Costuming Dark Rey (Concept) from Star Wars

I’ve always wanted to make/purchase/wear a Darth Vader costume, as I tend to gravitate towards (and sometimes root for) the villain in stories.  After Aimee Miller and I made her Resistance Rey costume, I took pride in and admired it but felt like it wasn’t “me,” nor was I compelled to costume Kylo Ren or another villain from the recent Star Wars films.  When The Last Jedi was released, and subsequent fan art and fan fiction about “what if she had taken his hand” (don’t worry, that’s as spoilery as we’ll get) began to surface on social media (follow our board on Pinterest) and in water cooler conversations, the idea of costuming Dark Rey (or Dark Side Rey) forced its way to the top of the costume to-do list.  I wanted our costumes to compliment each other’s, so most of the pieces and elements are “same but different.”  I also made a conscious effort not to sexualize Rey.  I don’t think she even knows she’s pretty, which is intriguing in and of itself.  Instead, I leaned towards dark and brooding, and I leave the concept interpretation open to whatever her story holds in the future.

 

Aimee, now a frequent guest contributor on Red Shoes. Red Wine., and I worked together on this costume and have shared our build notes below.  Aimee and I will be referencing her costume build blog posts a lot, so not much of the information in those posts will be repeated here, only what we did differently to make her Resistance Rey into my Dark Rey.

• Costuming Rey from Star Wars: Shirt & Pants
• Costuming Rey from Star Wars: Jacket & Gauntlets
• Costuming Rey from Star Wars: Belt & Accessories

 

 

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Aimee’s Notes:

Creating a Dark Rey concept costume was something that I had thought about not long after we finished my Resistance Rey costume.  So, when Sheila said she wanted to do a Dark Rey costume I was beyond excited and practically threw my concepts at her all at once.  Most of the Dark Rey costumes I had seen done were just her same costumes from the movies, but in all black.  While there is nothing wrong with it and they look cool, however, I knew that I wanted to take on a different approach with our Dark Rey costume.  I wanted to take pieces from all the different Reys, put twists on them, but give them a recognizably Rey look, and hope that Sheila was willing to go along with my crazy ideas.

• Jacket & Shirt: Resistance Rey, but extended the jacket down to the knees, exaggerated the collar on the jacket, and omitted the collar from the shirt
• Pants: The Last Jedi Rey’s full length pants and knee detailing
• Bracer: from both films, but instead of just one we made two, and omitted the arm wraps
• Belt: Resistance Rey, flipped the width of the two belts and added a little metal detailing
• Lightsaber: Anakin Lightsaber, I had noticed when I bought mine that the vendor also did a dark chrome version with a red blade…perfect!
• Boots: black, biker style knee high boots with some strapping and metal detailing on them (this is the one item that isn’t tied to Rey from any of the films, but definitely has a Sith look/feel to them)

 

 

Sheila’s Notes:

Following a “same but different” plan, I took a trip to the same fabric store where we bought Aimee’s fabric for Resistance Rey (reference: Shirt & Pants and Jacket & Gauntlets builds).  I found a medium weight black poly-wool blend with a subtle and smaller herringbone pattern, similar to Aimee’s jacket.  I also found a lightweight black Italian linen for the shirt.  On a whim and with frantic text messages to Aimee, we agreed on dark chrome thread (Gutermann Sulky Metallic Machine Embroidery Thread 200m 7023) for detailing.

 

 

While pre-washing the fabric, I modified the jacket pattern (reference: Jacket & Gauntlets build) to exaggerate the collar and extend the peplum 12″ longer than Aimee’s jacket.  I also modified the shirt pattern (reference: Shirt & Pants build) to allow a little (okay, a lot) more room in the front for my chest, and extended the length by a few inches for my long torso.  With an exaggerated collar on the jacket, I omitted the collar on the shirt entirely.

 

 

Other than the extensions and omission, the shirt and jacket were sewn exactly like Aimee’s, and all with plain black thread.  I sewed in 2mm craft foam and a couple of my husband’s collar stays to stiffen the collar on the jacket.  I also included the shoulder pads (reference: Jacket & Gauntlets build) but sewed the chrome thread into the detailing on the pads.  I’m not sure if I was using the wrong needle or tension, but I broke the thread and cursed A LOT while sewing the pads.  Aimee had more success with hand sewing the metallic thread, so I would recommend that technique to anyone wanting to use the it on their Rey.

 

 

At this point, the shirt and jacket were ready to be shipped to Aimee for hand-finishing.  I definitely don’t have the patience for it (and Aimee rocked it the first time around).

 

 

I bought black skinny jeans on Amazon (Levi’s Women’s 721 High Rise Skinny Jeans, Soft Black, 29 (US 8) R) for the pants.  Aimee sent screenshot of Rey from The Last Jedi so I could include the detailing on the knees, and I followed the lines as best as I could…until I sewed the bottom part of the legs on backwards (image above…oops!).  Easy fix, having to remind myself to sew these like I would sew sleeves, and I set them straight in under a half hour.

 

 

Aimee’s Notes:

Metallic thread, I hate you and I love you all at the same time.  To add depth & detail to the jacket and shirt I hand sewed the final detailing along the edges using a closed blanket stitch with a double thread of metallic thread.  This is the same pattern used on the Resistance Rey shirt and jacket (reference: Shirt & Pants and Jacket & Gauntlets builds), once again giving us that recognizable Rey look.  Now this is very very important (as Sheila mentioned above): make sure you use a thick needle. If you use a thin needle, the holes are not big enough for the metallic thread to go through, and it comes undone (you will be cursing like a sailor).  I also added the frayed bottom edge using seam ripper.

 

 

Once again using the belt pattern from Divison6 (reference: Belt & Accessories build), I started working on the belt.  To make it different from the Resistance Rey belt, I simply reversed which belt loop was wider, this time making the top belt loop 1.5” wide and the bottom loop 1” wide.  Some slight adjustments were made in order for the Dark Rey belt hardware to fit correctly, which is why I once again created a mock belt on craft foam before putting it to leather.  Another nice twist was adding the metal pieces I found to tie in and wrap with the cord.  I looped the cord through the metal pieces (and used a little hot-glue to help keep them place) as I wrapped it all around the belt, which gave it a very Sith-like feel to the belt, while still making it recognizably Rey.

 

 

 

I must say that Division6 has been a lifesaver when it comes to patterns for all of Rey’s leather pieces.  Rey’s bracer is a simple enough piece to make, but for Dark Rey we went with making two (she normally only wears one) knowing that we weren’t going to do arm wraps.  I used a thinner hide (3-4 oz.) for the bracers as compared to the belt.  The bracer wraps back in and over itself, so to make things a little nicer against Sheila’s wrists, I cemented a soft black goat hide leather from Hobby Lobby to the inside of each bracer.  After letting it cure for 24 hours, I then dyed the bracers black and sealed them to protect the leather.

 

 

I put a little more finishing work on the bracers by burnishing the edges.  This can be done with a simple wood slicker (Tandy Leather Multi-Size Wood Slicker 8121-00), and it gives the edges a nice smooth round finish.  You use it by placing the edge of the leather in one of the grooves and start rubbing it back and forth until your leather edges are smoothed out.  Now leather will basically hold whatever shape you leave it in.  So I wrapped the bracers around a couple of paint cans that were the same circumference as Sheila’s wrists and let them form for a couple weeks.

 

 

Sheila’s Notes:

You can see in the picture above the subtle differences between her belt and mine, and since our costumes compliment each other’s, I’ve included Aimee’s Resistance Rey below for comparison.  We had a lot of fun wearing them together at All-Con in Dallas last month and will wear them again at Comicpalooza in Houston next month, as well as DragonCon in Atlanta in September.  Now…should I get Sith contacts?

 

 

And finally, we leave you with a few behind-the-scenes outtakes.  One of us can’t seem to keep a straight face when wine and cameras are around…

– Sheila

 

Other Star Wars costumes on the blog:

Costuming Rey from Star Wars: Shirt & Pants

Costuming Rey from Star Wars: Jacket & Gauntlets

Costuming Rey from Star Wars: Belt & Accessories

Costuming a Jawa from Star Wars

Costuming a Jedi from Star Wars

 

 

“You don’t have to do this. I feel the conflict in you. It’s tearing you apart. Ben, when we touched hands, I saw your future. Just the shape of it but solid and clear. You will not bow before Snoke. You’ll turn. I’ll help you.”  – Rey

“I saw something too. I know that when the time comes, you’ll be the one to turn. You’ll stand with me, Rey. I saw who your parents are.”  – Kylo Ren

from Star Wars: The Last Jedi