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 Galaxy-accurate ‘outer persona’! For this month’s installment, now that midsummer is here (for us in the Northern Hemisphere at least), I wanted to take a look at examples of T-shirts and other short-sleeved or sleeveless tops. What more can you say about them? On modern Earth these are among our most casual clothing, which puts them at odds with the galaxy’s overall space-fantasy aesthetic, but as we’ll see, they do occasionally show up in the EU as everyday clothing.
Short-sleeved T-shirts: Luke (Splinter of the Mind’s Eye), Dass Jennir (Blue Harvest, Out of the Wilderness), Aegis crewman*(Razor’s Edge), Dexter Jettster; NEGtAS Besalisk, Janks, Bandomeer prisoner (Dark Times #15), Duro in the big city (Langdon Foss), Ruusan lookout (Jedi Knight). Voren Na’alContinue reading “Galactic Style Guide – T-shirts and tank tops”
Hello readers! I wanted to give a heads-up that the next few months will see a slight change in the posts being published here at the Star Wars Living History blog. At the time this post goes live, my wife and I are on our way to Mt. Katahdin, Maine, and as of 7 June 2021 will be southbound on the Appalachian Trail, hiking 2,200 miles to Springer Mountain, Georgia…which will make it very difficult to keep up with writing and maintaining a blog! (I’ll be checking in along the trail on my facebook page and my Instagram feed, so be sure to ‘Follow’ for those who want to keep tabs on our progress vicariously!)
However, this shouldn’t mean a lack of content for our readers and subscribers: In addition to some guest pieces contributed by members of the SWLH facebook community, I’ve scheduled new installments of the Galactic Style Guide to continue to drop on the last Saturday of the month, with other articles rolling out on a bi-monthly instead of weekly basis. In other words, excepting August (AUREBESH MONTH!!!), expect two posts per month instead of four.
While I wish our hike could be done with more GFFA style, old-school canvas backpacks are heavy and don’t hold nearly enough stuff for a thru-hiker, while most modern ultralight gear is way too colorful to match the galactic aesthetic. But we will see. I’ve been kicking ideas around with a couple of high-caliber galactic ‘reenactors’ about the possibility of organizing a Star Wars ‘ruck’ hike. I would love to do a true long-distance trek using Star Wars gear, or for more of a challenge, with my Middle-earth kit (all organic, handmade, and essentially Iron Age), but I figure I should get thru-hike #1 under my belt first 🙂 Nonetheless, as you can see above, I’ve still tried to inject at least a little GFFA style into my daily hiking outfit: Alderaanian fleet trooper with Donovian Rainman footwear, and I’ll be rocking a moisture farmer bucket hat for at least the first leg of our journey! I even made a point of choosing a shirt without proper buttons 😉
Wish us luck, MTFBWY, and I’ll see you (Force willing) in December!
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 wrapping up our look at in-universe lower-body garments, both long and short.
When the subject of non-cargo kinds of pockets comes up in costuming circles, I’ve seen some people try to argue that hip/slash pockets don’t exist in-universe. Based on our sources I can say that slash pockets do exist in the GFFA, but they aren’t appropriate for all impressions. Rebel soldiers, agents, or operatives frequently wear pants with familiar pockets.:
Pants with hip or rear pockets: Rebel specialist (Battlefront2!2017, Dresselian (NEGtAS), ‘Cassian Andor’, human male Jaden Korr (14 ABY), Kyle Katarn (12 ABY).
It is worth noting that the distinctive hip pockets-and-belt-loops of the Specialist appear to be inspired by surplus Austrian M75 pants (though those also have thigh cargo pockets).
Welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! In this month’s installment we’re starting our look at lower-body garments.
While most humanoids in the Galaxy Far Far Away dress practically and wear long trousers of some sort, because layering is such a large part of the general galactic aesthetic we usually don’t get a good look at most characters’ legwear. If you plan to wear a longer outer garment like a tunic, there’s no need to be picky about your pants—as long as they’re solidly made and able to stand up to authentic use: for example, Luke’s farmboy trousers were just bleached Levis! As a rule of thumb, most in-universe trousers are nondescript but as we will see below, there are a few ways to dress them up for more visual interest.
Han Solo (Episode IV-VI), Luke Skywalker (medal ceremony), Mos Eisley extras, Jarin Flast (WEG SWRPG 2nd Edition)/generic Human (New Essential Guide to Alien Species)Continue reading “Galactic Style Guide – Pants I”
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 Galaxy-accurate ‘outer persona’! This month we’re finishing up our brief survey of in-universe head coverings.
In my research into space-archeology clothing styles, I found the wide-brimmed, low-crowned style seems more common on the galaxy’s fringes, and is more likely to be worn by bounty hunters, settlers, explorers, treasure hunters, and the like. As I discussed previously, this style draws on visual archetypes of Spaghetti Western gunslingers and Pulp Serial archeologists, although our two final examples (both Naboo) seem to buck the trend, and instead invoke the more pastoral petasos of the Classical Greek traveler.
Wide-brimmed hats: Jacobi Sterne, Outer Rim Marshal (FFG Far Horizons), female archeologist/treasure hunter #1, female archeologist/treasure hunter #2; Rodian fringer/explorer; Nico Okarr, Cad Bane; Levet (Duro archeologist), Theed citizen (22 BBY) who appears to be carrying (in addition to a large striped bag) a wide-brimmed (straw?) hat; ‘the artist of Naboo’ (SW Visionaries).read more
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 continuing our survey of galactic headgear.
Conical ‘coolie’ hats might not be politically correct, but K’hkruk’s hat is still freaking sweet. The Mos Espa example appears to be a little more substantial (or maybe it’s just more broken-in) than the standard Asian rice hat, and looks tightly woven. Would probably be perfect sunshade on Tatooine (Ki-Adi Mundi wears his while tracking down Sharad Hett), and if paired with a fully GFFA-style outfit, you might be able to wear one without eliciting cries of “Cultural Appropriation!” As we see, this style was commonplace among the civilians of Nadiem during the Clone Wars (Hide in Plain Sight).
As I’ve found in my other ‘fictional anthropology’ pursuits, to make sure your audience knows you’re dealing with a fantastical, non-modern-Earth setting, throw in some Tall Hats…it works in BONE and Dinotopia, and the GFFA is no different!:
It’s somehow been several (4.5?!) years since first I first ventured forth to do some first-person galactic interpretation, and as you would expect in a hobby geared towards constant tinkering and improvement, I’ve made plenty of changes to that impression since then. In the coming months, I plan to roll out some ‘complete kit’ breakdowns for my various Star Wars living-history personas. In the case of my ex-Agricultural Corps Jedi impression, I realized that a kit breakdown wouldn’t be the right place for fully detailing the research that went into said impression…especially since I portray him long after the Corps has been dissolved! What’s more, a recent addition to our community in the SWLH facebook group expressed great interest in pursuing an AgriCorps impression, so I wanted to use this post and lay out the few bits of information I’ve been able to dig up–not only for their benefit, but for anyone else who might be thinking about such a persona. If you have an interest in gardening, botany, biology, geology, or environmental science and want to apply it to the Galaxy Far Far Away, consider the AgriCorps!
Compared to the larger Order as a whole, our sample size of analyzable visual examples for the Service Corps (and AgriCorps specifically) is a miniscule—only nine.
This generic Mohawk’d fellow comes from the Power of the Jedi Sourcebook (2002), while The Jedi Path (circa 115 BBY) gives us six more individuals, plus a generic Service Corps member:
Happy Boxing Day, and welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! For our final installment of 2020, we’re wrapping up our look at the archetypal exotic space-fantasy ‘wide-shouldered’ look.
We’ll begin by teasing out some examples of armor-based wide shoulders from the earlier phases of galactic history (pre-1000 BBY):
Naga Sadow, Freedon Nadd, Exar Kun Ulic Quel-Droma, Arca Jeth, Gav Daragon; Vitiate, Arcann, Darth Vindican Satele Shan, Darth Malgus; Lord Hoth, Valentyne Farfalla, Army of Light
I don’t have a ton of interest in (or access to) much material from this period, so it’s totally possible I’ve overlooked some key figure. Is there anyone I’ve missed? Please let me know! As we’ll see, more modern characters from the Clone Wars all the way into the Legacy era have also worn armor that widens the upper body: Continue reading “Galactic Style Guide – Shoulders II”
Welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! Ever since the days of Ming the Merciless, sci-fi designers have been using a wide-shouldered silhouette to let the audience know a setting is exotic or non-Earthy, and Star Wars has been no different. While I’ve found no specific mention of this design point in comments from costume designer John Mollo, his original designs for ‘girl Luke Starkiller’ show a mantled hood that may have planted the seed that eventually became this prevalent costume element: It’s worth pointing out that even though the very first onscreen SW character (C-3PO) could be said to display a form of this style, it really didn’t kick into full gear until Return of the Jedi, and by the time the Prequels rolled around, giant collars, mantles, and shoulder pads were in full force!
Wide shoulders on pre-Clone Wars Naboo: Amidala, Sabe; NSF Palace guards, Sio Bibble, Phylo Gandish; Unidentified Theed civilian, unidentified advisor, Hugo Eckener, Horace Vacil, TC-14; civilian prisoners. Note that the entire Naboo Royal Advisory Council and Theed nobles dress pretty much alike.
Let’s talk about fish-lady sweaters for a second. When a Mon Calamari showed up in The Mandalorian Chapter 11 wearing an off-the-rack fisherman’s sweater, the community lost no time in memeifying it before hopping on Amazon to snatch up one or two for themselves. I find it encouraging that people are interested in costuming a common civilian for once (instead of the rare-in-universe but over-represented-in-cosplay Jedi/Sith/Mando/bounty hunter ‘player classes’)…but if I was looking to put together a GFFA dockworker impression, I definitely wouldn’t go out and buy the exact onscreen sweater—and not just because they’re probably now very scarce! Here’s why.
It’s worth pointing out that even though the very first onscreen SW character (C-3PO) could be said to display a form of this style, it really didn’t kick into full gear until Return of the Jedi, and by the time the Prequels rolled around, giant collars, mantles, and shoulder pads were in full force!
Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy 