The Acolyte is wrapping up on Tuesday night, in what creator Leslye Hedland hopes is the first of more seasons to come. As the show’s played out over the past month and change, one part of the show has been consisently great: its costumes. This has always been an area where Star Wars has shined, but Acolyte’s costuming stands out as the first show set in the High Republic, which has consisted of books and comics over the last five years.
The show’s various costumes were designed by Jennifer L. Bryan, whose previous credits include Breaking Bad and Halt & Catch Fire. In a new blog on Star Wars’ website, she broke down her process for costuming the series’ cast. Along with drawing on previous Star Wars media for inspiration–namely Trisha Biggar’s prequel costumes–Bryan and her team also looked at clothes from real-world warriors. In the case of Amandla Stenberg’s Osha, the character’s primary outfit was a mix of a flight suit and mechanic coveralls, and its color palette was inspired by what soldiers wore during the Vietnam War.
As for Osha’s sister Mae, her design was inspired by warrior tribes from East and North Africa, and various empires across Asian and European history. While Mae’s outfit is cobbled together with what she’s found over the years, Bryan believes it “needed to look like it’s put together from these different historical eras of warriors, but not specific to any one culture.” Bamboo strips across the chest were inspired by samurai, while the chainmail for her arms and cloak drew from Byzantine knights and Roman gladiators. Chainmail isn’t commonly seen in Star Wars, but she argued it was “historically important” as means of protection. Purple serves as her primary color because it’s a “memory color” calling back to her family.
Some of the inspirations for their costumes are going to be obvious right away (of course Qimir’s pulling on Vader and Kylo Ren), while others are a bit more surprising. For example, Leia’s white gown inspired the ivory colors of Indara, and the layers of her costume were intentionally made with her action scenes taken into account. That also applied to Qimir, whose fabrics and layers had to be “agile and very, very athletic.” According to Bryan, Qimir’s hand-sculpted cortosis gauntlet was a particular favorite since it’s “so out of the boxand it’s so different from all the pieces that came along with that work.”
The Acolyte’s season finale airs this Tuesday, July 16 on Disney+. While we’ve posted photos of the main cast, there’s plenty more over on Bryan’s blog, which also digs into the costuming for characters like Sol, Mother Aniseya, and Yor.
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