Mal Reynolds Firefly costume

Bronson BB

Well-Known Member
Captain Malcolm Reynolds' series outfit.
The bits, and some of where to get `em.

The Brown coat
The original prop maker Johnathan Logan sells these for a lot of money.
Jonathan Logan
LeatherCity doesn't look as good, but is more affordable.
LeatherCity
Google will find a few other options for you as well.

The shirt(s)
I count no less than eight or nine shirts worn by the good captain during the run of the series, but always stuck to a solid color of collared, buttoned, long sleeved shirt.
Basically find something you look good in and go with it. Wild West Mercantile is a good starting point for this.
Wild West Mercantile

Pants
The 'Hero' pants worn during the run of the series were actually 100 years old, so I hear. So the best you're going to be able to find are back at Wild West Mercantile again
I personally wear the Frontier Classics brand Frontier Trousers but there are also Wah Maker Frontier Pants, and Wild West Mercantile Texas Trousers that all match fairly closely to the screen used pair. You’ll want to go with tan.
Wild West Mercantile


Pant stripe
None of the pants I list above come with the piping down the outside seam that Mal had. Shawna added that herself, I think.
It's been called a strip of one inch wide Grosgrain and looks in close-up to be of eleven light and dark brown alternating stripes. I hear-tell it started as another color and was dyed, too.
I wish you luck in finding something that'll work. Some have just used a plain brown stripe.

Boots
Mal wore a pair of low-cut leather shoes (loafers?) with a set of 'spats' glued onto the uppers. There are conflicting reports as to the base shoe that was used so the best option is to find someone who makes Mal-esque replicas.
I went to Schrader Bootmaker to have a set custom made. He didn't make the three ribs visible enough, and they are supposed to sweep upwards in the back, but even I didn't know that at the time, so over all, I'm VERY happy with his work.
Schrader Bootmaker

Suspenders
These were custom made out of a pair of 1940's era Israeli military load-bearing suspenders
They look like this before getting browncoated up.
Israeli Army "H" Suspenders
I also had to get these in dark brown to go with them
Leather strips

Gloves
Well, they were black, didn't show a lot of seam, had three wavy lines down the back of the hand and mostly sat slung into his pistol belt. I don't know if anyone has any better info than that.

Holster
Brennan Byers of GBB Custom Leather is the original maker of Mal's TV holster. I’ve have one of his, it was beautiful, but I felt inaccurate. Otherwise, eBay and Etsy are likely going to be your friends on this.
GBB Custom Leather


Pistol Belt
Mal wore a Word War Two era East German Officers Double Claw Dress Uniform belt in brown and gold.
You'll notice in some promotion stills though, that the thin uniform belt isn't really up to the task of holding the pistol up. So you MAY want to go with something heavier even if it's less accurate. I’ve seen an eBay seller (Security Measure) that makes a more sturdy looking replica, in fact.

ALSO; for the holster AND pistol belt, you won't find better than the QMx Firefly Mal Holster Artisan Replica. Again, at this point, look for this on eBay.

Pistol
Mal's pistol was a Taurus model 85 with both the original barrel and grip hacked off. It was than welded into an ill-fitting brass shell. And somehow it turned out beautiful!
Several places have made replicas, most no longer do.

Good luck hunting.
 
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Wow! Rarely do you see a one-stop resource guide for this type of thing. Thank you for posting this. Mal may be a far off planned project, but it's still on the radar and this is great. Thanks again!
 
were you looking over my shoulder yesterday as I was checking out old Malcom Firefly posts trying to find out info on it? hehe.
Thanks for the very informative post!
 
BTW; that IS the right link for Jonathan Logan, so until his site is fix't, there is this...

Jonathan A. Logan - Custom Leathers
8336 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90069

Phone: 800-472-5984 or 323-653-9155
Fax: 323-653-9730
 
I thought Trpcic made the Firefly while Logan made the Serenity version... Or did she just design it?

From what I hear about Logan, I wouldn't buy from him if the entire cast of Firefly delivered it and performed my favorite episode in my living room as part of the deal.

Well maybe if Morena wanted to recreate the love scene from the pilot with me cast as the bumbling guy. ;)
 
I have the Abbyshot coat and love it. I have the Browncoat fashions holster and it's damn good for the money. The guy who made the acutal holster quoted me $340 for the holster ALONE. No belt. Nada. I also have a Phillipes casting (unpainted) that I won't touch, but I use the Wilco with the costume. The Diaz boots are a lot better than they look in the pics. They are comfy, which is a plus for walking around. My shirt is a navy blue button up from Old Navy. Same Frontier pants you listed, held up by the Israeli suspenders, but for the stripe I used the brown ribbed stripe like from a sheriff's uniform pants. Definitely one of my favorite costumes.

Wes
 
I've wanted to do a Mal for awhile and now that I'm done with Dengar, this list would make it tempting and easy to get started. Thanks!
 
I've been working on a Mal costume for two years now, slowing gathering little bits here and there. It may not be totally SA, but it's in the Mal style.
 
Well, I'll say this.
I bought my coat from JL right after I failed to win bidding on Ebay for the original Hero Browncoat used in the series.
It came with tanning damage that he didn't catch, nor did I until nearly a week after I got it.
He has promised that he will replace the coat, but since I'm not a studio or other major money-maker, he does 'one off' work like this between his big jobs and that means there is a long wait sometimes.

Personally, I understand this, and even though I have had a bit of a wait, my phone calls with Johnathan have always been friendly and sometime even extended into us talking about movies, our favorite actors and the like.

Heck, I need to call him today.

I thought Trpcic made the Firefly while Logan made the Serenity version... Or did she just design it?

From what I hear about Logan, I wouldn't buy from him if the entire cast of Firefly delivered it and performed my favorite episode in my living room as part of the deal.

Well maybe if Morena wanted to recreate the love scene from the pilot with me cast as the bumbling guy. ;)
 
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I thought Trpcic made the Firefly while Logan made the Serenity version... Or did she just design it?

From what I hear about Logan, I wouldn't buy from him if the entire cast of Firefly delivered it and performed my favorite episode in my living room as part of the deal.

Well maybe if Morena wanted to recreate the love scene from the pilot with me cast as the bumbling guy. ;)

I believe Trpcic designed the Firefly stuff and Logan produced the physical coat. The Serenity version was made by a different person.
 
I believe Trpcic designed the Firefly stuff and Logan produced the physical coat. The Serenity version was made by a different person.

Ah yes, the Serenity Browncoat;
with the big black rubber doo-hickey to make it look more "science-fiction-y".
Some of the design work for Serenity was nice, but I've put some rants on the web about some of the design lead balloons created for the BDM, Serenity.
(Chrome motocross troopers, purple Alliance bling baseball caps, Simon's Star Trek Tunic, etc., etc.)

I can't speak to Logan's business dealings, but he "got" what the designers wanted for Mal's Browncoat and did a great job creating the original iconic piece.
 
I can't speak to Logan's business dealings, but he "got" what the designers wanted for Mal's Browncoat and did a great job creating the original iconic piece.

That he did. It's funny, but when I started researching patterns with an eye towards making a browncoat, I was all over frock coats. Figured it's western-ish, right?

Then one day I was looking in a new age catalog and they had this mandarin Chinese robe. I blinked. I looked closer. IT was a browncoat in cloth.

Rather, the BC was essentially a leather mandarin robe, complete with the turned back sleeves for color contrast. Logan may be a flaky dude to deal with, but he's a sort of genius as well.
 
Did you find a suitable pattern? I was looking at the western patterns online and thinking about modding one.

That he did. It's funny, but when I started researching patterns with an eye towards making a browncoat, I was all over frock coats. Figured it's western-ish, right?

Then one day I was looking in a new age catalog and they had this mandarin Chinese robe. I blinked. I looked closer. IT was a browncoat in cloth.

Rather, the BC was essentially a leather mandarin robe, complete with the turned back sleeves for color contrast. Logan may be a flaky dude to deal with, but he's a sort of genius as well.
 
Did you find a suitable pattern? I was looking at the western patterns online and thinking about modding one.

Actually, I never did. What I wound up doing was getting a brown duster from work. This is a pic of the particular one.
DBRCLH.jpg


I removed the cape and wear it with workboots, desert cammie pants and different canon and non canon tshirts.

http://www.pyramidcollection.com/itemdy00.asp?c=&SKW=mandarin&SKW2=&TKW=&Scat=&GEN1=&OR=&parent=&T1=P9228&PageNo=1&pos=2 Sorry for the encyclpedic link, but this is a link to a discontinued mandaran style jacket from the company that originally had the robe I saw. You can see the turned back sleeves, and frog closures that inspired Trpcic. Add in a slightly flared length and the proper collar and Bob's your father's brother. The collar and lapels are different though.

From what I gather, the pattern isn't that hard to knock out, it's getting the buckles made that's hanging up most people who want accuracy.
 
Well, sometimes I feel I've leached enough and it's time to give back.
I've got a Kaylee thread too, and am working on the bits for a Jayne thread, but that'll be a while coming.
 
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