The Acolyte’s costume designer Jennifer Bryan shares further inspiration behind some of the characters designs, including many specifics that are sure to please costume aficionados and cosplayers alike, with Kristin Baver at StarWars.com.
Master Vernestra Rwoh
Master Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) has been glimpsed in the white Jedi Temple robes on Coruscant and the rugged mission attire for her trip to Khofar. And today you get your first look at another outfit from her elegant wardrobe: her high senate robes.
Not yet seen on screen, the costume was one of Bryan’s favorites to design, with a weighted cloak fashioned from fabric the designer acquired in Spain. “It is a very luxurious wool, and it has a basket weave with gold and silver threads,” Bryan notes. It’s also quite heavy, which helped inform the design choice of a wide band across the front to distribute the weight.
Perhaps it’s also a subconscious nod to the character’s journey this season. “Unconsciously, she has a lot of weight on her shoulders,” Bryan notes. “She has a lot to carry. She knows things. She knows that there’s a lot of — the word I would use is a lot of duplicity — in what the Jedi did in the name of protecting the Force. She’s basically trying to manage and do damage control with the Senate.”
Accentuating the garment, Bryan added the symbols of the Jedi Order in the High Republic. Even among politicians, it’s clear where Vernestra’s allegiance lies. ”It’s kind of a feminine throwback to a Jedi’s leather belt that has the symbol.”
Osha Aniseya
Osha (Amandla Stenberg) has also worn several different looks throughout the season, including the borrowed garments of her sister, Mae. But when we first met her, she was working on a Neimoidian freighter doing the rather dangerous work-for-hire of a meknek.
Bryan’s costume merged elements of a flight suit and a mechanic’s coverall, with extra care to fashion a hip holster for Pip. “She has a vest made of suede and the rest is a kind of khaki material,” Bryan says, with greeblies and other elements inspired by rank badges and other elements seen in the original Star Wars movies. The color palette was inspired by real-world events transpiring not long before the original film’s debut. “I went all the way back to looking at fabrics that were used in the Vietnam [War] era. That green khaki color is where that comes from,” she says.
And later in the season, Osha and Bazil both don civilian fatigues that pay homage to a Star Wars fashion staple: the poncho. “I had to come up with something that she could wear that would take her through all of the events and adventures and battles that she’s going to come through,” Bryan says. “The poncho has a kangaroo pocket. It is quilted. It is, I think, really cool.”
Mother Aniseya
To connect to Mae and Osha’s past, Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) and the rest of the coven wear striking purple robes for the Ascension ceremony. With a long braid of locs that act as a crown, Mother Aniseya is the regal ruler of her community. “Jodie Turner-Smith really brought an elegance to the character and a costume that I designed,” Bryan says. “In producing and designing, sometimes you have to design clothing before an actor is cast. So, I had this idea well before Jodie came on board for The Acolyte. But I have to tell you, once she came into the fitting room, everything just coalesced into the look.”
Perhaps most notably, the center panel of Aniseya’s gown was a small remnant of fabric that Bryan found in a shop on one of her first days on the production. The netted fabric covered in tiny cowrie shells and bugle beads will be a challenge for cosplayers looking to replicate the look in screen-accurate detail.
The Stranger (Qimir)
As his alias Qimir (Manny Jacinto), we first met the Stranger in borrowed clothes likely stolen from the apothecary’s rightful shopkeeper. To create his Khofar forest look, Bryan looked to other legacy dark siders — Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and Kylo Ren — for inspiration as well as Japanese samurai warriors. “Designing the Stranger was a really great experience for me. It’s really embedded in Star Wars mythology and some of the visual cues of somebody who is a threat to these [Jedi] characters.”
Filmmakers wanted the costume to act as a shroud, making it difficult to see his true form beneath the flowing layers, while also working as a functional garment for Jacinto’s fight choreography. “The materials and his costume really had to be agile and very, very athletic,” Bryan says. “If you’re a cosplayer and you’re going to reproduce this, the cloak is made of leather, his vest is leather and his pants are styled after the Japanese warrior pants.”
And, yes, the giant backpack that Qimir has slung over his shoulder on the way into the Khofar forest was intentionally oversized. “In case you’re wondering, when we saw Qimir traveling, his backpack was so huge because you had to have a place to put his helmet,” she says with a laugh.
While Neal Scanlan’s team fabricated the sneering helmet, Bryan took on the cortosis gauntlet seen on the Stranger’s forearm. “We went through many versions of that,” Bryan says. “It had to look like something that you’d never seen. It was all hand-sculpted with some 3D elements in it. It has a very corrosive and rusted look. I was fascinated with being able to do something like that, which is basically not clothing as we know it, but was a very integral part of his costume. It’s one of my favorite costumes from the series because it’s so out of the box, and it’s so different from all the pieces that came along with that work.”
Read the article in full at StarWars.com, and stream The Acolyte on Disney+ now.
