Obi-Wan Kimono: Star Wars costume worn by Sir Alec Guinness to go on display in V&A show
Filmmaker George Lucas has loaned the outfit to the museum, where it will be displayed alongside an Alexander McQueen creation made for Bjork and a Jean Paul Gaultier kimono worn by Madonna.
Sir Alec wore the costume in his role as Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi in the 1977 science-fiction epic.
Curator Anna Jackson said she was delighted to be able to display it, adding: “It is one of the first things we thought about borrowing to bring the story to life and make people think about the kimono in a different way.
“It does not have the long hanging sleeves of a traditional kimono but everything else is there and it is fundamentally a kimono.”
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The exhibition also includes Oscar-winning costumes from the 2005 film Memoirs Of A Geisha and an outfit made for Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune in Akira Kurosawa’s film Sanjuro. Ms Jackson, who is also keeper of the Asian Department at the museum, said: “George Lucas is very influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s films.
“He has acknowledged that influence on him and the Jedi are seen as a cross between a Buddhist monk and a Samurai.”
The McQueen outfit was worn by Bjork on the cover of her 1997 album Homogenic, while Madonna wore her cropped kimono in the 1998 video for Nothing Really Matters. The outfit has been a fashion statement in the West since the 17th century when Japan first exported them.
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