A rare and relatively unknown piece of Star Wars memorabilia is going up for sale later this year in London: the sketchbooks from renowned costume designer John Mollo, who is responsible for the iconic looks from the first two Star Wars films, A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, including Princess Leia's draped white dress, Han Solo's cowboy aesthetic, and Darth Vader's black helmet.
The trove of his original drawings, notes, and character costume designs are being valued at around a total of $300,000, although the auction house where it's all taking place, Bonhams, expects bidding to be "very enthusiastic," according to Katherine Schofield, Bonhams' head of entertainment memorabilia.
George Lucas commissioned Mollo, a self-taught military historian who died in October 2017, to create the ensembles for Star Wars, for which Mollo won the Academy Award in the Best Costume Design category in 1978.
"The sketchbooks are so special, because they reveal the inner workings of the mind of of Britain’s greatest costume designer," Schofield says. "They show John Mollo’s sources of inspiration—from magazine adverts to military costumes to western films—as well as the inventiveness of his mind."
One of the sketchbooks, dated from April 1975 to July 1976, reveals some of Mollo's very first designs for the looks of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and the stormtroopers.
“Most of the crew thought that the film was a bit odd while we were making it,” Mollo told The Times of London in 2012, according to the The New York Times. “We doubted that it would ever be shown. And I remember someone asking me what I was doing and I said, ‘It’s sort of a space western and one of the heroes is a dustbin.’ ”
The sketchbook also served as Mollo’s "personal production and development diary, containing pages of costume budgets, production notes and meeting notes with... George Lucas," according to Bonhams.
The British auction house estimates this specific book to be worth £100,000 to £150,000.
According to The Verge, Mollo worked closely with set designer John Barry to nail the look that Lucas envisioned for Star Wars.
“For Darth Vader, we put on a black motorcycle suit, a Nazi helmet, a gas mask, and a monk’s cloak we found in the Middle Ages department,” Mollo recalled. “We did very little drawing; it was more of a practical make-do amend, because there was already an established style.”
The second book up for auction has an estimated worth of £80,000 to £120,000. It's dated 1978-1979 and contains designs from The Empire Strikes Back, released in 1980. It also features Mollo's work on Alien and Zulu Dawn.
Included with the book are invitations to the 1978 Academy Awards, where Mollo won an Oscar for A New Hope. He accepted the award on stage, flanked by actors dressed as storm troopers, Darth Vader, and Princess Leia.
“As you’ve seen, the costumes in Star Wars are really not so much costumes as a bit of plumbing and general automobile engineering,” Mollo said in his acceptance speech.
The designer and concept artist died last year at age 86. He penned several books on military uniforms, and worked as a consultant on films such as The Charge of the Light Brigade and Barry Lyndon.
“I met with him and he seemed very good,” Lucas recalled in The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film, according to The Verge. “I wanted somebody that really knew armour, somebody who was more into military hardware rather than somebody who knew how to design for the stage. I wanted designs that wouldn’t stand out, which would blend in and look like they belonged there.”
Mollo had a long and successful career in the film industry—and was recognised for his many accomplishments outside of Star Wars. His work on Richard Attenborough’s epic 1982 film, Gandhi, earned him his second Oscar.
The auction takes place 11 December.
Rose is a Senior Editor at ELLE overseeing features and projects about women's issues. She is an accomplished and compassionate storyteller and editor who excels in obtaining exclusive interviews and unearthing compelling features.
