Galactic Style Guide – Ammo belts and Pouches I

Welcome back to another installment of the Galactic Style Guide, the bimonthly series where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! In this entry, we’re taking a deep dive into a specific category of gear that plays a major role in creating the GFFA’s uniquely grounded, quasi-militaristic aesthetic – belt pouches! As a great number of Star Wars character designs utilize longer robes or tunics instead of more western/modern shirts and trousers (and thus are are sans pockets), it seems that even the most pedestrian costume designs are routinely festooned with a wide variety of semi-rigid containers for carrying small items!
Due to the great number of onscreen examples, I waffled back and forth for how best to organize and present them all. Eventually, I decided to break them down by real-world source (milsurp vs. non-milsurp) and era (Classic Trilogy vs. Prequels) within these categories. As usual, we’ll close with some important takeaways for those of you who may want to incorporate a pouch or two in your own kit to add some in-universe style points! Let’s begin (as we so often do) on Tatooine!

The first folks we see onscreen wearing military surplus are the Jawas, who set the trend for what follows. Much like the majority of base firearms used for blaster building, the Jawas’ belt gear is comprised of European ammunition pouches and bandoleers drawn from a period of roughly 1890 to 1945 CE.

Farmboy Luke continues our trend of leather Euro milsurp pieces, sporting an interesting trio of belt pouches:

Recognizable milsurp gear somewhat disappears from the screen once we leave Tatooine in Episode IV and is nearly non-existent in Episode V, but when we return for Episode VI‘s first act, the crew at Jabba’s palace does not disappoint. This film shows a shift in milsurp gear: much of it is largely American, not European, and from the postwar/Vietnam era. Please note that many of these have been dyed or painted to hide their olive drab origins: it makes sense for the Endor commandos who are operating in a forest, but generally, off-the-shelf OD gear is exceedingly rare in-universe.

As an Alliance general, Lando has a number of European-style ammo pouches on his belt, as do the female Rebel communication technicians:

One particular style of ammo carrier seen in this period has always confused me. These long, skinny pouches designed for submachine guns like the MP40, Sten, Sterling, Thompson, etc. show up on Sandtroopers in the OT, as well as some Rebel troops and ‘shoretroopers’ in Rogue One. The thing is, none of these characters carry blasters seen to use such extended magazines! What, therefore, is going in the pouches???

Speaking of Rogue One, the Rebel commandos in the film’s finale show another shift in style of gear. This time, the pieces are Eurasian milsurp and made of canvas, not leather or nylon. Note, again, that they have been dyed (brown or blue) to disguise their original colors and to help blend into the GFFA look.

Now, we have a few mystery pieces seen in the OT era. If you know what they are, please let me know in the comments!

This analysis is just getting started, but hopefully this introduction gives you a clear idea of what classic, authentic GFFA belt gear looks like:
-made of leather, canvas, or nylon
-single color
-generally muted colors (shades of brown, gray, blue, etc)
-simple, sturdy construction
-limited hardware
-Wouldn’t you know it, these are the foundations of good Star Wars costume/gear design in general! 😉

As always, if there is something I’ve left out, let me know in the comments below or in the SWLH facebook group, and I’ll see you next month!

(Special thanks to last month’s supporters S.C., R.F., and P.D.! Researching, compiling, and writing this series takes a lot of time and energy. If you’ve learned something from this series, or if this post has inspired you to track down some in-universe belt gear for your own kit, please consider supporting my work via ko-fi, or with a small donation below! Thank you!