Saber Forum

So as I rolled off through the terminal of Tampa International Airport for a brief vacation I happened to look briefly to my left to see a giant poster of Queen Amidala and an advertisement for a Star Wars costuming exhibit in nearby St. Petersburg. Needless to say, I reworked my plans a little to include a trip to see it and boy, it was utterly fantastic. Here are a few choice pictures of the 350+ that I snapped. A special focus on the Jedi as I think many people here on the forums are looking to making those kinds of costumes and most Sith clothing tends to revolve around those fabric patterns as well.

We'll start with the one that essentially started it all for the Jedi costuming rubric for Star Wars to come. This is Sir Alec Guinness' robe and outfit the first time we see him in the saga. Note the dusty and dirty appearance, the actor actually rolled around in the sand and dust before filming his scenes so that the costume would appear more realistic. Note the very simple belt buckle, this would change a bit for the prequels.

(https://i.imgur.com/QmSwsZp.jpg)

This is a close up so you can really see the stains and dirt in the fabric and also the absolutely lovely texture of it. Texture is always a major factor with Jedi costumes in particular. It is super important that the camera be able to "see" the fabric even if it isn't in a close up. It's also something very important to remember if you are making a costume of your own. Always keep texture in mind.

(https://i.imgur.com/cNHq80N.jpg)

Now we move onto Luke's costume from ROTJ. The cloak is very similar to his mentor Obi-Wan's but features a distinct black color for the tunic, tabards, and pants.

(https://i.imgur.com/f8dZNah.jpg)

This is young Anakin's costume for the closing of Episode 1 after he has effectively been accepted into the Jedi Order. The inner and outer tunic plus Obi all have a very distinct waffle-shaped pattern that gives the costume a crisp look. Note the lone food capsule on the belt. It was the only one in the entire exhibit that I could spot.

(https://i.imgur.com/eBoea57.jpg)

Here's a better close up shot.

(https://i.imgur.com/PHdAsRp.jpg)

The money shot, this was a very cool part of the exhibit featuring both Sith and Jedi. Darth Maul sits in the center surrounded by the costumes of Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Mace Windu, and Luminara Unduli. The sabers were of particular interest to me as I hadn't yet been able to get home and break open my waiting package which had my first saber in it.

(https://i.imgur.com/bcoOKRD.jpg)

Now a few bonuses:

Stormtrooper display, First Order trooper dead enter, Endor trooper on right, and First Order Snowtrooper on left.

(https://i.imgur.com/WpoXvtI.jpg)

Han Solo costume from ROTJ and Chewbacca from ANH.

(https://i.imgur.com/uOIwoC9.jpg)

R2 from ANH, C-3PO from ESB, and BB-8 from Force Awakens. These costumes (with the exception of BB-8 who isn't exactly a costume) were immaculate. The detail involved in making the droids look very much like autonomous machines rather than just a costume or a prop was exceptional.

(https://i.imgur.com/gz6I09d.jpg)

A particularly imposing figure, this is the Vader suit from ROTS which Hayden got to wear. It is pretty terrifying (and very tall) in person and one can't help but feel a little on edge by it.

(https://i.imgur.com/6e8YXg0.jpg)

We'll wrap it up with with the wise old Jedi Master himself from ESB. The robes were designed off of Obi-Wan's costume from the previous movie and then caked with dirt and grime to give him the appearance of a swamp hermit. The puppet itself blows any from of CGI out of the bloody water. I half expected him to start talking at me from inside his glass cube.

(https://i.imgur.com/9QvQpKQ.jpg)

So that's a brief sampling of the exhibit. As a huge fan of Star Wars and a lover of making and wearing costumes I was about as nuts as a kid in a candy shop through the whole thing. Not only did it give me such a deeper look into the saga it also made me realize something new about the costume creation. Ever since I got into cosplay I had always vaulted real movie costumes far above anything that I personally could ever hope to make (and to some degree that remains true); yet when I saw those Jedi tunics and tabards and realized rather suddenly that they were made very much the same way on a sewing machine as the one I made and have hanging in my closet... it just gave me a connection to the movies in a way that is difficult to describe.

I do have (many) more photos if perchance you guys and gals want more but I think this is good start for now.

These are beautiful, and it must've been an amazing experience.  Thanks so much for sharing! 

-GT

Thanks for sharing.  These costumes will be of great help for our cosplayers.  I was unable to get to the exhibit in Seattle.  Oh boy... I really missed out.  350+ super good photos !  :o

point  8)

Wow how lucky did you get! That is awesome.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Awesome! I would love to see more pics.

I might have to try to get to this...

Thank you all, I'm glad you enjoyed them and I will certainly peruse through my collection and pick out some more to post soon.

Can I request a pic of Master Luminara Unduli's robes, if you have it?

I do have a somewhat good picture of her from the side that I'll include in the next batch. The only issue with that multiple costume display was that they were all facing Maul and set up on a platform so getting head-on shots was difficult.

Saso that was incredible!  And if that is only a SMALL example of what you were able to capture, I would definitely be interested in seeing more!

Point!

Ok so 2nd batch:

This one is for you Lady Kath, this was about as close as I could get because of the platform. The little plaque next to the display mentioned her skirt was made of leather that was hand-tooled and painted just like her arm cuffs. I kind of wish she had a bigger role in the movies to be honest but I guess we have to make do with the Clone Wars series. Interestingly, I googled the name of the exhibit and stuck her name on the end for an image search and found that as the exhibit travels around they display the costumes differently so there are better close-ups out there. The saber looks great and is actually a string LED inside the tube so that when it ignited for bystanders it gave the whole "igniting" effect.

(https://i.imgur.com/dApn6Uz.jpg)

Here's a close-up of Han's belt and you can clearly see the "old west" theme that they were going for. Good old Han the space cowboy.

(https://i.imgur.com/WQcUetD.jpg)

This is one of my favorites because deep down I've always wanted to do a Tusken Raider costume. It is very similar fabric style compared to Jedi robes except the weave is massive and frayed beyond belief to give the creatures a wild appearance.

(https://i.imgur.com/EDBf7px.jpg)

Here's a great shot of Obi-Wan's costume from TPM. According to the info the robes were made with vintage WWII-era wool and during the water scenes when heading towards Otoh Gunga the wool would shrink nearly *2 feet* in minutes. That meant that every single take they used and ruined a new cloak, they must have had more than a few made. Totally blows your mind, right?

(https://i.imgur.com/2Gc0DQV.jpg)

Obi-Wan's lightsaber of course. One of the things I found hilarious was that I have spent way too much time looking at the Ultrasabers models and so when I saw the actual props I thought "wait it didn't actually look like that, the Ultrasaber looks like... ...oh yeah."

(https://i.imgur.com/cSHwWuU.jpg)

Qui-Gon Jinn's costume, very similar of course to Obi's but I love the boots and all those straps going across. I don't think any other Jedi has anything remotely close to that kind of design.

(https://i.imgur.com/UpyZS3o.jpg)

And of course the "Consular" if you will...

(https://i.imgur.com/eU73G5Y.jpg)

And a bonus, Palpatine's saber. Beautifully deadly doesn't even begin to describe it, the thing is gorgeous. I had always wondered if the saber was smaller than average because it looks small in Ian Mcdiarmid's hand and after a quick hand measure it turned out to be about 7 inches, definitely a smaller saber compared to the rest of the field. Superb for concealing it in your robes and cutting down Jedi like wheat.

(https://i.imgur.com/jM5N9n5.jpg)

More to come, like bounty hunters...

Thanks!

Also Sidious' saber *drool*

Thank you VERY much for sharing these

I just made it through these, and was about to ask for more pics of Luminara, but LAK did it for me. :D Can't wait for more.

The fan favorite himself. The original helmet viewfinder was taken from a Polaroid camera and this costume is from ROTJ. I'll let actor Jeremy Bulloch explain it: "Once I put the costume on, I did feel quite dangerous... the costume did most of the work."

(https://i.imgur.com/diuyJKQ.jpg)

It would be crazy not to showcase the jetpack so here's a better shot of it. The man in the photograph was wearing one of those 501st Costume group shirts with the patches and I was sure to tell him that it was really sweet to see the 501st represented.

(https://i.imgur.com/g9IOqXX.jpg)

And Jango too, this costume was particularly important to me because I'm in the planning stages for Mandalorian armor and so seeing the costume was super valuable.

(https://i.imgur.com/t074XMu.jpg)

Spotlight on Jango's jetpack. This is the JT-12 model that was used before and during the Clone Wars. Very streamlined and very cool looking.

(https://i.imgur.com/wzx0ryv.jpg)

Somehow a shape shifting bounty hunter just sounds cool, good old Zam Wesell.

(https://i.imgur.com/bqG1s8d.jpg)

Finn's costume is fairly simple. Kind of a mesh shirt and a really nice leather jacket. It's little wonder that Poe briefly wanted it back as it is very nice looking.

(https://i.imgur.com/fodenfZ.jpg)

Rey's scavenger costume. Not the biggest fan of Rey but the costume is pretty nice. It has a definite Tattooine-ish feel to it and shows that the environment on Jakku is very close if not near identical to Luke's home planet.

(https://i.imgur.com/Z84VtXS.jpg)

A few bonus props:

The caption basically explains this one. These are neat because sometimes objects held by CGI characters are not always real props so I was very happy to see these.

(https://i.imgur.com/0UsK5dF.jpg)

I love this one, Ian Mcdiarmid's fingernails after being fried by his own Force Lightning.

(https://i.imgur.com/fbxk5y8.jpg)

 

Wow...so many fantastic pics!  And I love your synopses of them! 

Point!

Cool pics man, point to you for sharing !!  :o MTFBWY!

Beautiful!

Another great batch of pictures. Kinda a little jealous now, but whatever. ;D

Thanks for sharing, Saso. These are great!

Time to add a few more.

I've been avoiding some of the Padme costumes as she isn't really my favorite character but I can't dispute that they are without doubt some of the most artistic costumes in all of the films, so we'll start there.

Her regal gown is the first costume we see Padme in. The bubble lights at the bottom of the gown were powered by a large battery on wheels that was concealed under the clothing.

(https://i.imgur.com/OjdxNAXh.jpg)

Her Coruscant apartment robe from TPM.

(https://i.imgur.com/8GD1voGh.jpg)

At this point I realized rather suddenly that Natalie Portman totally wears a new outfit in every scene. It must have driven the costuming department nuts on a few occasions. This is the dress worn when she first meets a grownup Anakin in AOTC.

(https://i.imgur.com/WTt5OEch.jpg)

And who could forget this one? The perfect dress for addressing the Galactic Senate and sending Chancellor Finis Valorum's reign of power down the garbage chute. This is probably my favorite dress of hers. It is just dripping with details and beautiful costume work.

(https://i.imgur.com/w1n1NcRh.jpg)

The "Escape from Naboo" dress, not actually worn by Natalie Portman as far as I know as she was already disguised as a handmaiden at this point.

(https://i.imgur.com/pTi8dTNh.jpg)

Lucas thought this was the most important of her dresses as it was worn during the moment when supposed "chemistry" occurred between Padme and Anakin while hiding away on Naboo during AOTC.

(https://i.imgur.com/GQTDWAZh.jpg)

Padme's Genosian arena outfit, probably the sexiest of the bunch. It is designed for movement, very important when you are climbing pillars and using a chain to battle a wild Nexus.

(https://i.imgur.com/kXKCRFbh.jpg)

We will end Padme with her secret wedding gown from AOTC. The dress is primarily an antique Italian lace bedspread complimented with 300 yards of handmade French-knit braid.

(https://i.imgur.com/B9Mex2vh.jpg)

Anakin's Jedi outfit from AOTC with the classic leather tabards and overall darker colors than classic Jedi... Note his relatively simple mechanical hand, it's just a bunch of plastic finger joints and colored wires. Very interesting.

(https://i.imgur.com/U8wasuIh.jpg)

Annnndddd some more.

The Imperial display was rather great, with the center costume being my favorite. Crisp lines and overall design that was specifically made to reference dictatorships of old, it never ceases to give the impression of rigid control.

(https://i.imgur.com/Tc6jLhQh.jpg)

Palpatine's robes from ROTS. They are very detailed and lend a reptilian impression which Ian Mcdiarmid picked right up on.

(https://i.imgur.com/QeMkTYqh.jpg)

Impossible to get a shot of this costume without Stormtroopers in the shot but this is perhaps the last time that Sidious would wear colors other than all black. It's very Sith-y, if only the now Galactic Empire had known.

(https://i.imgur.com/TtPZrp7h.jpg)

Had to throw one of me in there. I can feel the unlimited power, ok different scene but you get the idea. Sidious' robes from ROTJ. Sleeves don't get much wider than this.

(https://i.imgur.com/K2awttnh.jpg)

Gotta love that time that Leia tried her hand at being a Bounty Hunter. The thermal detonator in her hand looked rather puny so that might have not been an original, I thought they were just a tad bigger.

(https://i.imgur.com/JlxdJDrh.jpg)

Then Leia trades her Bounty Hunter duds for something a lot more revealing. Carrie Fisher said that since it was made of metal it was super uncomfortable to wear.

(https://i.imgur.com/Ar5tvw2h.jpg)

Sly Moore, the Umbaran administrative aide of Sheev Palpatine wore this one. Umbaran fashion is rather interesting.

(https://i.imgur.com/Zwlsu11h.jpg)

Mon Mothma's dress. Very elegant and flowing piece of costume work and looks like it and the woman who wears it belongs in the Galactic Senate, and helping to lead rebellions.

(https://i.imgur.com/fTRfIMth.jpg)

One of my favorite characters, Mas Amedda. He has a decent role in the prequels but a surprisingly good presence in the canon novels.

(https://i.imgur.com/g6OoB4fh.jpg)

 



 

Awesome!

Wow. These are some great pictures. Point.

Spectacular collection of pics Saso!

At the risk of sounding greedy (and/or obsessed  ;)): more please  ;D

Wow, great pictures, thanks for sharing!  :)

Time for a new batch, hope it isn't getting old at this point. Maybe one or two small batches left and I think I've displayed all the costumes that were there.

Starting off with droids:

These are many of R2's various attachments and doodads. Especially recognizable is the claw arm that he attempted to wrench the flashlight away from Master Yoda with.

(https://i.imgur.com/RoLATKK.jpg)

Many of 3PO's costume pieces. This really put it in perspective for what Anthony Daniels had to deal with. Perhaps not so surprising that he said on at least one occasion that he wanted to take a sledgehammer to the whole costume.

(https://i.imgur.com/qGqKBfB.jpg)

A little hard to see because the base light was out but Darth Maul's classic saber is a sight to behold.

(https://i.imgur.com/iRvyyX6.jpg)

TIE Pilot from ANH I believe.

(https://i.imgur.com/iqWs83z.jpg)

And a First Order TIE pilot

(https://i.imgur.com/6jtZH44.jpg)

This was a cool display of various helmets with the Imperial Gunner "Jawbone" helmet, "Bikerscout", and Death Star Trooper "Cheese-Grater".

(https://i.imgur.com/JQtR9Vv.jpg)

Padme's Lake Country dress from AOTC, wonderful ombre coloring for this one.

(https://i.imgur.com/4MDI1a2.jpg)

Padme in disguise as a Naboo starfighter pilot in the opening of AOTC.

(https://i.imgur.com/QT1yO6o.jpg)

Thanks again for sharing these

Great pics. I'm just a little bit jealous that you got to see this.

Didn't you have some close ups of Obi-wan ROTS? Could've sworn I saw some shots x.x

More awesome pics! Thanks for sharing. I want a TIE helmet, wonder if they would notice one missing  ::)

The only good picture I got of Prequel Obi was that one in the second batch that I uploaded which really wasn't a closeup. A few of the Jedi costumes were on a circular platform and the closest I could get for a front shot was about 15 feet away. Unfortunately my phone camera couldn't cover that amount of distance.

Hopefully one comes here to Ohio again since I have a better camera now days and actually like to take pictures :P