Yahoo Movies Star Wars costume designer John Mollo has died
‘Star Wars’ costume designer John Mollo has died, aged 86.
According to The Times, the iconic costume designer, who won an Oscar in 1978 for his original ‘Star Wars’ costume designs, passed away earlier this week.
The British costume designer was behind some of the most iconic looks in the galaxy far, far away – including Princess Leia, Darth Vader and Han Solo. Not to mention, the now-iconic stormtrooper armour.
“Since I had just finished the work for Kubrick I thought I’d investigate and met George Lucas at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood,” he said. “We discussed a few concepts when I joined the team, and George had a clear vision of what he was looking for.”
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He went on to design several classic sci-fi looks.
All this, despite never having seen a sci-fi film before.
“He liked the idea of the baddies having a fascist look about them, with the heroes reflecting the look of heroes of the American Wild West,” he told StarWarsHelmets. His background as a military designer made this easy. In fact, Darth Vader’s iconic helmet was inspired by Nazi helmets worn during World War II.
And Mollo’s military background clearly helped when designing the Empire.
“As you see, the costumes from Star Wars are really not so much costumes as a bit of plumbing and general automobile engineering,” he joked while collecting the Academy Award in 1978 for his work on ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’.
He was joined on stage by the costumes which won him the award.
But that wasn’t Mollo’s only Academy Award – in fact, he also picked up the Oscar in 1983 alongside Bhanu Athaiya for their work on the critically-acclaimed ‘Ghandi’.
Of course, he also returned to the galaxy far, far away for ‘The Empire Strikes Back’.
But notably, Princess Leia’s iconic metal bikini was not his design.
Recently, ‘The Force Awakens’ riffed on his original Stormtrooper designs.
And these will soon be seen again in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’.
‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ will star Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher alongside Benicio Del Toro, Gwendoline Christie, Domhnall Gleeson, Laura Dern and Andy Serkis.
Rian Johnson both wrote and directed the movie.
‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ heads to cinemas on 14 December 2017.
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