Nigel’s Musings: Star Wars Clothes

Trying to find clothes like the ones in Star Wars has been something we’ve been doing since we’ve been open. I’m not sure if Steve would say the same, but I’ll hold my hand up and say that’s where a lot of my influences come from. Obviously not with everything we buy, but it’s definitely in the back of my head.

The clothes in Star Wars were like military clothes, but they weren’t in colours we’d ever seen military clothes in. It was all white and orange and beige and green.

I mean, there wasn’t necessarily ever a need to go out and look like Luke when he was wearing a white judo suit and getting hit by Tusken Raiders — but definitely Han Solo in the ice. It’s an amazing outfit with the white motorcross goggles and the brown parka. The brown Woolrich parka is here because of that. And then there’s the peaked hat with the quilted sides — Fjällraven do something similar.

That full Fjäll white suit we’ve got in at the moment is straight off Hoth isn’t it? The reason we bought Fjäll in the first place was that it looked like Star Wars gear. There was a time in the 90s when all you could get was Prada Sport and Stone Island, but we wanted some green canvas stuff.

As a kid at school I was obsessed with collecting stuff. In the run up to the first film coming out, there were these cards that had all parts of the story on them. I got the whole set. The hype had caught a hold of me before the film had even come out. And when it came out it was a life-changing thing — I’d never seen anything like it.

Then around 92 or 93, my mate Matt Lanyon, who’s no longer with us anymore, used to watch the films over and over and over, and it made me reconnect with it. We used to watch the first one all the time. We’d go around, have a drink and because we had nothing to do, we’d put it on again.

My mate always said that Boba Fett had the best outfit — I actually designed a moccasin for my old clothes company called the Boba. They were Boba Fett’s boots mixed with a Clarks Desert Trek. The rebel soldiers have the best clothes, but the TIE Fighter pilots are pretty good too.

Whether it’s an Engineered Garments parka, some military pants and a Rocky Mountain Featherbed down gilet or maybe a Sassafras shirt, some baggy tapered outdoor trousers and some sand Wallabees, it’s probably here because of Star Wars.

But there’s NO Darth Vader gear available at Oi Polloi.