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Star Wars Sunday: Vice-Admiral Holdo and the Importance of Costuming
I recently came across this Hollywood Reporter interview with the costume designer for The Last Jedi. Here's the bit I want to talk about:
I've never made any secret about the fact that I have some...issues with the costuming choices for Vice-Admiral Holdo. Costumes are a vital part of visual storytelling. How a character dresses tells the audience a lot about their socio-economic status, group affiliation, and priorities before they open their mouth. It helps to set up audience expectations and places a character within their proper context.
In The Last Jedi, every resistance member, male, female or space!gender, wears some sort of uniform except Leia and Holdo who both wear fancy civilian dresses instead. Uniforms are important. They physically demonstrate affiliation and show that they belong within the group. In past films, Leia always appeared in uniform when acting in a military capacity. She wears one on Hoth, on Endor, and at her secret base in The Force Awakens. By contrast, Mon Mothma never wore a uniform, not in The Return of the Jedi and not in Rogue One, because she was a civilian politician. Similarly, none of the other civilian politicians in the council scene from Rogue One wear a uniform. They all wear fancy clothes, even the men.
When we watched The Last Jedi together, my mom thought Holdo was a civilian politician like Mon Mothma despite her repeatedly being addressed as "Admiral." Why? Because she was dressed like a politician! After all, what sort of person wears a fancy civilian dress to a military evacuation? A wealthy civilian? Someone wealthy and not particularly practical? A military officer who cares more about their personal style than dress codes and has the power to get away with it?
For the longest time, I thought it was a deliberate bait-and-switch by Rian to ensure that she was underestimated. The character who introduces her describes her brilliant and heroic past, but the film over all frames her as shady as fuck. Except for a few brief moments at the beginning and end from Leia’s POV, the entire Resistance arc in TLJ is told from Poe’s point of view and, from Poe’s point of view, she’s not a good guy. She’s overly secretive and dismissive of him and, by extension, us. Of course we’re suspicious of her. She’s deliberately withholding information we (and Poe) want so there must be something wrong with her. The reveal that she does have a plan and that it's Poe who is the problem is the big turning point of the film and Poe's character arc. I assumed that putting her in a civilian dress instead of a uniform was part of the overall plan to trick the audience into being suspect and dismissive of her.
The article quoted above, on the other hand, reveals that the entire point of Holdo's gown was to heighten her sexuality. She's flirting with Oscar Isaac's character. She needs to be unique and balletic. The audience needs to see her body and a uniform just isn't going to cut it because they aren't feminine enough.
I never been thrilled with her outfit, but when I thought it was part of the over all trick Rian Johnson pulled with her character, I was okay-ish about it. Finding out it was just about turning her into a flirty, balletic sex-object? Fills me with rage. What did you think of Holdo's gown when you first saw it? What do you think now?
One of the film’s most feminine looks was a draped, cape-back jersey gown worn by Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern).
I thought when I read the script that Holdo would be wearing a uniform, so I did some uniform designs and showed them to Rian and he said, "Oh no, no, no, no. She’s flirting with Oscar Isaacs’ character, I don’t want her to be in a uniform, I want her to be unique and almost balletic." He said, "I’d like to see her body and her body language, and her silhouette, and have her be more feminine." So I started thinking about feminine balletic design, and something kind of Greek, which made me start thinking about jersey, and then I started thinking about Madame Gres. So that’s where that came from.
I thought when I read the script that Holdo would be wearing a uniform, so I did some uniform designs and showed them to Rian and he said, "Oh no, no, no, no. She’s flirting with Oscar Isaacs’ character, I don’t want her to be in a uniform, I want her to be unique and almost balletic." He said, "I’d like to see her body and her body language, and her silhouette, and have her be more feminine." So I started thinking about feminine balletic design, and something kind of Greek, which made me start thinking about jersey, and then I started thinking about Madame Gres. So that’s where that came from.
I've never made any secret about the fact that I have some...issues with the costuming choices for Vice-Admiral Holdo. Costumes are a vital part of visual storytelling. How a character dresses tells the audience a lot about their socio-economic status, group affiliation, and priorities before they open their mouth. It helps to set up audience expectations and places a character within their proper context.
In The Last Jedi, every resistance member, male, female or space!gender, wears some sort of uniform except Leia and Holdo who both wear fancy civilian dresses instead. Uniforms are important. They physically demonstrate affiliation and show that they belong within the group. In past films, Leia always appeared in uniform when acting in a military capacity. She wears one on Hoth, on Endor, and at her secret base in The Force Awakens. By contrast, Mon Mothma never wore a uniform, not in The Return of the Jedi and not in Rogue One, because she was a civilian politician. Similarly, none of the other civilian politicians in the council scene from Rogue One wear a uniform. They all wear fancy clothes, even the men.
When we watched The Last Jedi together, my mom thought Holdo was a civilian politician like Mon Mothma despite her repeatedly being addressed as "Admiral." Why? Because she was dressed like a politician! After all, what sort of person wears a fancy civilian dress to a military evacuation? A wealthy civilian? Someone wealthy and not particularly practical? A military officer who cares more about their personal style than dress codes and has the power to get away with it?
For the longest time, I thought it was a deliberate bait-and-switch by Rian to ensure that she was underestimated. The character who introduces her describes her brilliant and heroic past, but the film over all frames her as shady as fuck. Except for a few brief moments at the beginning and end from Leia’s POV, the entire Resistance arc in TLJ is told from Poe’s point of view and, from Poe’s point of view, she’s not a good guy. She’s overly secretive and dismissive of him and, by extension, us. Of course we’re suspicious of her. She’s deliberately withholding information we (and Poe) want so there must be something wrong with her. The reveal that she does have a plan and that it's Poe who is the problem is the big turning point of the film and Poe's character arc. I assumed that putting her in a civilian dress instead of a uniform was part of the overall plan to trick the audience into being suspect and dismissive of her.
The article quoted above, on the other hand, reveals that the entire point of Holdo's gown was to heighten her sexuality. She's flirting with Oscar Isaac's character. She needs to be unique and balletic. The audience needs to see her body and a uniform just isn't going to cut it because they aren't feminine enough.
I never been thrilled with her outfit, but when I thought it was part of the over all trick Rian Johnson pulled with her character, I was okay-ish about it. Finding out it was just about turning her into a flirty, balletic sex-object? Fills me with rage. What did you think of Holdo's gown when you first saw it? What do you think now?