Star Wars Costumes Question

Captain Dunsel

Captain Dunsel

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Something that has always bothered me is this....

With the exception of Padme, every character in Star Wars wears the same outfit every day...

Is the Star Wars universe like medieval times in which people lived and died in the same smelly outfits that basically rotted off their bodies their entire lives?

Seriously....they never change their clothes...

In ESB, assuming that Han and Leia's time in the Falcon was months in duration, the smells from their clothes must have been terrible.

I don't even want to imagine the B.O. coming off of Darth Vader in his heavy leather clothing (the equivalent of a "sauna suit") that he wears every day--which would be doubly potent as his dark-side midichlorians would ensure he would have powerful B.O.

And Palpatine? The unique smells of soiled Depends undergarments must have proceeded him before he even entered a room.


Just an "in universe" observation that has always bothered me. It's pretty much like "Gilligan's Island" when it comes to Star Wars clothing, it seems.
 
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I always figured Han a had a closet of 2-3 of the same shirt and pants :)

I like your middle ages analogy. Unless your part of Coruscant high society, the many denizens of the SW universe are probably more practical.

I'll also assume their higher-end tech extends to hygene and clothing freshness. Maybe they walk into a closet, get sprayed down and walk out like new?

Also consider our modern western society social norms on clothing or appearances is pretty skewed. Look in almost anyone's closet and it's full of cheap clothing made in a third world country. I'm guilty, as I'm expected to show up to work in a different outfit everyday in a corporate environment. This extends to most of us on the social scene as well.

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I think that in the OT were are only seeing a few days out of their lives, and they usually don't have time to change any more often. We also know Leia has more clothes because in ESB C-3PO says something about having to dry out the Princess' clothes after R2 turned the heat up on Hoth. I think Padme has an outfit for each our of the day.
 
We know Han some more just like it. Lando was wearing it at the end of ROTJ. He didn't leave Bespin with any other clothes.
 
...well, as evidenced by the stains, etc. Luke definitely wore the same fatigues the entire time he was on Dagobah....which was supposedly months in duration as well.

The smell of B.O. and the Dagobah bog must have filled the corridors of Cloud City when he arrived...I did not see a high efficiency washer and drier in Yoda's hut.



Of course, in thinking about characters who must have a closet like Charlie Brown, filled with hundreds of of the same yellow striped shirt and black pants, one need go no farther than another Lucas creation: Indiana Jones. The man must have purchased a 30 year supply of the same pants , shirt, jacket, and boots (enough to last him from the 1930's into the 1950's), all in various sizes.

If you had a friend--in "real life"--that showed up over the course of a quarter of a century wearing "that same outfit" every time the two of you would go on an adventure, you would definitely think the guy was strange and/or eccentric, to say the least.

"(Sigh) Hi Henry...I see you're wearing your 'Adventure Time Outfit' again. You seem awfully fond of that particular shirt and pants....How many sets of those shirts and pants did you say you had again? Wow--200 of each...really?? I did tell you that we are only going to COSTCO, right? I mean, I doubt you'll need that bullwhip and pistol..."

 
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It's feasible that the 'fresher (as they call it in the EU) not only cleans you, but your clothes. And probably very quickly, too. So even if you're just going for a wee wee, you can emerge squeaky clean with no bother.

If that's how one's clothes generally get cleaned, there really is no need to ever do an accumulation of laundry---what you're wearing gets cleaned regularly. So changing clothes would be more rare.
 
General Leia did troll Han a bit with that line from TFA "Same Jacket?".

I always considered that an I side joke from Abrams on the entire Saga's wardrobe :)

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I personally tend to buy multiples of clothes, especially for work so I can see movie characters wearing the same thing.

Pretty sure the Falcon has a laundry since it's basically a flying home, probably in or next to the refresher unit.
They probably have laundry mats at most space ports as well.

Luke probably took his down to the river and washed them like in many third world countries.
 
I'd imagine that Vader easily has multiples of the same basic outfit since we never once see him wear a totally different costume in the OT, the only thing that changes is the position of his robes. Since Vader's clothes are part of his life support system it would stand to reason that all of his outfits would be the same, esp. since he's essentially a part of the Imperial military so his clothes serves as his uniform.
 
Re OP: It's not so strange for people to have the same clothes every day... is it? I work with someone who always dresses the same, literally, every day. Maybe they have multiples of the same thing? I dunno. Don't want to ask :/

Han might have multiple waistcoats. Lando, multiple capes. Jabba, multiple... well... he's a big naked slug.

Imagine the underlings who have to clean Vader's suit. "Your codpiece smells extra vinegary today, my lord."
 
The old Brian Daley Han Solo novels made reference to an "autovalet" that Han fed his clothes into while he took a shower, and they were cleaned, dried, pressed, and waiting by the time he was done. We're not a million miles from that now. The compact European-style high-efficiency units that are a washer and dryer in the same drum cover most of that. Add droid tech and good to go.

On a boring practical side, if your clothes were washed and pressed each night, it would dramatically reduce wear and tear. If advanced tech made it possible to reweave minor snags, you could make one set of clothes last quite a long time.

--Jonah
 
For what it's worth, my daughter likes wearing her favorite clothes for days on end, much to the consternation of my wife. She'll usually wear the same clothes for the better part of a week and has been known to pull clothes out of the laundry basket to wear again even though they're meant to go in the wash. However, I will say that the people who do this are almost certainly the exception and not the rule and Star Wars would be weird if most of the people in it were like that. As many have pointed, it's either a case of multiples of the same outfit or some sort of tech that washes both the person and their clothes at the same time.
 
A little off topic, but since it's been brought up, Indiana Jones is fond of wearing his leather jacket. Sure, one can argue that he wears it for a sort of protection, similar to light body armor, but come on! The man wears it in the blazing heat of the desert and in the damp humidity of the Amazon. I have the same jacket and if I wore it in 70 degree temperature I would be very uncomfortable not to mention downright sweaty! His jacket must stink on ice! I'm sure he has a couple of jackets at home but "multiples"? Leather jackets ain't cheap, neither is cleaning the stink out of them!
 
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