This is the final installment of a two-part conversation between Lucasfilm.com and Sarah Young. In part one, we explored the establishment of Willow’s costume department and the overall scope of the series.
One of costume designer Sarah Young’s favorite memories of working on Lucasfilm’s series Willow came at the end of the journey. In November 2022, she was among those invited to the series premiere in Los Angeles where fans lined up in their homemade Willow costumes, including ones inspired by new clothing worn by characters like Elora Danan and Kit Tanthalos. “They had so many questions about Elora’s green scarf,” Young says with a laugh, “asking about how to make it.”
Each and every costume piece, including Elora’s scarf, had been designed and created by Young’s department based at Dragon Studios in Wales, along with many collaborating vendors. For Young, each new costume was an opportunity to tell a story. “For all of the characters, the clothing needed to be versatile. They leave on the journey with one costume, and you want the clothing to develop as they develop,” she says.
Keeping images of the characters from the original 1988 movie around for inspiration, Young and her team set about creating each costume and its variations. This often involved imagining points about the story to inform their decisions. “If they don’t give me a story, I need one to create these characters,” she says. Inferring from the scripts, Young envisioned different backstories and details. “I’m not afraid to pitch things in meetings and explain why. That’s what sparks the ideas.”