How we built an entire Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser wardrobe for under $200
After spending all our credits to book Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, we knew we needed to get a little scrappy bringing our costumes to life without breaking the bank.
We respect travelers who can book Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser without financial hesitation, but for a few broke kids from Coruscant, it took a pool of wedding gifts and savings accounts to pull off a booking. We knew we wanted to play in the world of The Halcyon with original backstories that are entirely unique, so rather than shopping the character-inspired costume pieces offered on shopDisney, we branched out on our own. We built outfits for three days and two nights using a combination of items we already had and new items we found online.
I’ll be honest – creating five distinct outfits that make me look like I’m a real character in the Star Wars universe wasn’t easy. I wanted to make sure I was fully taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime vacation and that I felt like I was my character when she was on The Halcyon. What follows is my primer in the hopes that other folks might find this helpful when crafting their own thrifty costumes for galactic adventures. I did as much research as I could, but ultimately allowed myself to have fun and create looks that worked for me. I hope that you let this research guide you, too, but remember – you get to create your own story and wardrobe!
The ceremony scene on Yavin IV in Ep. IV: A New Hope is a perfect example of Star Wars costumes. You get formal looks, military looks and some very cook jackets.
Image property of Lucasfilm Ltd. and The Walt Disney Company. All Rights Reserved.
The logic and lore of Star Wars costumes
As someone seriously nerdy about the design of Star Wars, I love paying attention to all the tiny details that make this universe feel lived in. Here are some broad-strokes tips to keep in mind when shopping, straight from the gentleman who worked on Star Wars costumes from the start, Academy Award winning costume designer John Mollo.
“George didn’t want any fastenings to show. He didn’t want to see any buttons or zips.” -John Mollo
This is one of the things that once you know, you can’t unsee. There are little notches or folds every time you might see a button or zipper. Think of Han Solo’s pocketed vest or Luke’s tied tunic shirt. It’s a small detail that helps the universe feel distinct. In the later Star Wars films and shows, we have seen buttons and zippers a bit more, but for the most part, I try to avoid them when making an outfit look like it fits in the Star Wars aesthetic.
“George wanted the Imperial people to look very efficient and totalitarian, and Fascist – all that sort of thing. The rebels he wanted to look a bit like something out of a Western … [George] said, ‘I don’t want anyone to notice the costumes. They’ve got to look familiar, but not familiar at the same time.” -John Mollo
Star Wars design was in defiance of how sci-fi looked up to the 1970s – no shiny silver space suits or air bubble helmets. It’s a lived-in world that borrows from many cultures to create a new world, mixing Western cowboy and Japanese peasant looks for Tatooine or lifting WWII military uniforms for The Empire. The color palettes are also fairly neutral. When building our looks, we lifted heavily from costumes seen in Cloud City in Ep. V: The Empire Strikes Back (dusty blue, rust, maroon, tan) and Ferrix in Andor (mustard, rust, olive, chocolate). We tried to pick a color scheme and a mix of accessories that looked cohesive and didn’t stand out too much.
“On Star Wars, there was a department with all the funny little bits and pieces that went onto things. I think the chap in charge of it coined the word greeblies… On my Imperial officer cap, I used a little pulley thing from the bottom of a gramophone… that was one of my greeblies.” -John Mollo
Ever noticed the silver cylinders tucked into little pockets, or the identification badges on front of jackets? They help tell the story even if they’re never explained. “George likes the look of that, of very practical little things on everything. They could be communication devices, but it’s sort of unspoken,” said Mick Becker, costume accessories technician on Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi. “It’s just something that looks a little futuristic, but at the same time rustic, because it’s been used.” This trick is one of the easiest ways to make a piece look like it’s in-universe. It’s as simple as gluing scrap model pieces together and painting them silver -- a trick we used multiple times on our wardrobe for Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. The strategic use of Greeblies is the best Star Wars design tip, in my book.
Shout out to John Mollo and his gramaphone greeblies that made the Imperial officers all that more cool.
Image property of Lucasfilm Ltd. and The Walt Disney Company. All Rights Reserved.
The practical side of dressing for your space vacation
Dani’s Guardrail #1: I don’t want to spend all my time getting dressed in my cabin. There is so much to see and do onboard The Halcyon, and sometimes the events happen unexpectedly. You might get invited to a meeting or rendezvous you weren’t planning for, so it was important to be efficient with every costume. I planned a separate dinner look each night, but I also wanted to change outfits quickly. I made small tweaks to my hair and left my make-up as is so I could be in and out of the cabin in less than 10 minutes in the evenings. That usually gave Alex time to check in with our friendly communications droid D3.
Dani’s Guardrail #2: I don’t want to sweat to death on Batuu. As cute as it is parading around Black Spire Outpost in an outfit inspired by Star Wars, I also know that the humidity and three suns can be intense. For our Day 2 excursion, Alex and I planned outfits that would work for the climate. He made sure he could remove an outer layer when things got toasty, and I wore a short skirt and ballet flats. To us, there is a balance between bringing our story to life with themed costumes and being comfortable.
Dani’s Guardrail #3: I want to fit all this in a suitcase. No offense to galactic superstar Gaya – she’s rumored to travel with dozens of suitcases! – but we wanted to fit all our Starcruiser looks in a carry-on. We used a mix-and-match approach for all our looks, finding ways to wear the same items over the course of several days. It makes you get a little more creative and also helps stretch your budget. Plus, look at many of the characters in Star Wars – they rewear costume pieces constantly! We see you, Princess Leia, rewearing that iconic Alderaanian white dress in Ep. V: The Empire Strikes Back!
Building a galactic wardrobe on a budget
Let’s get down to Imperial brass tacks. How can you actually build an entire galactic wardrobe for under $200? Here’s a checklist:
Meet Scoops and Dano, a banking guild member and a holocomms designer from Coruscant.
Start with your backstory
Are you looking to Disneybound as a favorite character, or are you crafting an original identity? Clues like what planet your character is from and what class or ranking they hold in society will be tremendously helpful when choosing items for your wardrobe. Alex and I actually wrote out little backstories for ourselves, like what our jobs were and how we spent our time on our home planet. If you’re not sure where to start, try translating your current job or interests into their Star Wars equivalent. Alex works in Finance, so his character was a former Banking Guild member.
Trust us, no one is wondering how much you paid for your galactic wardrobe when you all get to train with lightsabers.
Raid your closet for bottom basics
Alex had simple slacks that worked for several of his outfits, and I relied on some of my solid color dresses and skirts to build my wardrobe around. Solid colored items without a lot of ornamentation fit it well for Star Wars. Colors like browns, navy, cream and black go a long way into placing you in-universe.
Look, I don’t want to brag, but I found this jacket for Alex for $35 on Amazon. Nothing sells a scoundrel look like a great jacket.
Shop for tops and outer layers
If you’re already leveraging bottoms you own, consider putting your budget into tops and jackets. These items have a specific Star Wars style that are harder to find in a home closet, especially if you’re following George Lucas’ “no zippers and buttons” rule. When shopping online, some search terms we found helpful to get that galactic aesthetic were Mandarin collar, asymmetrical blouse, kimono shirt, wrap blouse, motorcycle jacket, and linen tunic. If you’re going for a Force user, put your budget into a decent cloak and supplement with kimono-style or tunic-style shirts. A lot of scoundrels and smugglers have a great vest or jacket. Members of the Rebellion or Resistance might have a functional approach, with layers and holsters that serve a purpose. And if you’re an Imperial or First Order sympathizer, look for crisp, Military-style shirts and jackets in olive greens, black, grey or white for that imposing look.
There are refillable water bottle stations on both Batuu and The Halcyon atrium, so we used our satchels to carry these nifty flat water bottles inspired by Timm’s flask in Andor.
Use bags and pouches for both form and function
Accessories help tell the story of your character, sure, but they also can serve to carry items you want to have handy on Batuu or onboard The Halcyon. Alex found that hip bags that fasten around the thigh are a great nod to blaster holsters and provided a carrying pouch for a small water bottle, data pad and other galactic accessories. Belt pouches or slouchy bags are also perfect accessories.
Part of my character’s backstory was that I dabbled in mixology as an amateur chemist who knew all the best bars on Coruscant. This meant that my character would definitely get fancied up for Night 1 dinner with Gaya. (Read: an excuse for me to wear a Star Wars cape.)
Use your backstory to accessorize
After we had our main apparel pieces in place, we came back in to sprinkle accessories thoughtfully. Our characters didn’t come from a lot of wealth, so we didn’t need a lot of finery or jewelry to tell our stories. I used some beaded necklaces I already owned and found some simple drop earrings on Amazon for jewelry. Inspired by Han and Leia’s original wedding rings, we each wore an amber-esque wedding band. Belts are also a huge part of Star Wars looks, so Alex and I each used a few different belts to bring our various looks to life.
The smiles of a couple of nerds who managed to rewear items for a third day in a row.
Decide what you can rewear or refashion in different ways
Items like black riding boots or jackets can easily be worn over multiple days. Perhaps those are items worth putting a little more time or attention into. For me, I found a slinky halter top that I could wear three ways as a layer on different outfits. It was a spendier purchase at $20 for just one top, but I got so much use out of it that it was well worth it.
I’m going to be honest. These cylinders and badge plate are just a bunch of junk from old model kits that I glued together and painted. Then I sewed it all on to an Amazon jacket. Boom. Greeblies!
Use what you already have at home to make greeblies
Last but not least, we glued some model kit parts together, painted them silver, and stitched them to pockets and flaps to greeblie up our final looks. That was one quick, easy and free detail that really sold our final looks. We just looked at reference photos online of some of the cylinder bits and rectangle badges that characters wear and improvised our own out of bits we had laying around. It’s the same principle as building a “datapad case” for your cell phone, where you arrange a bunch of random objects together and somehow the act of painting them metallic makes them look magically like something from the Star Wars universe.
My final breakdown
That’s it! It seems really simple once you break it down, but we firmly believe that you can make your own affordable and unique galactic wardrobe if you get creative. Start with your character’s story, work with what you already have, and then spend money on items that fit your distinctly Star Wars aesthetic. And if you need some hints so get started, feel free to browse our collection on Pinterest. We can’t wait to see more folks fully embracing their own storylines as they roam The Halcyon and Batuu!