It may look simple on paper – retain and emulate that oh-so-famous Star Wars look for The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett – but if it was so simple, anyone could do it. Of course, it’s not simple, and so the work of Costume Designer Shawna Trpcic deserves even more credit than it’s already getting and she discusses that with Variety.
In preparation for diving into the show’s spinoff “The Book of Boba Fett,” she studied the original making-of books that George Lucas created during production of the first movie, which provided templates for the original designers like production illustrator Ralph McQuarrie and costume designer John Mollo to follow. Then, she started working to create costumes that looked and felt like they belonged right back in 1977.
“I am very aware of the aesthetic that George Lucas had in 1977 and 1983, and I’m very aware of the technology that they did or didn’t have,” Trpcic says. “So one of the things I tried to do is use tools and resources that would have been available to them.”
For example, Trpcic would look for jackets from the ’40s, which would have been vintage when the first film was being shot. Unlike modern superhero costumes, which often print details on top of Euro jersey fabric, Trpcic and her team also focused on using real embroidery and fabric treatments for the vast majority of clothing characters wear over the course of the show. Many outfits relied on using raw silks and homespun cotton in order to convey the run-down, natural vibes of the desert planet Tatooine, where the majority of the story takes place.
