Diamonds in the Rough: Max

Welcome back to our monthly spotlight series! In this feature, we talk with Star Wars costumers who help illustrate what high-quality, in-universe costuming looks like, and provide some insights into their character creations!
This time around, we’re looking at two Halcyon cruisers, Max and his wife, about the creation of their excellent smuggler/civilian outfits!

Special shout-outs this month to Doremy and Renee for their generous donations to help out the site – you all rock! 🙂 If you like this series and would like to support my work as well, consider contributing below!

Max reports that his initial inspiration for his character design was—as it is for so many, because the look is just so sweet—the iconic Han Solo style. He already had a bunch of Han-related pieces but didn’t want to just “go as Han Solo”, because any use of those elements (shirt, pants, vest or jacket) would immediately be identifiable. Instead, Max decided to come up with his own costume design, and because the Galactic Starcruiser experience is set during the ‘Sequel Trilogy, he focused by looking at costume designs from those movies.

To narrow down their outfits, Max and his wife assembled a collection of art books with concept art, and began looking to specific characters whose designs had elements they wanted to use: Sequel Trilogy (Finn), Rogue One (Jyn and Cassian), the Original Trilogy (Han), and Jedi Fallen Order (Cal). Max settled on basing his outfit on Finn’s from ‘The Rise of Skywalker’. Having unique pants (Han-inspired but still their own design) was one draw. In order to survive the heat and humidity of sunny Florida, they wanted to keep their kits as lightweight as possible, and so decided on a bib-front shirt-and-vest combo. The materials used were primarily lightweight cotton twills and linen as much as possible–wisely avoiding synthetics! They then played with different color combinations until they found something that suited their sensibilities.

Because the Starcruiser experience is basically a big-budget LARP, the pair decided to create backstories for their Starcruiser personas, and attempted to weave their stories together:
“Drin Lorr was 15 years old when his homeworld of Alderaan was destroyed by the Empire. As fate would have it, he was off-planet at the time—but his parents were killed. Harboring a desire for revenge against the Empire, he left Coruscant and fled to Nar Shaddaa (aka the “Smuggler’s Moon”) where he fell in with less-savory types and learned to be a smuggler. He eventually ran underground Sabacc tournaments and would fix them to make sure the Hutts always came out ahead. After years of running spice and fixing games, Drin’s conscience got the better of him and he realized he could no longer work for the Hutts. Drin realized new opportunities awaited him since the Fall of the Empire and as he prepared to flee Nar Shaddaa, the Hutt Syndicate tried to stop him. Luckily for him, Cami Ryzio (a former Imperial operative working as a slicer) saved his life. There was an immediate spark between them and they had a whirlwind romance—but when Drin learned of her past with the Empire, he realized he could not be with her. “Maybe one day,” they said. … Now, four years later, Commander Lorr is aboard the Halcyon on a secret mission from General Organa to make contact with an asset on Batuu and retrieve information. Having recently reconnected with Cami, he thought this would be the perfect way for them to spend some time together (and a romantic cruise is just the cover story he needed).”

For our textile nerds: Max’s outfits break down as follows:
2 pairs trousers – one pair is lightweight green cotton twill with grey accents; the other pair is a slightly heavier black cotton drill.
3 shirts: natural, grey, and charcoal grey. The natural and grey are a “v neck” with raised collar, similar to Han’s shirts from Episode IV and ‘Episode Seven’. The charcoal grey is a spin on the classic Episode V style “bib” shirt. All three of these shirts were made in linen by Karolian Dry Goods (who also made the green pants and the ‘Episode IX’-style Finn buckle); the black pants (a Cal Kestis piece, custom in black) were made by Retro Revival Props.

The jacket was custom made from Max’s design by a professional costumer friend. He says it was originally meant to be a jacket that could be converted to a vest, but this proved problematic so it became two separate pieces, both made from waxed cotton. The jacket has ‘pilot-style’ box-pleated suede accents down the arm, and the vest is dressed up with accents like a leather yoke. Their belts were from Darman’s Props; one belt he already had from a ‘Poe Dameron’ costume, while the other belt was a blank, purchased with the pouches to match colors. Max’s boots are the licensed Finn/Poe boots from Po-Zu.
When they finally had all the pieces together he was worried that he had “overdone” it—but ended up wearing every piece during their two-day voyage!

In terms of time required to put these outfits together, this was the timeline:
the convertible jacket was first considered in the summer of 2021, with the initial sketch in August. Max made their Starcruiser reservations at the end of 2021, around the time they began their costume research and digital costume mockups. After that, things started falling into place and everything was finished with a week to spare before their April ’22 trip.

Max reports that depending on the item, they used washes, dry brushing, or spray paint to lightly weather their pieces and take off some of the ‘new garment’ shine and get a little closer to that sweet Used Universe look.

Since much of the Starcruiser experience relies on the ‘datapad’ to accept missions and build rapport, Max anticipated being on his phone a lot. In order to stay fully charged, he commissioned an in-universe-styled ‘costume’ for a small power bank: a very cool prop that performs its function without breaking immersion!

After their excellent Halcyon adventure, Max reported that he was very pleased with how everything came together, and he didn’t have any plans to upgrade his outfit at present.
You can find Max on Instagram @corelliancosplay.

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