Prequels – Page 2 – Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy

Galactic Style Guide – Zippers

Welcome to another installment of our ‘Galactic Style Guide counterpoint’ subseries, where we help you strengthen your ‘Star Wars eye’ by highlighting and remedying common faux pas that can make your kit look Not Star Warsy. As part of the GSG, the ultimate goal is still to help you create a more accurate ‘outer persona’ – but we approach the goal from the opposite direction!
This month, we’re taking a look at one of the specific elements which George Lucas decided would have no place in his Star Wars aesthetic – zippers! (For our look at the other form of visible fastener Lucas specifically didn’t want to see, see this previous entry).

If I were to ask you when you first learned that Lucas didn’t want to see zippers and buttons onscreen, there’s a very good chance it was sometime after 2014 and the release of Brandon Alinger’s excellent SW Costumes – The Original Trilogy. However, the no-visible-fastener rule had already been in print for at least seven years: discussed in Rinzler’s The Making of Star Wars (2007), on page 125. What accounts for the delay before this fundamental GFFA costuming rule became truly widely known is, I think, social media; Facebook was still in its relative infancy in 2007. Since then however, the top-down Lucas directive has become frequently-cited in costuming circles, and yet cosplayers and Batuu-bounders still try to excuse visible zippers in their costumes; typically, this involves pointing to a screenshot of Luke Skywalker zipping up his flightsuit in Episode V:

Remember, per our sources, Lucas said he didn’t want to see such fasteners, not that they didn’t exist at all (many seem to have trouble with this distinction). Why Luke’s zipper (and presumably, those of all the other onscreen pilots and technicians) is perfectly permissible is simple: once worn, it isn’t visible – it’s hidden by a flap! (If you can think of a way to convey a pilot suiting up for battle by donning a one-piece flightsuit without showing them zipping it up, I am all ears!) However, there are a fair number of other characters whose costumes do include uncovered zippers: luckily for us, these tend to fall into one of two categories; unluckily for us, things seem to have taken a step backwards in the modern era…

keep reading for plenty of examples from the lucas and disney eras!

Galactic Style Guide – Ponchos II

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 continuing our look at ponchos, focusing on examples from the prequel era! (As a reminder: for our purposes, we’re defining a poncho as a garment worn as an outer layer for protection from the elements, which covers the front of the body).
Let’s keep things rolling with the poncho I think I would most want to curl up in:

Qui-Gon wears this poncho when venturing into Mos Espa in Episode I—the script specifying that he is “dressed as a moisture farmer”. Trisha Biggar notes that the coarse-weave is a silk/linen mix and that the border is “printed”—though I’m not sure what exactly that means (Dressing A Galaxy, p20).

Take a good look at that beautiful nubby texture!

keep reading for many more examples

Talk the talk, walk the walk

Whenever I come across someone online showing off an original Star Wars costume, few things can make it feel out-of-universe faster than visible Earthly fasteners. This should come as no surprise, as the lack of visible fasteners (zippers, buttons, etc) was one of Lucas’ chief design points when creating the original film’s visual style (see Alinger’s SWCOT). While working on a future installment of Galactic Style Guide, I realized I should probably lead by example and make sure none of my own kit pieces broke this rule…and if any did, to fix them ASAP!

Since a lot of my gear has been purpose-built for GFFA living history, most of it is fastener-free. However, some of the milsurp pieces I use would need tweaking; the first of these was my satchel, originally an M9A1 gas mask bag:

Sure, it’s ‘good enough’, but can you see what might use improvement?

Upgrading the Rebel persona: Naboo tunic, Mk II

Since debuting my first draft Rebel-partizan-on-Naboo impression back in 2018, further research has caused me to continue to refine the kit. In addition to needing some more layering, the main thing that needed upgrading was the shirt. My ‘Mark I’ Naboo shirt was not (aside from the Mandarin collar and the color) based on any specific onscreen examples, and the use of a Vietnamese ao dai pattern was only inspired by costume designer Trisha Biggar’s comments re: the general use of Asian elements in Naboo fashion (and at the time I liked the asymmetry of the design). However, I realized that I should probably wear something that more clearly ‘read’ as Naboo in origin, and it should probably be constructed of a lighter material as well – the Mk I was sewn from a ‘rustic’ 7.1-ounce linen.
Since this piece is intended for a Galactic Civil War era persona, I really wanted to try and move away from the traditional Naboo style seen in the Prequels, especially the Renaissance-heavy designs of 32 BBY:

“We had designed Naboo more or less around Art Nouveau (we called it “Space Nouveau”), which was based on organic, plantlike forms. **The costume ideas looked gorgeous on the women, but when you put guys in them, they didn’t look very tough.**” – Ian McCaig, Dressing A Galaxy, p.72.

Roughly inspired by the lines of the traditional Indian kameez, I pored over my reference library to see what Naboo male fashion stuck around through the years while noticing any common elements:

sartorial synthesis and more, within!

What’s the deal with Tatooine currency?

In Episode I, Anakin Skywalker wins the Boonta Eve Classic podrace, which we’ve discussed before. Following the race, he and Qui-Gon sell his podracer, go home to mom, and Ani exclaims, “look at all the money we have!” Here’s the thing – the money Anakin hands her appears to be a stack of Republic credits.

On his way out of town (in a deleted scene), he also gives his old friend Jira her own stack of Republic credits:

We all remember Republic credits, right?

Star Wars Color Theory

As I was preparing an upcoming post, I started wondering which characters in the Saga wore colors beyond earthtones, black, white, or shades of gray. I started leafing through my Visual Dictionaries and several hours later I had created the following rainbow of characters. These are presented in chronological order within each color band, and as we cans see, Trisha Biggar’s costumes for the Prequels are FAR more colorful than those of the Galactic Civil War period. If I do a third collection for all the blacks, whites, grays, and earthtone characters, I’m sure there will be many more OT characters represented.

Show me The cooler end of the spectrum!

Project: Naboo pilot’s helmet part 3

Welcome back! This is the third and final part of my buildlog for attempting to scratchbuild an N1 starfighter pilot’s helmet. When we left off, I had the scaling figured out and patterns drafted, and the side pieces and earmuff details created. Now it’s time to craft the helmet’s shell itself.
To get an idea of how the helmet would look, I transferred the patterns to lightweight cardboard and taped everything together to make a rough mockup of the whole assembly to check the general shape:

This was bonded along the seams (inside and outside) with brown paper bag and PVA glue (left) before brushing both exterior and interior with Bondo resin (center):

Continue reading to see the Step-by-step to completion!

Project: Naboo pilot’s helmet part 2

Hello there! Welcome back to my buildlog for recreating an N1 starfighter helmet – let’s not waste any time and get straight into the process!
In my last post I determined how big the components of the helmet would be, and decided on a method for construction (Pepakura). While I originally wanted to make all parts of the helmet using Pep, I decided that the Y-shaped-part-that-holds-the-earmuff was complicated enough that I should make them out of something more substantial.

I first considered making a mold and casting them in resin, and when I want to feel like a real prototyper, that means carving a positive from amber ‘victory wax’. Well, after a few days I had built up the shape pretty close – I figured I would cast the pieces fairly roughly, and then do the fine shaping on the casts, since resin doesn’t heat up and deform in-hand. However…

Upgrading the Rebel persona – Naboo pilot’s helmet part 1

_{Before we get started, a quick scheduling note: the project that follows was a long and involved process, involving many different skillsets (including—but not limited to—pattern drafting, sculpting, casting, and woodcarving). Instead of trying to cram all that into one mega post, I’ve decided to split it up into three parts, and rather than dole them out separately across most of this month, I’ll be posting all three today (we’ll return to regular programming next week). With all that out of the way, let’s get started!}

With little else to occupy my time while backpacking thousands of miles last year, I spent a large part of my AT thruhike thinking about ways I could improve my various Star Wars reenacting/living history kits when I got back home. Along the lines of adding a Q2 holdout blaster to my Rebel-on-Naboo impression, I wondered if there was anything else I could do to help anchor my kit to that specific planet. While the popular conception of Naboo is of a peaceful, pacifist culture, that’s not exactly the case. While they may not have a proper standing army, the Royal Naboo Security Forces are plenty prominent in the pre-Imperial period and have plenty of hardware to incorporate into a kit. Just as Earth military gear of past generations can trickle down to the civilian market as surplus and family heirlooms lay forgotten in attics, I figured something similar could happen on Naboo as well, especially following their effective demilitarization under the New Order.
While I was never really onboard with the ‘pearl hats’ of the Royal Guards or the Security Guards and Officers’ visored caps, the headgear of one RSF branch felt like it had more Star Wars-y pedigree than the others: the Naboo Starfighter Corps. Their flight helmet is so iconic yet has such a grounded design I thought it might be fun to add one to my kit…and after supper one night in our tent I made a quick doodle of what a Naboo partizan might look like wearing one:

And once I make a character sketch, it’s all over – I *have* to make it a reality!

Once we returned home, I was able to do some research and see what kinds of options I had. Somewhat unsurprisingly (?) it doesn’t seem as if many fan-makers have tackled the N1 helmet…as far as I could tell, only one other (rather exquisite) fanmade example existed, produced by one ‘Godzilla’ (of super-accurate Tusken Raider mask fame). Perhaps one reason for this dearth was because an official N1 helmet replica does exist…they pop up on eBay from time to time but are typical quality for Don Post – they’re basically just a cast plastic shell with a mediocre paintjob – and more than I want to pay for such a thing. After being away from my workshop for so long, I really needed a project to get back in the Maker groove, and thought a scratchbuilt Naboo pilot helmet would do the trick nicely! The obvious question was: HOW?

Hiding in plain sight

I talk a lot on this blog about the idea of ‘reenactorisms’ – inaccuracies that get unknowingly (or knowingly!) perpetuated because someone didn’t do their research. Usually when discussing these blunders we’re talking about individuals making them, but I wanted to point out two examples to day that prove the big players are not immune to making sloppy mistakes either!
Following the release of Episode III in 2005, LA’s FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising) hosted the exhibit Dressing a Galaxy, which featured 100 screen-used costumes from Episodes I through VI. From the pictures I’ve seen online it was an absolutely incredible presentation.
However, one tableau of costumes held a glaring mistake for all to see:

If you can’t spot it, maybe we’d better check the references: