Lady Poe - the 18th century rebel pilot

I've mentioned this costume a few times already in my plans for the year, and here it's time to present it.

The idea for the costume started out with the fun idea of putting a starship in an 18th century hairstyle, and after Celebration Anaheim in 2015 I decided that I would do it for the next US Celebration. I didn't really have a clear idea exactly how, the original idea was to make an R2-inspired gown, maybe including blue hair and an X-wing in the hair. I didn't think too much about getting it historically accurate. Then the idea grew, I talked to some more people about it, and then  I realized that if I was going to spend a lot of time and money I wanted to make something that I would be able to use more than just once. That meant that I didn't want to make something white, with blue hair, but still being very easily recognizable as Star Wars, and that would still fit in with a spaceship in the hair. So the next idea was to make a rebel pilot. Bright orange is not a colour I would like to have on an 18th century gown though, but there are the TFA resistance pilots, that have a more reddish colour than the original x-wing pilots.

Basically I was hoping to combine this

with this

Here is the breakdown of my plan for the costume that I will call Lady Poe.

1. Underpinnings

I will use my 1760's brocade stays and one of my existing chemises. I will need to make pocket hoops and petticoats to go over the hoops, since all my 18th century petticoats are made to fit over a bumpad. I'm not doing a full pannier, so the costume will be an informal gown, not full court gown.

2. Hair

I have already bought a wig and the hair needed to make a full 1770's hairstyle. I'm scared, but I'm also looking forward to do my first full wig hairstyle. In the hair I will put a model of Poe's X-wing; Black One. The wig will be very dark brown, and hopefully look quite natural on me.

3. Robe à la Francaise and matching petticoat

This will probably be my main inspiration for the robe and petticoat. I'm not sure if I'm going to use a loose stomacher or the compere front though. It will be in silk and for pattern I'm going to use the pattern that I made for my pet en l'air.

4. Star Wars trimmings

To make it look like a rebel pilot it will need a lot of trim in the right places. The TFA flak vest, with the ribbed panels going down like a vest, will be turned into pleated ruffles down the robings. The belt and ejection straps will be strips of grey pleated silk. In order to translate the chestbox to this version I want to make the compere front or the stomacher with fabric imitating the switches and patterns of the chestbox. Finally Poe is the owner of the droid BB8, and I'm hoping to translate his round shape into the circular trim that can be seen on many 18th century petticoats.

In the summer I made this quick image of how I was thinking.

I can't put too much energy into the trim though because I want to remove it when I get back from Orlando and put some accurate 18th century trim on to the gown, so that I will have a working 18th century robe à la Francaise.