Talk the talk, walk the walk

Whenever I come across someone online showing off an original Star Wars costume, few things can make it feel out-of-universe faster than visible Earthly fasteners. This should come as no surprise, as the lack of visible fasteners (zippers, buttons, etc) was one of Lucas’ chief design points when creating the original film’s visual style (see Alinger’s SWCOT). While working on a future installment of Galactic Style Guide, I realized I should probably lead by example and make sure none of my own kit pieces broke this rule…and if any did, to fix them ASAP!

Since a lot of my gear has been purpose-built for GFFA living history, most of it is fastener-free. However, some of the milsurp pieces I use would need tweaking; the first of these was my satchel, originally an M9A1 gas mask bag:

I’ve been using this thing since at least 2008, and after removing some webbing from the front, swapping the shoulder strap, and dyeing it brown, it’s never let me down. The lift-the-dot snaps do have some onscreen pedigree from as early as 32 BBY, as a couple of featured podrace mechanics have USGI magazine pouches on their belts:

As with our examples below, these are background characters whose outfits are never seen close or long enough to be subjected to much scrutiny. While the ‘common’ ideal of good reenacting aligns with this kind of extra, when the rule is that fastenings shouldn’t be seen, then if we were somehow able to get a better look at such characters, we should expect that their outer personae would not include visible fasteners. Ergo, I figured I would need to hide the prominent snaps on my bag. My solution was simple: get a foot of heavy-duty 1.5-inch webbing from the craft store, RIT dye it brown, tack it onto the satchel’s flap to cover the snaps, and drybrush some acrylic paint to blend the colors a little closer:

The second piece of repurposed milsurp gear I wanted to de-fastener-ize was my pair of Swiss snow gaiters, seen here being worn on my AT thruhike last year in Maine’s ‘Hundred Mile Wilderness’:

These also have some solid Prequel background-character cred, as two of the three ‘Donovian rainmen’ from Episode II wear them:

In addition to having a chunky plastic zipper running down the outside (left), the pair I received seem unfortunately rather loose and shapeless, a far cry from the more tailored fit of not only the product image, but also so many military-styled Star Wars characters.

As with the satchel, the solution to the issue here was simple: another length of brown cotton webbing (1 inch wide this time) sewed onto the front section to cover the zipper. However, I also wanted to tailor the gaiters as well. This was not as straightforward, but I persevered. I removed the ankle elastic from the center front and rear (to free up material), sewed a 3/8″ tapered seam down the center front (to better mimic the curve of my shin), removed the rear half of the zipper, cut out about two and a half inches of material, rehemmed the top drawstring area, double- and triple-checked the fit with the zipper, and sewed everything together. There was a lot of trial and error on the first gaiter, but by the second one I knew what to do and got it banged out in half the time. I also darkened the shiny rivets with some acrylic and Modge Podge. The effort, I’m happy to say, paid off, and the overall look is much improved:

So there – two easy improvements to make my own kit better fit the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’. Are you up to the No Fastener Challenge? What can YOU do to tweak your gear and better nail the look? Let me know in a comment below, and I’ll see you next week!

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