#otomok

For @starwarscultureweek​ 2022: Day 1: Fashion

In the comic Age of Resistance - Rose Tico (2019), we meet young Paige and Rose, their parents Hue and Thanya and get a glimpse into life on Hays Minor, a planet described as having almost no atmosphere, too cold to support native wildlife and so far from its sun that its people lived in perpetual twilight.

Paige is the narrator of the comic and she describes Hays Minor as “a mining planet, known more for its ore than its people”. So it makes sense that the clothes we see the Tico family wear are pretty simple and practical. They reminded me of áo bà ba, a traditional southern Vietnamese garment — “typically a long-sleeved, button-down silk shirt with a scooped neck paired with silk pants. The shirt is long and split at the waist sides, forming two flaps customarily with two pockets.” (Wikipedia)

It’s a versatile garment traditionally worn by working people in Vietnam’s countryside. So it’s perfect for Hays Minor’s mining community too. The shirt and pants are typically made with solid colour fabrics and don’t have to be the same colour. Modern áo bà ba designs now include patterns and embroidery.

For indoors, we see the Ticos wear more colours and more lightweight clothing. For the cold outdoors, they wear longer, thicker clothing and more earth tones. The shape of the tunics Thanya, Paige and Rose are wearing in these panels below look a lot like the shape of the áo dài, the Vietnamese national garment, especially the split and wearing the tunic over pants.

The neckline, bodice and waistline of Thanya’s two-tone tunic is especially interesting to me as a Malaysian. The V slit in the neckline and the shape of the bodice remind me of some styles of Baju Kurung. And the drape of the waistline combined with the skirt in a different colour — making the tunic look like a two-piece — reminds me of some styles of Baju Kebaya.

Pictured here are Baju Kurung Kedah, Nyonya Kebaya and Kebaya Kurung.

I headcanon that Hays Minor folk have different sets of these clothes for everyday wear, for work, for home and for special occasions, like New Year and weddings.

Hays Minor is dark, icy cold, has almost no atmosphere and has no native wildlife. In the Cobalt Squadron book, we learn that all food had to be grown under artificial light. So I imagine there are very few resources to make clothes from scratch. I imagine their clothes or at least the textiles to make clothes would have to come from other planets in the Otomok system closer to the sun.

And since Hays Minor has no native people, everyone on Hays Minor are diaspora! I imagine most Hays Minor folk come from other planets in the Otomok system, but there are some folk from other nearby systems in the Outer Rim too. And maybe from even further, considering Haysian ore seems to be a highly sought after conductor. (The book mentions Haysian jewellery too.) And all this adds to the diversity of textiles and clothing on Hays Minor.

Feel free to add your thoughts to this post! Let’s talk Southeast Asian culture in space!