Cinema Knits

The Star Wars series Andor has some of the best costume design around. I was in awe of the cohesive vision that the designers created. Not only were individual pieces of costuming great, but they all fit together to tell the stories of the planets and their peoples.

Today, I am going to examine three different looks from Andor: Season One from the perspective of a knitting enthusiast and I’ll give you some tips about how to knit looks inspired by these designs.

Look 1: Kenari

Some of my favorite costumes in the series are those of the Kenari children. This clothing looks scavenged and repurposed, fitting the post-apocalyptic setting of Kenari. Many of the items are oversized, suggesting the kids are utilizing clothing items originally intended for the now absent adults. The palette includes tan, green, yellow, and orange.

Andor costume designer Michael Wilkinson told Starwars.com:

“We figured the kids would’ve used the uniforms of the adults to sort of chop up and repurpose. It had this primitive mix with work wear that they’d customized with feathers and beads and trinkets and stolen or foraged elements from the urban world that they used to live in, a mixture of modern industrial mixed with organic jungle textures.”

I’s like to focus on Kassa’s (young Cassian) look here. He has a close fitting neutral layer with a goldish insulated top over it. When thinking about how to knit this look I immediately thought of Stephen West’s Penguono. The shape is similar and the vertical lines of the knitting suggest the insulation quilting on Kassa’s vest.

I think this could be a really cool Kenari look, knit up in a variety of golden-hued yarns – some beautiful option below:

An alternative pattern for this Kenari look would be Andrea Mowry’s Traveler Shell. The silhouette of this one if very nice and I love the texture that the purl rows add to the fabric.

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Look 2: Mon Mothma

Next, let’s look at one of Mon Mothma’s looks. Mon Mothma is always a particularly well dressed character throughout the series. These elegant, structured styles highlight her beauty and competence. Her color palette is quite limited. She wears mostly neutral tans and golds, and occasionally a pop of striking, peacock blue. It’s a very polished and professional wardrobe, absolutely fitting to a serious space senator.

One of my favorite looks of Mon Mothma is the striking cropped, bolero type jacket she wears on a visit to Luthien’s antique shop.

I love its structure and the way it seems to fold together to create its shape like a piece of origami art.

The best pattern match I could find for this look is a vintage pattern by Sirdar. But sadly, it is out of print (first published in 1950) and I couldn’t find it anywhere online.

I love this as a pattern match. If you extended the sleeves to full length and knit the body shorter, it would be such a great match for this pattern.

Since this pattern isn’t available, I kept searching for other patterns and I found three more that aren’t as close a match to Mon Mothma’s jacket, but each have elements of it and all three are great designs and certainly capture something of this great look.

The first is the Silva Shrug by Michelle Tam. This one has great lines like the original jacket, a stand up collar and full sleeves. It’s a very pretty design.

Next, I chose Praline by designer Dani Sunshine. The collar and closure on this one are a really nice match for Mon Mothma’s jacket. You could knit the body shorter for a closer look.

Finally, there is #02 Cabled Bolero by star designer Norah Gaughan. This one has such gorgeous cabling which gives it a lot of structure. The collar and overlapping closure are great as reference to Mon Mothma’s look.

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Look 3: Narkina 5

A truly iconic look from this season appears during the Narkina 5 episodes. During these episodes, Cassian and his fellow prisoners are compelled to wear stark white uniforms with bright orange accents. I really appreciate how those pops of orange nod to the rebel pilot jumpsuits of the original series. It’s a very ‘Star Wars’ look.

In an interview with Space.com costume designer Michael Wilkinson said:

“I think I was a bit nervous, when I read the prison sequences, that they might feel a little boring and empty compared to the other episodes and worlds that we create. But they’re amongst some of the sequences that I’m really proud of in the series. There’s almost a sense of disorientation for the viewers and the prisoners themselves. You’ve got the white costumes, the white world; there’s this strange sterile, soul-destroying quality to it all. 

It’s always a challenge when you’re making a costume you’re going to see for three episodes with hundreds of men wearing the same costume. We started with an interesting fabric that we developed, a type of disposable fabric so it felt like the prison uniforms would be discarded at the end of the day. Then we liked this retro ‘70s graphic that’s running through them, with a flash of orange so prisoners would stand out in a white world so guards could spot them easily. We put lots of work in every inch of those costumes because we knew the camera would see everything.”

There are quite a few design elements here to break down. First, there is the square neckline. This strong geometric structure is repeated throughout the top, with rectangles in both white and orange throughout the body, and those prominent white rectangular strips at the center.

I think you could easily create a sweater based on this look.

My preferred approach would be to knit the extremely popular Flax Sweater by Tin Can Knits:

This is such a great, basic sweater pattern. I have knit it multiple times. It’s a perfect first sweater pattern, but at the same time is a great choice as a basic building block for experienced knitters who are interested in creating a custom garment.

I thought of this sweater right away for this look, because it already has the rectangle accent going down the arm. So, you could knit this sweater in a bright white, and then incorporate orange stripes into the arm accents using intarsia.

I think this would make a really cool sweater that would give a subtle nod to Andor, without screaming “I’m wearing a SCI-FI PRISON OUTFIT, GUYS!” It depends on what you’re going for.

If you want to incorporate a few more elements, you could easily add the front white rectangles with the same method this pattern uses to create the contrasting accents on the arms – that is, purl stitches on a background of knit stitches. If you make two slim bands of purl stitches separated by about 4 knit stitches in the front, you’ve created those nice blocky rectangles down the front.

The main thing that this approach leaves out is that square neckline. If that neckline is calling to you, consider this gorgeous pattern from designer Carmen Garcia de Mora: Marinheira sweater

The neckline on this echoes the neckline on the Andor outfits, yet adds a twist that makes it really lovely. I can’t help but feel those twisting cables down the front reflect the rectangles running down the front of the costume as well.

You could knit this in white and then think about how you want to incorporate the orange accents. I think thin stripes on the sleeve might be nice. Maybe 7-10 rows of white and then a row of orange would give a really subtle nod to the accents on the Andor pattern, while also preserving the elegance of the design. If you want to go bolder, you could make the arm stripes more closely reflect the design of the original, with big blocks of orange and smaller strips of white.

That’s it for today. There are so many interesting designs in this series, I could certainly write a part 2 of this post with more designs if readers are interested in finding out more. What was your favorite costume in Andor?