Costume Design by:
- Trisha Biggar ( notable efforts: The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders (1996), Da Vinci's Demons (2014 - 2015), Emerald City (2017) )
Note: Most of the costumes for this film, as well as the follow-ups Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, were based on costume sketches by concept artists, with Biggar's duties more or less realizing them on the screen rather than designing proper.
Costume Design Genre: futuristic
The last of the infamous prequel trilogy,
Revenge of the Sith is my least favorite by far for many reasons. The one consistently decent thing in the film amidst the maudlin writing and messy visuals is the costume design, though the bulk of it is again worn by extras you barely see on-screen or in deleted scenes. Padme (Natalie Portman), now the secret wife of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), still gets to sport a few lovely outfits. Her first notable outfit is worn in a scene between her and Anakin, this outfit consisting of dark plum robe with floral patterns around the shoulders, worn with a similarly coloured headdress.
The second of Padme's notable outfits is worn in some political drama scene, and again consists of a dark blue-purple coloured robe with large shoulders and a ruff colour, adorned with almond shaped brooches and worn with a halo-shaped metallic headdress. Again, a lovely costume barely seen in its film, obscured by videogamey CGI spectacle.
Padme's third notable outfit is worn when Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) breaks to her the news that Anakin has committed infanticide...oh sorry, I mean, 'killed younglings'. This is a more simply gown, of a deep purple fabric with a patterned strip running down the sides of the sleeves.
One outfit that did not make it into the final film was this rather severe and muted deal worn with a dreadlocked hairstyle, worn during a scene in which Padme and other senators confront Palpatine - in publicity photos, this outfit is blue and grey in colour, but for some reason my screenshots of the deleted scene make it look like a muted brown.
One of Padme's most striking costumes from the film is worn when her character is dead, and is shown briefly to be wearing a lovely sparkling sea-blue cloak and dress, the cloak coated in glittery pieces as well. This dress is, again, sadly barely seen in the actual film, but can be seen via the various behind the scenes photos online.
Padme's funeral lets us see a few other Naboo denizens, with the most notable being the the current Naboo queen, Apailana (Keisha Castle-Hughes) in a shinier version of the kimono or hanfu inspired regal garb that was worn by Queen Amidala back in The Phantom Menace.
As for the other Naboo citizens, we don't really see their outfits in full sadly, the most striking being Padme's father Ruwee Naberrie (Graeme Blundell), who together with his wife had more scenes in deleted sequences in
Attack of the Clones Also included are the various handmaidens robes, that are not really seen in the final film, mostly due to being either in the background or in deleted scenes.
The Republic's Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) finally is revealed to be evil in this film, though doesn't wear too many new outfits. He is first seen in a robe made of some rather rough, grey material (that I'm honestly not much a fan of), with a large panel going down the front, as well as large sleeves.
In scenes that were deleted from the final cut of the film, Palpatine would have wore a large-shouldered black robe worn over a sort of golden material, the shoulders having curve embroidery all over them as well - quite a shame this outfit didn't get more screentime in the film, honestly!
Palpatine's second main on-screen outfit is a more subdued version of his large sleeved outfit worn in Attack of the Clones, with the shoulders now much less pronounced and more streamlined, though the basic shape of the rest of the outfit is similar.
Bail Organa (Jimmy Smitts) has more of a role in this film, though most of his costumes tend to be of a muted grey colour scheme, such as this costume he wears during the massacre of the Jedi, which is a grey shirt and trousers with a large black leather top worn over the shirt.
For most of the film, Organa wears a grey jumpsuit with metallic cuffs and a large sweeping grey cloak, that goes down one side of in a sloping direction.
The last notable outfit Organa wears is worn in a boring Senate sequence, which is a grey tunic worn with a large blue cloak, that is fastened with a metallic piece that goes over the shoulders.
Organa's wife is briefly seen at the end of the film on his home planet of Alderaan, so once again an ornate outfit was made just to not be seen in the film at all - this robe is mostly muted colour wise, but has sleeves cut in ridges in a similar manner to some of the Trade Federation robes seen in The Phantom Menace.
There are a few other Alderaan natives seen on Organa's spaceship, with one woman in a white dress and cloak, as well as crewyman in grey jumpsuits that have large lined chestboards going over the front and back, briefly also seen with capes as well.
Once again, most of the costumes designed for the film were barely seen on screen, with one example being Palpatine's silent assistant Sly Moore, who wears a feather grey cloak fixed with a large collar, making the character look vaguely like some sort of riff on the Snow Queen.
Palpatine's other assistant, Mas Amedda, also appears in this film is a grey gown that is worn with a mustard coloured cape, the cape fixed with large curved shoulder pads, as well as a red sash.
Like the other prequel films, there was a ton of effort put into costuming background extras for the senate and opera house sequences, as well as several politician characters who were in scenes deleted out of the film's final cut - one of these being a younger version of Mon Mothma, the Rebel leader in
Return of the Jedi. I do quite like a lot of these costumes, but I had to go through so much searching to find even decent copies of the images, as well as having to find scanned copies of the various 'visual dictionary' tie-in books made for them...
The Separatists also appear here, though once again are barely seen properly, obscured by tons of CGI rubbish. The Trade Federation head Nute Gunray makes his final appearance here, in an orange and red gown with large shoulders and a detailed leather panel going down the front, as well as of course a large conical hat. His aide wears a dark blue robe with a collar piece and an another ornate hat, as well as a possibly unused costume of a more simple colour scheme (possibly for another official?).
There's some videogame cutscene sequence on the planet Utapau, whose (physical) residents are guant aliens who wear strange ridged robes, designed to resemble chitin almost, with their leader having a large collar piece that makes the character look like he's in a shell as is. Also of note are the various aides behind him in hooded outfits, though I have no idea if they're physical or computer-generated thanks to the film's nasty CGI sheen.
Lastly, is the costume worn by Palpatine in his new guise as the Emperor, who during a speech scene wears an admittedly very nice red robe with a large panel going down the front that is coated in ornate floral sigils.
