Interesting article regarding costume design in movies and how it serves to further the story in subtle ways:

I was particularly intrigued with the analysis of the costumes in the original Star Wars film.

Those who have followed this blog for any length of time know that I’m not a huge fan of Star Wars, both the original movie and series of films.  I don’t begrudge everyone else’s enjoyment of them, but they just never worked for me in spite of the fact that I was of the right age at the right time and went to see the original film in 1977 in a packed theater and… it just didn’t work for me like it did for so many others.

Yet the analysis of the dress/costumes in the film as presented in the above video is spot on.  It is a far trickier thing to create “original” costumes that are futuristic and fit into the setting of a film like Star Wars yet are grounded enough in things we as an audience may recognize -even if subconsciously- to understand what we’re seeing.  Thus, the military style outfits of the Empire are recognizably so, even if they don’t necessarily look like any military we are familiar with.  Similarly, Princess Leia’s outfit is regal, hinting at her royalty, yet original/futuristic enough to make us both recognize it for the royal aspect and the sci-fi aspect.

And Luke Skywalker’s outfit… I have to say, I never thought of it the way it was explained above but what’s presented is a brilliant observation.  (No, I don’t want to spoil it)

Good stuff.