Lumiya - Legends and Star Wars Celebration

I think the argument can be reasonably made that if it were not for the old expanded universe novels and comics, we would not have the continued Star Wars Universe we have today. Without the works of Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole, and Kevin J. Anderson, just to name a few, the interest for our favorite galaxy far, far away would not have made it to the prequel trilogy. In fact, they actually gave me something to look forward to in regards to Star Wars stories when the prequels didn't quite meet expectations.

I will be sharing some of my favorite EU costumes and characters over the course of this blog, but I wanted to start with one of my personal favorites. Lost to the vestiges of time in the pages of comic books and the New Jedi Order book series, Dark Lady Lumiya has been a wickedly fun thorn in Luke Skywalker's side.

Originally, we didn't think we were going to be able to make it to Star Wars Celebration 2017, but thanks to a friend's generosity we were able to go the last two days. With only a few weeks to prepare, I knew I wanted to do something that would stand out against the myriad of Slave Leias and Reys. Lumiya's traditional costume from the comics is a clash of metal and fabric, her body wrapped in a black technologically advanced bodysuit, with armor across her chest and encasing her arms and legs.With two weeks to prepare, I knew her classic look was going to be a bit much to pull together, but perhaps something more inspired by the dark lady would suffice.
Pulling inspiration from her comic look and the Clone Wars styled art of Brian Snook I figured out how to pull this off in the short amount of time we had.

Headdress
Due to an accident that left her horribly scarred, Lumiya keeps most of her face covered.

It is generally shown as a black material, wrapped around her head giving the overall appearance the look of an upside down triangle. With a headband and some floral wire, I was able to create the shape and draped my dark knit material around it. Once I had the shape, I stuffed it with batting to help fill it out.

First attempt at headdress and makeup.

The first attempt was... rough, to say the least. It took some finagling to get it to the shape I wanted. The silver piece for the forehead is just some silver tape my husband happened to have on hand. Eventually, this was replaced with the same technique I used for the armor below, as well as replacing the fabric wrapped around my face with a balaclava for easier wear.

Bodysuit and armor

Since throwing together a bodysuit and armor in the allotted time wasn't feasible, I opted for a black long-sleeved shirt and black footless tights. Since her traditional costume had silver webs throughout the bodysuit, I grabbed some silver puff paint and added the designs myself.

The armor was made of silver foil fabric and backed with headliner material from Joann Fabrics. Next time around it will be made with a sturdier material since the slight wrinkling detracts from the metal armor look.

Lumiya is usually depicted with metal claws gracing the fingertips of her armored hands. Once again due to time constraints, I opted for a more inspired look thanks to the metal fingertip nails sourced from Amazon.

Boots, skirt, and cape

Scavenging around through my closet, I found an old pair of black dress boots. They had seen better days, so I wasn't planning on keeping them that much longer anyway. I hand stitched the same silver material as before to the shaft of the boot and used Elmer's spray glue to place some on the tip of the boot. The skirt was an old black knit skirt I had that I never wore, so I cut two long slits up the entire length. The cape was a high-low skirt I had purchased from Express.

Lightwhip

The best piece in this entire costume is by far the laser whip. Thanks to some LED lights from Amazon, clear plastic tubing and metal pipe from Lowe's, we were able to throw it together pretty quickly. Taking bright yellow neon weedwhacker string and feeding that along with the LED into the three of the clear tubes we had cut, I then braided the clear tubes together. Here's a video of the lighting effect after braiding.

Miscellaneous
To complete my look for Lumiya, I picked up a pair of yellow contact lenses for Uniqso. Their Phantasee Crazy Lens Yellow Eclipse was perfect for Lumiya and I think they really helped to pull the whole look together.

Completed Costume

Star Wars Celebration Orlando 2017

At the art booth of Joe Corroney

The response at Celebration was overwhelming. I couldn't believe how many people not only recognized Lumiya but expressed how much they loved her character and were happy to see that her legacy wasn't forgotten. The old lore may be neatly categorized into "Legends", but for fans like me that only had those stories to hold on to while we waited for the story to officially continue, they meant everything.

Thanks for reading!
-DS