For what it's worth, most people I see making Imperial/First Order uniforms do not use
remotely heavy enough fabric. The OT uniforms have been my main focus over the years, and the main Imperial Starfleet uniforms were made from leftover fabric when the East German military upgraded army and navy in the '60s to a different shade of gray-green (their Air Force kept the existing color, so if you get an East German Air Force uniform jacket, you're getting the same fabric in the same color -- it's a nice reference point). It's a ~23-ounce wool blend cavalry twill. Most readily available wool twills are for things like suit jackets and tend to top out at around 8-10 ounces. I get my wool twill in the proper weight from International Silks & Woolens in L.A. For 60" wide fabric, it's $70 a yard. With a bit of practice, an Imperial jacket, breeches, and cap can be fit into about four yards. So that's $300
just for the outer fabric. Throw in another hundred for interfacing, lining, thread, and hardware (the required stuff like snaps and neck hooks, velcro, etc., depending on version).
Add in distributed R&D costs (that is, put a dollar amount on time and materials to get the finished design, and split that among the initial batch to recoup), similarly distributed licensing fees (for official vendors like this), time and materials for patterning, cutting, and assembling, and yes you end up over a grand, easy, before accessories. And that's just for off-the-rack sizing. The Imperial or First Order Men's Wearhouse. Custom-tailoring is a whole 'nother layer of cost on top of that. Plus I figure about another $300-$600 or more for accessories (again, depending on version and which blaster, if any)*.
[*
For my ANH Stormtrooper Officer uniform, that's two vintage dosimeters I got for $20 each, two of Ken's Michell pulleys for $10 each, a little-too-small belt buckle blank from Tandy for a few bucks as well as some scrap stainless steel -- curved to shape -- I got from a local fabricator for snack-jar contribution, stainless steel strip the right dimensions for the rank bar and switch covers all for under ten bucks, black belt blank and hardware for about $5 a pair of Damascus gauntlet gloves for $70, custom made English riding boots for $300, a Merr-Sonn blaster holster for $60, accurate metal belt boxes for $30... and I think I'm a couple hundred into all the bits going into my Merr-Sonn Model 44/Power 5 blaster. Not counting tools and glues and miscellaneous hardware I already had on hand. As one example.]
The further into the OT, and into the PT one gets, the more esoteric the costuming materials. Limited-availability boots from Prada or Kenneth Cole for the AOTC bounty hunters, for instance, that were rare as the Venus de Milo's arms only a couple years after the movie's release, versus chelsea boots that were used for the original Stormtroopers that are
still a regular-stock item from the original manufacturer. More and more it started to feel like an almost-deliberate "try and pull
this on off cosplayers" on Lucasfilm's part. That seems to have continued perfectly well into the new films, with First Order Stormtrooper armor made with materials and techniques that are outside the range of most fan fabricators (and, really, ANOVOS, too). I haven't researched the minutiæ of the First Order soft uniforms, but it would not shock me to find that the accurate fabric is close to a hundred dollars a yard or more. Were I interested in doing one of those costumes, yeah I'd spring for that. Especially as they are purchasable through their payment-plan system -- same way I recommend buying just about anything from them that isn't "in stock". So my takeaway is not fussed at all. I've got my payment plan going on the Flametrooper (and nearly finished on the Tank Driver helmet and FOTK kit-plus-helmet). The Luke Bespin ensemble and Rebel pilot Hoth coat are the only soft-goods offerings I'm even vaguely interested in from them right now, though, and those not very.
Now, if they would do accurately-researched, faithfully re-engineered, custom-whatevered 1) jumpsuits (orange Rebel pilots, black Imperial, light gray, etc., as well as ROTJ Scout Trooper), 2) Imperial Senate Guard garrison uniforms (aka the long-misnamed "Rebel Fleet Trooper"), and a nice assortment of Hoth Rebel gear (the pants and jackets and different colored vests and hats and Leia's jumpsuit and jacket...), well I'd be all
over that.
--Jonah
