Galactic Style Guide – Patterns

Welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, the series where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’ for your denizen or OC! In this month’s ‘GSG Counterpoint’ entry, we’re looking at an element of visual character design that tends to fall by the wayside when we think about the foundations of galactic style. While the vast majority of characters in the Original Trilogy wear clothing made of solid-color material, there are a few rare places where patterned fabrics are used. As we’ll see, the Prequels introduce a statistically higher number of examples, though they are still the minority. The highest-quality post-Disney title includes several, but in a very specific context!
Note that in this entry, we are primarily dealing with ‘prints’, as opposed to textured fabrics (in which the apparent pattern is caused by the actual dimensional quality of the fabric itself).

In all three films of the OT, I think we can count the number of characters wearing (non-camouflage) patterned clothing on one hand. The first is pre-skeleton Beru Lars, whose innermost layer (of three!) is a collared shirt with a repeated design in a square pattern:

Next up, one of the patrons at the Mos Eisley Cantina sports a long tunic with a surprising pattern – but you’d never know it from onscreen:

Note that the pattern does not carry over the entire garment, but is just used for the center front and the upper arms. However, because the scene is extremely dark, the overall impression is still that of a solid-color tunic.

In Episode V, administrator Lando’s cape features an exquisite lining made from a dragon-patterned broade – but constructed with the reverse side visible so all we see is a vague but mildly interesting pattern, not shiny, colorful, recognizable dragons!

And I think that’s as much as we can say for the OT – I told you there weren’t many! When it comes to the Prequel trilogy, there are a TON of visually-interesting fabrics on display, but the vast majority of them are a result of the physical texture of the material itself. The following seem to be the only patterns I could find in my costume library.
At first glance, it appears that podracer Mawhonic is wearing some kind of organic-patterned printed undersuit:

However, the truth is even weirder: it’s not a pattern at all, he’s just wearing two layers – a solid gray suit and a net over top of that!

When traveling in disguise as refugees in Episode II, both Anakin and Padme wear outfits that incorporate printed patterns; Anakin’s vest is made of an ‘African mudcloth’, while Padme’s gown is an almost-paisley-looking design:

Conversely from refugees, the other segment of galactic society for whom patterns (from the massive to the tiny) seem to be more common is that of the upstrata. Here we have junior Representative Binks, Senator Ivor Drake, an unnamed Alderaanian Senator (32BBY), and actor/businessman Romeo Treblanc. Drake’s cloak-robe-mantle thing almost reads as camouflage, but if we had higher rez, I expect we’d probably find that it’s embroidery.

Our two Twi’lek Senatorial aides (Pampy and Supi) in Episode II wear very subtly patterned robes:

Unique among the rest of the Prequel-era Jedi, librarian Jocasta Nu wears tabards and obi sash with a sweet geometric design (anyone know how was this look accomplished? Silkscreen? Embroidery?)

When visiting Tatooine in Episode II, Padme stays out of the sun with this wild swirly-patterned cloak:

Lastly, Naboo holyman ‘Pontifex Agolerga’ wears a robe with a floral pattern:

Unfortunately, those seem to be the only true patterns seen in the Lucas era (let me know if I’ve left any out!) Which brings us to ANDOR…
The best title of the modern era was generally good about sticking to the Galaxy’s prevailing solid-color aesthetic, but one setting in particular featured a plethora of true prints:

As Tony Gilroy has stated ANDOR wasn’t originally written as a Star Wars show and that he’s surprisingly not a massive fan of the IP, he doesn’t seem the type to be a deep diver into the nitty-gritty of the Expanded Universe. However, the show’s costume designer Michael Wilkinson must have done his research because the Niamos look perfectly aligns with what we would expect from EU costume cues:

“Wedge, Face, and Donos, informally the Yokel Group, found lodgings at the Revos Liberty… Face excused himself for a few minutes and returned with a pile of brightly colored cloth. He handed out individual portions to the others.
Wedge shook his out. A short-sleeved tunic in orange and yellow tropical fruit patterns and short pants in lavender. “I’m going to throw up.” Face smiled. “That would be the final bit of trim on the ensemble, wouldn’t it? I recommend you keep the hat. That really completes the image of an Agamaran stereotype with no taste and no sense.”
Donos looked mournfully at his outfit: a shirt with thin red and green horizontal stripes and shorts with black and white vertical stripes. “Sir, permission to kill Face?”
“Granted. But keep your hat, like Face says.”
Face unfolded his own fashion disaster. A black silken shirt with a variety of insects picked out on it in glittery silver, shorts in a brighter, more painful orange than that of New Republic pilot’s suits, and a red kerchief for his neck. “As you can see, I saved the best for myself. Time to find some brides, brothers.” – X-Wing: Wraith Squadron (1998)

Based on context clues given here and elsewhere in the book, it seems Agamar is something like Space Minnesota, and the Yokel Group are undercover as essentially ‘three Norwegian Bachelor Farmers who have blown their life savings on a single trip to visit Myrtle Beach’. It is this passage, more than any other, which shows that while brightly colored and patterned clothing DOES exist in the GFFA, it is also considered to be the height of tackiness. ANDOR confirms this by showing us characters wearing such clothing only while ‘dressed down’ on vacation.

Then there’s Donald Glover’s Lando in the SOLOASWS… who is basically just wearing a Hawaiian shirt, just in a non-floral print.
Now, I only watched that murky mess of a flick once, so I don’t remember – was Lando dressed like this while playing cards just off the boardwalk in Space Atlantic City or was this an everyday look? If the latter, it’s in-universe tacky as hell.

Thumbing through my other modern reference books I also saw this print-wearing partygoer from the same film:

Finally, there’s one type of more-appropriate patterned fabric which has shown up in more recent titles – the humble stripe:

Note that the stripes stick to a small color palette but still vary in width within a single garment, which really helps avoid a ‘Beetlejuice’ or ‘chain gang’ look.

In the end, I hope you can see that patterns are fine for adding some spice to a background crowd here and there, but they should be just that – not the garnish, not the side dish, and definitely not the entree! Do we ever follow a main character who wears patterns as part of their main outfit? Not really. However, despite the vast majority of Star Wars costumes being built from solid-colors, they still manage to have plenty of visual interest without resorting to patterns, largely thanks to a variety of textures – which we will dig into properly in a future installment! 😉

Final bonus:
As I’ve shifted over the last few years away from referring to lower-tier materials (in favor of live-action), I didn’t originally want to include this bad example for fear someone would take it as being representative of prequel-era Jedi garb (it’s not!), but it’s just too goofy not to share. This layered, purple, regularly-patterned monstrosity comes courtesy of Adi Gallia, as worn in the Jedi Starfighter game (2002):

As ever: aspire to reflect the rule, not the exception!

Thanks to my readers! Researching, writing, and editing a post like this takes a lot of time and energy (no ChatGPT here!), so if you’ve enjoyed reading, learned something, or are rethinking using patterns in your own outfit, please consider supporting my work via ko-fi, or with a small donation below! If you can’t give, please share this post or site with your friends! Thank you!