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Take Two

The force is strong with these LA fashion stores

Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.

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The force is strong with these LA fashion stores

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" hits movie theaters across the nation Friday night and a constellation of fashion offerings is coming along with it.

Think Princess Leia ankle boots, Obi-Wan hoodies and whole Hoth inspired ensembles.

Michelle Dalton Tyree from Fashion Trends Daily checked out the latest looks from a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars and merchandising

Merchandising has always been a big deal for the Star Wars franchise, but now it's going into hyperdrive.

"To get a sense of the enormity of sales in this industry, here's a number: $118 billion," says Tyree. "That's how much the licensing experts at the firm LIMA say came from entertainment/character licensing sales in 2016. And they said Star Wars is the largest franchise in the business. It's truly a force to reckoned with."

The Last Jedi Collaborations

This time around, one of the biggest fashion collabs with the movie has been with designer brand Rag & Bone. It's is known for edgy urban essentials, like cool denim and leather jackets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RClZeyuBmgE

Tyree headed down to Rag & Bone in West Hollywood and shared some of the cool stuff they had to offer:

"There were t-shirts, but only a few left because most of them sold out in minutes. Some had Aurebesh — the Star Wars language – on them and included little-hidden secrets for super fans on the hang tags. If you could translate Aurebesh, it took you to a secret fan web site."

But Rag & Bone released a new stock of these t-shirts Friday morning, which you can check it out at their website.

As part of Rag & Bone's Star Wars collection, an outfit inspired by Princess Leia's Hoth outfit.
As part of Rag & Bone's Star Wars collection, an outfit inspired by Princess Leia's Hoth outfit.
(
Michelle Dalton Tyree
)

On the more luxurious side, there was a Hoth-inspired ensemble.

"It's a a nod to Princess Leia's look from 'The Empire Strikes Back' when she was on the Planet Hoth," she says. "If you remember she had a posh monochromatic creamy ensemble. The store manager said there were people who stood in line and bought the look head-to-toe the morning the collection debuted so they could wear to the L.A. premiere."

And if you don't want to spend a whole paycheck...

  • For women & girls, there's the Clarks' x Star Wars "Force of Nature" collection. The hot item is the Rey bootie, which is a high-top sneaker/hiking boot hybrid that works well on both the deserts of Jakku or hiking Runyon. And there's a little emblem on the heel symbolizing the resistance.
  • Columbia also harkened back to Empire Strikes Back and collaborated with Harrison Ford on an uber-limited run of parkas, only available in select Columbia stores and each jacket is hand-signed by Ford.
  • And beauty is a big category -- we've seen companies from Storybook Cosmetics to Cargo creating make-up palettes inspired by the Dark and Light sides

May the force be with you!