Costume Designer of ‘The Acolyte’ Goes In-Depth on the Inspiration Behind the Characters’ Outfits
In an official posting on the Star Wars website, costume designer for The Acolyte, Jennifer Bryan gave a special look at the show’s costumes. With the series taking place 100 years before The Phantom Menace, Bryan examined heavily the costumes featured in the prequels, while also looking at historical outfits of past warrior cultures.
Bryan has worked on a number of other TV shows including Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad. For her featured article, she discussed a few of the key characters including Mae (played by Amandla Stenberg) and Master Sol (played by Lee Jung-jae).
For Mae’s costume, Bryan drew attention to the utilitarian aspects of the costume. She notes that the character is constantly on the run. She also mentions how Mae’s armor is inspired by samurai and Roman armor:
“I use purple because it’s a memory color for her. The cloak is many, many segments of fabric arranged and patched together to make a whole cloak. And I think it gives a sense to this kind of vagabond character as she’s on her journey to kill these Jedi …
For Mae, I drew on samurai. That’s where you see the bamboo strips across the top. For the pewter metal section, you would think of a Byzantine [knight] or a Roman gladiator’s plate armor. The chainmail is not something that you frequently see in the Star Wars galaxy, but it’s historically important because warriors and gladiators used that material for protection.”
For Master Indara, Bryan emphasized the need to make the costume practical. Master Indara (played by Carrie-Ann Moss) performs a lot of stunts, as seen early on in the series:
“In designing costumes, not only does it need to look good, it has to function in filmmaking. It has to fit the choreography and the fighting and the lightsaber work …
Knowing that Master Indara was going to be the first Jedi that you saw in The Acolyte, I really wanted to still keep that essence of how we’ve seen them, that significant and memorable brown mission cloak. How she’s hooded — I think it was a really great shot. Anyone who is a Star Wars fan, which for me is everybody on the planet, knows that that is a Jedi.”
Lee Jung-jae portrays Master Sol, as a more stoic and wise Jedi. But for Master Sol, Bryan took inspiration from the outfits seen in The High Republic and how the period showcases the Jedi at their prime:
“The colors are a fresh take on Jedi on Coruscant. The over jackets and tabards were done in a sort of a turmeric or mustard color, and I did variations within that. So when you see them as a group, you’ll see different tones. It’s basically to differentiate characters and give a little bit of hierarchy within the Jedi costumes.”
Finally, for Yord Fandar (portrayed by Charlie Barnett), Bryan points to the character’s cowl. Bryan notes how Yord is very particular about his outfits, and that “attention to detail” needed to show in his costume.
“The silk and wool fabric that I used for Yord’s costume is a little bit different than the one that I used for Master Sol because I had to get that lustrous drape of his cowl…
His cloak I designed with inspiration from Roman senators’ togas. This is a guy that really takes a deep interest in how he looks, so he has more flair to his Jedi costume than I think we’ve seen previously.”
The Acolyte premieres June 4 on Disney Plus. Stay tuned to Star Wars News Net as we’ll be having our review of the first two episodes up on our site very soon. We’ll also feature a spoiler discussion soon after. In the meantime, feel free to also check out Hayden Christensen’s heart-warming message to Amandla Stenberg on joining the Star Wars family.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
