Collected References – Page 5 – Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy

Coming soon: a new way to exercise your ‘Star Wars eye’

Whenever I go to the thrift store, I usually cruise the racks on the lookout for certain materials—chiefly linen, wool, and silk—to be cannibalized into items for my various reenacting kits. After years and years of doing this, I can often identify a piece’s fiber content just by walking or thumbing past it, with no need to check the tag. When I go thrift-shopping with my wife, she will often remark and wonder on how I’m able to do this, and the answer is simple: trial and error, reinforced by years of practice. It’s a kind of exercise, and I’ve simply trained my ‘fabric eye’ to recognize one cloth from another.

(This is the same type of practiced skillset that allows me to go into the woods with the Middle-earth Reenactment Society and confidently pick a stalk of nettle or milkweed out of a thicket of other dead, gray plant stalks when we’re in need of some wild cordage on a trek).

What does this have to do with star wars, you ask?

Galactic Style Guide – Children

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’! This time we’re looking at a segment of the galactic population which we don’t tend to see much of: ~~children~~ younglings!
As it sounds like a major target market for Disney’s Galactic Starcruiser hotel is families with children—and because I’ve seen many would-be guests express uncertainty about how to dress their children in GFFA style—I thought it would be especially helpful to collect and share some examples of in-universe clothing worn by children. I’ve attempted to present them chronologically and grouped by planet.

We begin in the distant past, on Ruusan during the New Sith Wars c. 1,000 BBY. Here we see the first appearance of a general trend of children wearing shorts and/or short sleeves (or no sleeves!):

It’s worth noting that pretty much every youth we see on Tatooine is a slave, so I’m not sure how much their style of dress is indicative of childhood under the twin suns versus social status (would young Luke have worn something similar as a farmhand?). One thing is for sure, while the garments themselves are simple construction, the cloth they’re constructed from has a lot of texture! However, we know (Dressing a Galaxy, p11) that Anakin’s tunic was made of a silk/linen/hemp blend (presumably the others were something similar), which sounds pretty comfortable (well, except for all the sand).

**the Mos Espa junkyard gang:** Anakin, Amee, Melee, Wald, Seek.

Click here for examples from Naboo, Dantooine, Alderaan, and more!

Galactic Style Guide – Formalwear II

from *By the Emperor’s Hand*: Mara Jade (impersonating a baroness) and casino security

Galactic Style Guide – Formalwear I

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 are geared more towards 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 get an idea of what ‘fancy dress’ looks like in the Galaxy Far, Far Away.
Since any discussion of in-universe formalwear is really a discussion of the clothing of the galactic upstrata, and since the Original Trilogy is—aside from Leia—generally not concerned with these kinds of characters, our best examples from top-tier sources come from the Prequel films (which were very much focused on galactic elites). One thing’s for sure: Trisha Biggar’s costume designs reveal a clear preference for robes, cloaks, and coats in late-Republic senators’ clothing:

**Late-Republic senators and aides**: Liana Merian, Agrippa Aldrete, ‘Unidentified Draped Senator’, Sei Taria, Silya Shessaun, Gem Sirrom, Terr Taneel, Chi Eekway, Fang Zar;
Mon Mothma, Bana Breema, Male-Dee, Giddean Danu, Bail Organa, Rep. Binks, Sheltay Retrac

Galactic Style Guide – Viewscreens and Datapads II

Happy Christmas everyone, and welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, the monthly series where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more accurate ‘outer persona’! In this month’s installment (our final post of 2021!) we’re wrapping up our look at those ubiquitous pieces of ‘hard kit’, datapads and viewscreens. While datapads have really taken off in the last couple years (since visitors to the Galaxy’s Edge parks started kitbash-decorating phone cases), if you’re only familiar with them from fanmade creations, you may be surprised to see that the MANY visual examples we have from licensed sources are detailed very differently!

From an in-universe visuals sense, these three examples are perhaps the most accurate homemade ‘datapads’ I’ve seen yet. What is it that makes them so well-done?

Galactic Style Guide – Viewscreens and Datapads I

Welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, the monthly series where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more accurate ‘outer persona’! For this installment, we’re taking a look at devices which seem as prevalent in the Galaxy Far Far Away as smartphones are here on Earth. While a comlink fulfils the role of a telephone (audio-only), a datapad or viewscreen fills the niche of a tablet computer, and is used to display or swap visual information (but not to make ‘calls’).

While datapads have really taken off in recent years (after visitors to Galaxy’s Edge started kitbash-decorating their phone cases), if you’re only familiar with them from these fanmade creations, you may be surprised to see that the MANY visual examples from official sources are designed very differently! This post will be primarily concerned with the general design of these devices’ screen sides, and then next month we’ll pay special attention to the rear face, to which so many would-be Batuu-bounders glue so many greeblies.

Galactic Style Guide – Comlinks

Welcome back to another installment of the Galactic Style Guide, where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! This month, we’re taking a break from ‘soft kit’ to look at a piece of ‘hard kit’ that we would expect to see in the pocket, or on the wrist or belt of most galactic citizens in some form or another: we’re talking COMLINKS!
While comlinks are—like cellular phones—used to send and receive audio signals at long distances, unlike their Earth analogues, comlinks show a remarkable variety in their designs. Ignoring backpack-based comlinks, we’ll break our sample down into handheld and wrist-mounted comlinks.

The first comlink seen onscreen is the C1 model, made by SoroSuub and carried by Imperial stormtroopers (potentially this might also be what Leia uses at the bunker on Endor). If you’re portraying a character in a position to scavenge some Imperial gear, the C1 might be for you! For extra functionality, you can buy a C1-styled Bluetooth-enabled handset at the Galaxy’s Edge park ($60).

As we’ll see next, the propmakers of Episode I made a wide array of prototypes for the Jedi to carry before settling on kitbashing a womens’ razor for the Hush-98 (also made by SoroSuub):

Galactic Style Guide – Shirts III

Welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, the monthly series where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more accurate ‘outer persona’! For this installment, we’re wrapping up a few upper-body stragglers which are both easy ways to add a little unconventional GFFA style to your own wardrobe.

**Center closure:** Dunlan, Astor (*The Ahakista Gambit*), Teesoo and Saya Ksi (Bounty Hunter’s Code); Biggs Darklighter (Dewback Attack-Hugh Fleming (*SW Insider* #35), Tag Rogaren (*From the Ruins of Alderaan*), colonist (FFG Far Horizons), Soontir Fel (*Rogue Squadron* #25)

Note that examples 1&2 both come from the planet Ahakista, and almost half of these use a right-over-left ‘womens’ closure!
For the reenactor with some basic sewing know-how, this is a very easy style to replicate. Because of Western fashion’s silly gender-specific closure rules, if you buy a button-down shirt of the opposite gender, you can flip-flop the front sides and get a closure without buttonholes on top. Then just add a strip of Velcro down both fronts. If you want Fel’s Mandarin collar style, it’s likewise easy to remove the fall from a shirt’s collar to leave the stand (this will still have a buttonhole at the top, however; you may be able to cannibalize the removed material to make a new, buttonhole-less stand).

you may already have our next example in your closet!

Galactic Style Guide – Aurebesh II

Welcome back to another installment of the Galactic Style Guide (where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’) and the end of Aurebesh Month! In last week’s installment we showed how before the Disney buyout, Aurebesh words on clothing were incredibly rare. This week, we’re taking a look at some places where using in-universe lettering IS appropriate!:

**Tattoos or scarification:** Force Hounds (26,000 BBY), Morlish Veed (Legacy), Kaddak (Cry of Shadows), Enviro-suit (FFG), Sketch, Kix (The Clone Wars)

Note that while there are plenty of tattoos in-universe, these were the Only examples of letters-as-body-art I could find in the rather complete listing of Aurebesh appearances.

Galactic Style Guide – Aurebesh I

Welcome back to Aurebesh Month and our first of two installments of the Galactic Style Guide (where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’) taking a look at something that’s become really popular among the Batuu-bounding community in recent years: using in-universe Galactic Basic lettering—the Aurebesh—on kit items.

I see folks incorporate Aurebesh words into their clothing so often, it inspired me to do some digging and see how many examples I could find from the various visual media sources.
The first instances I found are all a certain segment of the galactic populace that I don’t think I’ve ever seen re-created before, but which would make for an excellent living history impression:

**PRISONERS:** from Agent of the Empire—Hard Targets and Empire: The Wrong Side of the War

I was a little disappointed that these guys are just wearing yellow/orange jumpsuits, and that there wasn’t a little more consistency between them and the more interesting prisoner uniform of the Imperial Remnant in 12 ABY (Jedi Outcast):

And speaking of Jedi Outcast…

more examples of aurebesh on clothing after the jump