callista's journey

[jaded_of_mara]

im gonna take you on a path following the costumes of star wars legends' most hated character

say what you will about artists always depicting mara in a catsuit - at least it's consistent.

callista ming, on the other hand? there's not much official art out there, and what there is can get muddled on the details. the most common outfit seems to be a purple vest layered over an asymmetrical purple skirt - purple seems to be a common thread here

even the details get muddled between different interpretations. sometimes she's got a white undershirt, sometimes she has bracers and armbands. pretty much always, she's showing off some serious cleavage (classic star wars official artist moment)

so what is a cosplayer to do?

i started by looking at my stash. for a different project i had already purchased a combo vest/blazer pattern: McCall's M7254:

I'll admit: when I first saw view D, my thought was that it looked like something Genevieve O'Reilley would be styled in for her turn as Mon Mothma in Andor.

practically every image of Callista available shows some shimmer in that vest. but not too much shimmer. Is it just the way artists like to color? Or is it meant to connote some non-obvious material?

(my mom keeps trying to suggest silk velvet, dyed so the rayon backing is purple but the silk pile remains undyed. i am probably not going to go for that)

anyway here is my progress on view A, mostly for fit purposes.

i cut the pattern pieces for the XL size based on the final measurement of the garment, which is a bust of 44" (which is about what I have.) however, the body really doesn't fit without taking the sides in by a good measure, even more than the L size (for a 40" bust). i also experimented with some dart placement, but nowhere made me happy so i just left it

(dress form pro tip: if it won't adjust to your size, you can put a tight-fitting shirt over the top and stuff its bra (and tummy))

I've seen some people suggest a full-bust adjustment, but looking at the process for adjusting a princess seam is scary

my mom managed to dig up 3 yards of purple jersey, so i might fuck around with that next. this pattern is like REALLY fabric-intensive

so anyway that's my progress so far, i would love to hear ideas on this whole thing

Comments

[atamascolily]

That's so cool that you're doing a Callista cosplay! (She's one of my favorite Legends characters.) I don't know why she got "purple" in the Official Illustration Roulette, but I've always thought there's something very '80s about her design--maybe as a way of marking her as being "out of time" or maybe just because that's how Star Wars fashion works??

I don't know if you've seen this, but here is another Callista cosplayer from DragonCon from the Fanlore page.

[jaded_of_mara]

thank you!!

i love discussing the retrofuturism of star wars -- everything past the original trilogy has been trying to emulate the science fiction of the 70s, with maybe some 50s thrown into the prequels (ie couruscant looking like it could be from the jetsons)

and i had not done my due diligence on callista! i've poked around tumblr and dreamwidth, and of course seen the long-past ripples and echos of the bashing era, but there's a lot of good stuff linked in that fanlore article!

[atamascolily]

Hahaha, thanks! To be honest, I was surprised and delighted people other than me have edited that page! I've been using Fanlore as an external brain for storing links and information--it's so much easier to find it there than buried in my bookmarks.

Re: retrofuturism, it makes perfect sense, it's set "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away"... simultaneously the mythic past AND future.