Galactic Style Guide – Formalwear II

Welcome back to another installment of the Galactic Style Guide, the monthly series where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! While quality reenacting and living history like to focus on the ‘common’ experience, Disney’s Galactic Starcruiser hotel experience is billing itself as a luxury cruise, and I’ve seen plenty of folks online asking, ‘What am I supposed to wear???’ With that in mind, I’ve combed my reference library and collected some examples of formal outfits to help give folks an idea of what ‘fancy dress’ looks like in the Galaxy Far, Far Away.
Following up on last month’s look at examples from onscreen, this time around we’re focusing on outfits seen in EU materials.

At the end of Dark Horse’s Out of the Wilderness arc, Ember Chankeli changes into one of the late Crys Taanzer’s dresses – showing that even spacers need to get dolled up now and then.

Dark Horse’s Agent of the Empire series has been described as ‘James Bond meets Star Wars‘, and as such the main character often travels in high-class circles. The Hard Targets arc sees him visit Alderaan and Serenno in 3 BBY, which give some insight into what rich & powerful types wear at home.
The Duke’s ‘casual’ look is far simpler than most upstrata mens’ outfits, and would be fairly easy to replicate if one does not want to go all-out: a turtleneck worn beneath a deep V-neck pullover, tucked into high-waisted jodhpurs, paired with a cummerbund/sash and tall boots:

Iron Eclipse #2 features a party held at the Imperial embassy on Etti IV, located in the Corporate Sector – presumably this is an extremely wealthy crowd! Nonetheless, it still provides us a decent impression of what such a crowd would look like. From this source, it seems ‘galactic black tie’ consists of a white placket-front dress shirt with mandarin collar (black ribbon accents), black cutaway jacket, cream cummerbund/sash, grey or black jodhpurs, and tall boots. It appears that other males in the background also wear jodhpurs and sashes, typically paired with long tunics; women wear gowns, whether modest or revealing.

One thing has become clear from my research: a champagne flute is the essential accessory to sell the galactic elite look!

While most Fantasy Flight Games character classes are combat-focused, their smuggler sourcebook (Fly Casual) includes some more dressed-up ‘scoundrel’ types, which hopefully provide some inspiration beyond simply copying Han and Lando:

While a bit removed from our main period, this illustration of the Corsin Retreat (a gathering of Republic commanders to restructure the Planetary Security Forces) gives a great impression of Old Republic militaristic dresswear (ignore the buttons on the Pantoran at left):

The locals on Arrochar—whether royalty or fighter pilots—have a definite early-20th-century style and seem very fond of blue, black, and gold:

Dark Horse’s Empire #22 (Alone Together) sees Princess Leia planning a mission to Aguarl III, in which she dons a wild getup to try convince the planet’s leaders to support the Alliance:

And finally, I want to close with the Rogue Squadron dress uniform; I’ve never been much of a fan of the look, but it’s also such a deep cut I don’t think anyone’s ever recreated it – perhaps it would look better when translated to three dimensions?

Are there any examples or individuals I’ve left out? Let me know in the comments below, and be sure to check in next month for the next installment of the Galactic Style Guide. See you then!

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