been involved, both making costumes and
wearing them. Options, however, have never
been wide-ranging. For every Harley Quinn,
there were a hundred Batmen and Jokers;
for every Uhura, a dozen Spocks and Kirks;
for every Kitty Pryde, a slew of, well, X-Men.
Star Wars, too, offered few opportuni-
ties for women to embody major charac-
ters. There weren’t many marquee names
to begin with, and those that did exist had
significant barriers to entry. Padmé Amidala
had more layers, makeup, and hair spray
than a British royal. Mon Mothma’s sober
toga wasn’t as intricate or bank-breaking,
but fellow con-goers only wanted to talk
to you about Bothan death tolls. Princess
Leia, the obvious choice, was most recog-
nizable in an ogle-baiting metal bikini. For
years, women did dress up like one hero—
Luke Skywalker—but they could never
really be that hero. (The choice between an
opposite-gender farm boy and a royal sex
object scrambles one’s sense of belonging.)
Then, in 2015, Star Wars: The Force
Awakens happened. Near the start of the
first act, a young scavenger removes a pair
of goggles, and we meet the galaxy’s new
hero: a brave woman, draped in no-fuss
garments and carrying a staff. Every fan
wanted to be her; every fan could be her.
“I make a lot of costumes with my dad,”
McIntosh says, looking down at her linen
and straps. “It’s super empowering for girls
to see that they can be that person.”
Now Rey is heading into her third (and
possibly final) movie. Which has meant four
years of fan-driven debate about the exis-
tence and value of a female protagonist.
Much of that conversation has felt either
rote or backward—but shifting the focus
from Rey’s gender to the more specific ways
she wields and wears it reveals the deeper
secret to her success: her costume.
This was all by design. From the begin-
ning, Rey, played by Daisy Ridley, was meant
to be a nobody who doesn’t know she’s a
somebody. As he developed her look, cos-
tume designer Michael Kaplan sought to
ANGELA WATERCUTTER (@WaterSlicer) is
a senior editor on wired’s culture desk.
The Star Wars canon has 59 original novels; expanded-universe tomes number in the hundreds, with nearly 100 contributing authors.
Rey and Kylo started popping up frequently on birth certificates in 2016, but Luke remains
the most popular Star Wars name, surging 636 percent in the rankings since 1977.
COSPLAY OPTIONS
FOR WOMEN
HAVE NEVER BEEN
WIDE-RANGING.
FOR EVERY UHURA,
THERE ARE A DOZEN
SPOCKS AND KIRKS;
FOR EVERY KITTY
PRYDE, A SLEW OF,
WELL, X-MEN.
make it as attainable, but still as Star Wars, as possi-
ble. Rey wears the cheap, desert-ready clothes of a
resourceful orphan. She has protective eyewear fash-
ioned from a retrofitted stormtrooper helmet. “You can
tell they’re homemade goggles. That shows savviness
on the character’s part. She’s self-possessed,” Kaplan
says. “We didn’t want her necessarily to be a very femi-
nine character—or a very masculine one.” Her arm ban-
dages were inspired by the shin wraps on Luke’s boots.
Kaplan has some experience with utilitarian looks,
particularly those that become fashion statements; he’s
the man responsible for Jennifer Beals’ legendary cut-up
sweatshirt in Flashdance. For Rey, he built off Donna
Karan’s “seven easy pieces” philosophy, layering essen-
tials so she always has what she needs on her back.
“Daisy didn’t have a simple job,” he says. “The stunts
she was expected to do, the training, and the things she
needed to learn in a short period of time—I would’ve
really felt bad if she was encumbered by a complicated
costume. She felt very heroic in this.”
Rey’s accessories are—for a specifically important
reason—also heroic. Until she summoned a lightsaber
in The Force Awakens, leading women in the Star Wars
movies had never wielded the saga’s signature weapon;
Padmé and Leia, in the few instances they were allowed
to fight, had to make do with puny blasters. “Let’s be
honest, who doesn’t pick up a wrapping-paper roll as
a kid and pretend it’s a lightsaber?” Caitlin Beards, a
cosplayer and longtime Star Wars fan, says. “And for
the main character in the story to be a female Jedi is
just phenomenal.”
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