a context-free geometric design, it’s just what this project needs more of.

When receiving each of these patches, my default preparation has become to boil them in black walnut dye and vinegar, to take down the New Patch Shine and dull the colors (at least somewhat).
I would still like to add some system-specific detailing indicating planets this persona has visited—something akin the the stamps you get in your passport when entering a new county—but as that’s the kind of mundane worldbuilding detail that Star Wars is usually short on, I might have to extrapolate my own designs. We’ll see.
Do you know of any other in-universe patch designs floating around out there? Drop a link in the comments or share with the SWLH facebook community!

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