COSTUMES

LUKE SKYWALKER
Star Wars Return of the Jedi

2006

This was a commissioned piece. I made the vest and the shirt (tunic). It was for a female who wished to cross-play as Luke Skywalker. She had her pants made by a local tailor since there would have been no way for me to accurately fit pants for her long distance.

Luke ROTJ Shirt		Luke ROTJ Shirt		Luke ROTJ Shirt		Luke ROTJ Shirt

Luke Outer Tunic (Vest)		Luke Outer Tunic (Vest)t		Luke Outer Tunic (Vest)		Luke ROTJ neck tabard detail

I drafted my own patterns. I started with a basic button up shirt pattern, and modified it into a tailored bib front shirt with mandarin collar. I believe I started out with a basic tunic jacket pattern for women as a pattern block for the vest, modifying that until it became the vest/outer tunic. The tabards must be narrower around the neck than they are at the front of the body. My pattern was curved more like A-4 Preachers Stole (but obviously wider in the front of the body). But it could be worth trying a pattern closer to the concept of A-2 tapered preachers stole. Note, I added a seam at the neck tabard only because the client needed to save money on fabric, we did not have enough to cut it as once piece. This is not a screen accurate method, the stole/tabards in the movie used garment has no center back seam at the neck.

Reference Photos and Costume Study

I was able to study this costume in person at FIDM in Los Angeles, as well as Star Wars Celebration IV. I have many high resolution images from both exhibits - and they provide some good reference.

FIDM HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES
STAR WARS CELEBRATION IV HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES

Additional images and notes

Bib front shirt detail		Collar and bib opening detail		Bib opening

Yoke and center back seam on shirt		Invisible zipper on left side of body.		Vest Back

Vest Back		Vest Front		Tabards are sewn to vest along inner upper edge.		1.5-2" inner facing on vest sleeve opening.

Tabards should extend slightly beyond the hem of vest.		Behind the scenes fitting reveals shirt tucked into front closer pants.		Form fitting gabardine riding pants, back seam like Han Solo's pants.		Highlight showing U shaped seam on the back of the pants.

Note the tab closure on the brown cloak.		Cuff detail and fabric texture. Also note Obi width.

Luke's outer tunic made of a suit weight washed raw silk tussah.		Best Match - Thai Silks Suiting Weight Raw Silk Tussah 8D-154 It is already a bit of a faded black.		Stylecrest Fabrics Ltd.. "Native Pure Silk - Casablanca"		B.Black and Sons Silk Matka - Black is suggested. Wash multiple times in hot water to fade.

NOTES:

Bib closure on the shirt: It is not visible, but in person observations at FIDM revealed the bib is closed with a small black baby snap.

Obi width: This is often made too narrow. It must be a finished width of 3.5 - 3.75 inches. The leather belt is 2" wide so scale measurements show there is a minimum of .75" of Obi extending above and below the belt when it is worn.

Belt buckle and leather widths: The leather of the belt is 2" wide. This is a standard belt leather blank size that can be purchased at Tandy Leather. The buckle is vertically top to bottom 2.5".

Outer tunic/vest fabric: It is not a finer silk noil like Qui-Gon Gin's tunic. It is heavier suiting weight silk Tussah, silk Matka, etc. It is a faded black (resulting in a dark charcoal grey color), and has been washed quite a bit to weather it. My photo from the exhibit looks a bit more blue-black than the samples next to it simply because one was photographed, the others were scanned so the light source is different and effecting the cast of the color. The stylecrest Fabircs Native Pure Silk was used on one friend's costumes at my suggestion, but I had to overdye the brown color for him to make it more of an off-black. It still retains a touch of brown quality so if I were to do it over again, I'd have suggested black as used on my first costume commission, and wash it many times in hot water with lots of strong detergent to fade it. I suggest the same if going for the Thai Silks Raw Tussah suiting or B.Black and Sons Silk Matka, though the Thai Silks is already faded very well and would only need to be washed once or twice to weather and soften it. Be sure to wash the fabric before you cut and sew the costume. Not after.

Inner Tunic/Shirt Fabric + Pants: These are all made from the same fabric. It is black fabric (not grey) with a twill weave to it (meaning, if you look at the fabric up close you see diagonal lines running through it.) It is most likely a wool gabardine. If you can find a gabardine with some slight stretch to it (they do make stretch wool gabardine) that could help with getting the pants form fitting, and still allow for movement. The tunic I made was on a budget, so cotton twill was used. At the time cotton twill was acceptable by the Rebel Legion, I don't know how particular they are getting on fabrics now. So please refer to their Luke costume standards if you are making a costume for Rebel Legion approval.


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