Galactic Style Guide – Pants I

Welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! In this month’s installment we’re starting our look at lower-body garments.

While most humanoids in the Galaxy Far Far Away dress practically and wear long trousers of some sort, because layering is such a large part of the general galactic aesthetic we usually don’t get a good look at most characters’ legwear. If you plan to wear a longer outer garment like a tunic, there’s no need to be picky about your pants—as long as they’re solidly made and able to stand up to authentic use: for example, Luke’s farmboy trousers were just bleached Levis! As a rule of thumb, most in-universe trousers are nondescript but as we will see below, there are a few ways to dress them up for more visual interest.

Can we all agree that Han Solo has the most stylish (or at least most iconic) trousers seen onscreen? According to Alinger’s Star Wars Costumes – The Original Trilogy, these were “brushed-denim”–essentially bluejean material–with a front pintuck and ‘bloodstripes‘ down the side (hearkening back to the US Cavalry of the 19th century). Solo seems to be one of the few characters who doesn’t wear a tunic but whose trousers are also pocketless–a fact compensated for by his many-pocketed vests!

Even if your persona isn’t from Corellia or hasn’t earned bloodstripes, other styles of leg stripes are frequently seen and are also totally valid (pay attention, would-be Battu bounders)!

As Leia and Lando both wear the same pants and rank badges for the Battle of Endor, can we extrapolate that the yellow stripe indicates a Rebel ‘field general’ c. 4ABY? Ackbar also wears a yellow stripe, though on white trousers. Note that Juno Eclipse’s trousers have a stripe on the outside and inseam. Desann, like Greedo, has corresponding striping on his arms, suggesting they are actually wearing jumpsuits instead of a separate top and trousers, but I have included them here to help show how prevalent the general style is. Several of the potential Jaden Korr avatars in Jedi Academy also have leg stripes, but I want to dig into those for the Style Guide’s ‘capstone’ down the line.

Another popular trouser feature was introduced by the first humans we see onscreen: cargo pockets! While many more characters than the few shown below have large pockets on their thighs (Boba Fett for example), this is often due to those characters wearing pocketed flightsuits.
Note that while all of these outfits include cargo pockets, the one thing they don’t include are visible buttons (well, except Katarn…but that depiction is from a lower-tier visual medium).

Check back next month for the second part of our look at in-universe trouser styles…including shorts! I’m sure there are examples I’ve missed, so drop them in the comments or at the SWLH facebook group and I’ll see you next month!

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