bjsavage7

After having registered my Jawa as my first costume (providing a sort of safe feeling having my face hidden behind a veil / mask),
I wanted another imperial costume with a totally different attitude,
a costume showing my face (having gained more confidence when trooping),
a female character costume,
a rather uncommon costume,
and a costume which I could mostly build by myself (feeling more skilled with sewing back then, than working with ABS f.e.,
which kept me from attempting Moff Nyna Calixte or Boushh).

Back in 2014/2015, there were not many options for female character costumes
(Rebels was not shown yet - Governor Pryce is a great character and costume),
especially ones that would not show too much skin
There already was a registered Juno eclipse in Austria and someone with a Ysanne Isard costume.

I did my research in the CRL databank and fell in love with Daala's flightsuit (and flightsuits in general)!

Thanks. I've been slowly trying to get all of those fixed, and I think I just forgot about that one.

To be 100% honest...
I started in the IOC because I thought it was going to be the quickest, easiest, and less expensive option to getting into the legion.
I was correct on all of that haha!
 
When my wife and I started our goal was to march in the Star Wars Weekends parade for our honeymoon. Which we did!
We both had our first approved costumes in the IOC. Warrant Officer for me -now retired, and Scanning Crew for her -also now retired
But, our retired costumes turned into first approved costumes for 2 other members so we're just spreading the love!

I've always admired military uniforms. I love gloves, boots and high collars. And if I can have also the cape...
Krennic is my first costume and I don't need another one. I think this one suits me. It's not only a costume - I like Krennic, I think he is very interesting character, so characteristic for the Empire: very smart, intelligent and ambitious. And he have beautiful costume - not only uniform, but also the cape.
When I saw him first time I said: for that costume I was waiting my entire life as Star Wars fan. I though about SW costume and joining to 501st from years, but every costume I've seen was not for me. Until Krennic.
Maybe I will make another one, mayby ISB officer, but not now. I want improve my director Krennic costume, make it on 3rd level (I have almost everything on this lvl, but those boots... they are very expensive, especially for me, I have small foots and I need a shoemaker). Now I enjoy in krennic costume and I don't need another one.

Although I joined the Legion as a Tusken, the officer was the first costume I had (and the only one I wore for many years) that I actually enjoyed.
 
For me it’s the officers in ESB.  They are very professional even in the face of Vader’s short leash and their failures.  Helps that the uniform is slick as heck if it fits right!

My first costume was a Staff Officer - and it was what people don’t like to hear a lot, but was very true in my case: an easy and inexpensive way to join the Legion.

My second was Director Krennic - and it was a grown up version of my love for Vader as a child. The very first R1 trailer other members of my garrison were facing over the shore troopers or the death troopers, and I was in the back going “who the #^%*# is THAT guy? He’s awesome!” And this began my almost year long crusade to get the costume made and the CRL made.

I’m currently only Officers - though I have a Biker Scout and Vader planned. But I had a similar reaction to the FOSB as I did over Krennic - maybe it’s the white and black. Lol.


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I grew up wearing suits as well. Whoever says formality is dead is dead wrong. Lol


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My GA was my 3rd costume and second star wars costume. My first is my mando, because we do need their scum.
 
Aside from That, I wanted to join the 501st and wanted something cheaper than a tk so an officer was chosen and I love the look of the Grand Admiral. Then came my next cheap officer, Krennic, and armoured costumes will come soon.
 
I may have a problem. 

When i joined the Legion in january 2015 I did so with my Stormtrooper, just a common ANH Stunt. At my very first troop a fellow asked me why I was doing a Stromtrooper. My answer was, that I like the armor and the style and feel good while wearing this. He smiled at me and said: "That was not what I meant! I see you and I think you should do Grand Moff Tarkin!" My first thought was, this was a silly idea. The more I pondered about that, the more interesed I became in the character. I ordered a simple CosplaySky-Uniform, found some nice leather-riding-boots, ordered the dosimeters and the disc for the belt-buckle, build my belt myself, tested the makeup and the haircolor, did some pictures and got Tarkin approved to be my second costume in the Legion.
 
But I did not like the CosplaySky-Uniform very much. So I started to sew a new uniform by myself. It took me four weeks and I was in constand contact with @bjsavage7 in those days. And after all the sewing there it was: my first selfmade uniform. Even though I used this uniform for more than a year then, I got in contact with @furiosa in early 2016 and we started the research for the real cavlary twill in the accurate color. The rest is history: Antje made my new uniform out of the wonderful fabric and that improved my Tarkin the most.
 
Besides Grand Moff Tarkin I have a regular Line Officer, an Admiral Tarkin TCW and a Scanningcrew.

I absolutely agree with Kevin about being overdress to occasions and loving to wear a dress shirt with a suit and tie, I also love my collections of suits. I had a school uniform for five years, so I'm used to uniformity. Two certain events in my live made me wanting an imperial uniform - reading "Heir to the Empire" in 2014 and the first Vienna ComicCon in 2015. I loved Thrawn from the beginning of the book and I always wanted to go on a ComicCon, and I knew I want to be there as Grand Admiral Thrawn.
 
So I started researching for the uniform and by accident I stumbled across the 501st and the Officer CRLs. I made contact with my local garrison and the GML helped me and pointed me towards the IOC which has been the best thing that could have happened. It took me about year from the beginning until finishing the uniform and finally (I didn't made it to the 2015 Vienna ComicCon) I went to the 2016 Vienna ComicCon as Thrawn:

 
I met great people from my Garrison, lovely and very helpful people at the IOC and a lot of fans who get big eyes and happy faces when they see us. And with the uniforms it's the same as with the suits, if you have one you want more. And soon my uniform collection will have catched up to my suit collection.
I could write much more about my journey as an officer, but I think it's enough for now.
 
Duty - Honor - Empire

The officers were my favourite characters when I first watched the trilogy as a kid - Veers, Tarkin and Piett. Even above Vader in some ways! I suppose it was because they were by and large 'normal' people. Not over the top mega-villains (well except Tarky I suppose!) and not a ragtag mess like the rebels.
 
As soon as I got in touch with the 501st my first thought was a Line Officer uniform. In fact, it was seeing our GCO in that costume that made me interested in joining.
 
I have a couple of other costumes now (the armoured AT-AT Commander, sort of a line officer 'expansion pack' really and Royal Guard) with more in consideration, but Imp Line Officer will probably remain my 'core' costume, to be tweaked and upgraded over time.

I've always admired and enjoyed looking at military uniforms, probably that aura of authority they create.
And as a member in the Swedish Home Guard, I do feel extra comfortable in uniform.
 
So it felt like a very natural call to have my first 501st costume be an officer.
 
Also, with ESB being my favorite SW movie and seeing the officers behave so well around the Star Destroyer bridges, I guess thats another factor that sold me

A big part of what drew me to make my Imperial staff officer was loving the tailoring of the uniform. I tend to pick costumes either because I love the character or because I want to challenge myself with the costume construction. I also do historical costuming, and I loved being able to apply what I've done recently with Victorian tailoring to my officers tunic.

I've actually only trooped in my officer once so far, at a children's museum event. It was SOOO hard to keep my "resting sith face" imperial officer scowl going..... The temptation to smile at the little kids was very strong!!!

I mainly end up trooping as Princess Leia, Rey, or my generic Jedi. (And now as Vice Admiral Holdo - the most fashionable of Admirals!)

However, I wore my officer a lot at last year's dragoncon and had an absolute blast! I have sooo much fun scowling at everyone and feeling superior to every being who is not worthy to serve the Emperor. It's especially fun hanging out with all the other officers!




(Portrait by the incredibly talented http://www.herodreamsimaging.com/ )




It's also really satisfying to be an imperial officer as a woman, considering the lack of female imperial officers in the original trilogy. When I was little, I would have LOVED too see female imperial officers! I'm glad there are now women in the first order breaking the "kyber Crystal ceiling"!
It's important for little girls to know that they can grow up to be anything, not just one of the "good guys"!


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I was lucky enough to come across some unwanted snowtrooper parts which, over time, I was able to convert into Veers armor. It was a lot of work, but worth it. Like the guys have mentioned, ACD is ultimately the best place to source most of the bits you'll need. 

For me, I´ve always was impressed with imperial officers since I watched ANH and especially ESB. I remember, as a child that while stormtroopers or pilots were in first line battle, officers were for me the ones in the true front line: VADER rage and anger. Someone that can live with the constant threat of being force chocked was by far more impressive for me, as a child than any pilot or stormtrooper. And since then, I´ve always wanted to be a line officer. So for me, it was clear, my first 501 uniform has to be a line officer!! And currently, I´m on my way...Also, kick ass uniform and motto: "Honor, Durty, Empire" 

Originally I walked out of TFA a complete and utter Kylo Ren fan. Kylo Ren sparked my interest in making a screen accurate costume from scratch (well, as much as I could) and it all sort of snowballed from there. Big time!

After going away and consuming most of what the internet had to offer with regards to the Kylo fandom, I noticed that Hux popped up a lot. He'd actually managed to reasonably pass me by on my first watch! A week or so after first seeing TFA, I went back to the cinema to watch it again, and was completely smitten with Hux and the First Order as a whole. The uniforms were slick, interesting, and I've always been a sucker for the villains. (Also that -coat-, and the entire speech scene ughh <3) I love the variety of FO costumes, even though all the variants and consistency (or lack thereof) also drive me completely insane. I went and devoured all of the canon backstory available for Hux and just fell more and more for his ruthlessness and ambition. His tenacity, cunning and ability to persevere are all traits I admire and aspire to emulate, even out of costume tbh. First Order costumes are also pretty rare around my neck of the woods and I love how the FO costumers band together, appreciate one another, and how crazy the crowds at appearances and troops go when they see a squad of us all together. The people love the First Order! Especially now that more people know who Hux is after TLJ. >.>

I was halfway through my Kylo build and I at the time I'd wanted to switch tracks and start on Hux, but I saw Kylo through to the end. I cleared Kylo as my first 501st costume! From there, I was determined to make Hux my second costume and unfortunately for Kylo I've not worn that costume very much since! XD TLJ brought me some more much needed First Order (and Hux!) content and the costumes looked even slicker. A full remake is eventually on the cards to get my TLJ Hux-coat game on!

Hux was only the beginning. Eventually I'm hoping to get several Imperial costumes completed including the great white spacebat himself Director Krennic. I also want to get more First Order costumes under my belt! I'm well and truly in love with everything that the officers of the various factions throughout the Star Wars universe can offer, and I'm definitely here for the long term.

 

While we are at it, I've always been wondering about this, would it be possible to add the dart on the front tunic into the CRL? Probably an L2 requirement. It's on every other OT tunic, but not Krennic? 
 
It's easy to see in every image of Krennic. Example:

 

Because I look so damm good in the uniform, Officers were always my favourites I loved the cut of thier jib and always wanted to be one, Tagge was the officer that stood out as the one who was right and the others did not listen

Because I couldn't fit my belly in my Tk anymore 

I'm building my first 501st costume as an Officer. I've made a few more casual Star Wars costumes (my BB8 Resistance pilot is cute and 100% not approvable by anyone) but I've always wanted to approach the Officer. It looks like a precision tailoring exercise, something to really nail fit in a way I've never done before, and something that will help me step up my construction game for future projects. There's also a wonderful androgyny in the design that's very appealing. 
 
It also is incredibly appealing as a garment and an ideal. I've always found lawful, methodical evil the more interesting of the villainous subtypes - an evil that rewards adherence to rules and regulations, that functions as a crisp machine. I've always found rules comforting, even if the comfort is in finding ways to subvert or evade them - I was a much more productive artist in college because there were expectations of me. Trying to create without structure or standards can be lonely and fruitless. 
 
Also I had a crush on Tarkin as a youngling. 

My line officer was my first approved costume, but I had been working on my FO lieutenant for so much longer, so I'm gonna talk about that one instead. 
 
I originally REALLY wanted to be Hux. 
Loved the character, loved the big coat, and we have a good handful of Kylos in my area so I thought it would be fun. Got the process started, paid for the costumento be made, and one day decided to do a makeup test. 
 
It took me 3 hours to get my eyebrows to be anywhere light enough to be ginger. 
 
So that kind of put a damper on things because ain't nobody got time for that. And at the time the generic general CRL didn't exist. It was Hux or nothing
 
Then a friend of mine and I watched TFA together and she suggested the LT. After all, I looked a lot like Mitaka already and our mannerisms were very similar. So that kicked off several months of pouring research into a costume that was on screen for maybe 3 minutes total. And I loved it. Loved every second of it. I made dear friends and learned so much about costuming while putting this together, and it was just an incredible experience all around.
 
And when I got to put the completed costume on for the first time, it just felt right. In a way that none of my other approved costumes ever have. I love how it looks and how I feel in it, and it makes me proud. 
 
It wasn't an easy process by any means, but the results were more than I could have ever hoped for. And it was all for a background character that no one remembers, but I love him all the same.

I don't know if I'm "allowed" to reply since I haven't got my costume yet (It's on its way home, though), but here's my view:
As it's been said above, imp. officers totally get it. I mean, look at those fancy suits with the colorful rankbars and belts. There's no better finished uniform in the whole galaxy.  The suits, besides elegant, are comfy. Poor stormtroopers can't even sit to enjoy the space view.  Officers don't get as much atention as troopers, but they sure give variety and complete the squads when marching. (They look totally awesome next to Vader). Currently, I do not have much spare time to work on a complex armor, so begining the "collection" with an officer costume it's been perfect for me (I'm now waiting for my ISB officer costume and items to arrive).   You can even reuse some parts to make more officer's costumes. Also, they are cheapear than most costumes so they stand as a great way of entering at this hobby.  Thanks for asking and sharing your experiences, it's a pleasure to read all of you!
 

Officers control most of the ships and arsenals of the Empire. I really enjoy being an officer because of their smooth and unique appearance. I also went for an officer first because of it being less expensive than a hard armor based uniform. I am slowly working on a TIE pilot, but for now, I'll stay with my ISB, Staff and Line officer. 

When I started my first 501st costume, which was an Imperial Grand Admiral, I was inspired by my love of Grand Admiral Thrawn. He is, by far, my favorite Star Wars character (the Legends Thrawn, that is). I loved that he didnt have the Force, no special/magical powers that allowed him to rule or command or anything. Just his intelligence. At the time I wasnt sure if I was going to do Thrawn, so Id start just by doing a regular Grand Admiral. Before my first troop I quickly realized that I needed to do Thrawn. Since then I've obtained many more IOC costumes, including one that was a brand new CRL. The reason I love officers and the IOC so much is 1) I've always been attracted to power and commanding Star Destroyers; 2) I love the look of authority Officers exude; and 3) I just love this detachment. When I started, everyone on the forums were welcoming and helpful. It was great!! 
 
My personal philosophy on what costumes I get within the 501st (because otherwise, Id get them all :P) is that I only do costumes that I think I would actually be in the Star Wars universe. And I can easily see myself as an Officer in the Star Wars universe. That's why I do so many of them
 
Thanks for asking BJ!!

Almost all of my favorite characters are line officers (Tarkin, Piett, Veers). I'm also a fan of high collars, for some reason (working on a Royal Navy 1805 outfit very slowly, for example).
 
Oh! I also played a Line Officer on a Star Wars MUSH for a very long time, but I suspect that may be a symptom of the same root cause.