by Larry Mager

(Larry Mager was an indefatigable student of the Colonial uniforms and made some exceptionally accurate ones that were approved of by no less an authority than Richard Hatch and won prizes at conventions. Larry shared his research, gathered in interviews with people who had worked on the costumes including designer Jean-Pierre Dorleac, and at least one visit to the Universal Studios costume department, and his suggestions for fans wanting to make their own uniforms with the readers of ANOMALY in several articles, and I’ve edited his three articles into one here. I seriously doubt that there is anyone outside of the Universal Studios costume department who knew more about the Galactica uniforms, and I’m pleased to be able to reprint Larry’s findings)

The grand opening horns signaled the beginning of the first episode of the new television space series and the thought went through my head, Hey, will you check out those Egyptianesque uniforms? Such was the beginning of my interest in the uniforms of the Colonial warriors and it was an interest that, in my search for absolute authenticity, would take me not only through literally thousands of photos, but to the primary source of those uniforms, the designer himself as well as the costume department of Universal Studios.
Being a Masters student of history, the first area of research one is taught to look at is primary sources. In my particular case, the primary sources were not only the photos but the actual costumes and the designer as well. The result of my searches was not only a dead-on accurate costume but a plethora of uniform trivia that is little known to most BG fans, material I felt was too interesting to keep to myself.
I had made a few Colonial uniforms whilst the series was first being telecast, using available photos, and the product had not been acceptable to me so I gave up for awhile. Oddly, however, it was during another search for information, on the Colonial blaster pistols, that I made contact with not only a source within the Universal costume department but also the ultimate primary source, the designer of the uniforms.
The original uniforms were not made, as many fans seem to think, of velour. Those made later in the series as well as those made for Galactica 1980 were, however, made from a heavy velour similar to robe-weight velour that is available at most large fabric stores. The original uniforms were made of a stiff, uncomfortable, expensive synthetic material called Ultrasuede. The color of the pilots’ uniforms was not light brown, as is often seen on fan uniforms, but rather a very light tan which, unless lit by a warm filter over the studio lights, tended to wash out under the harsh studio lighting. The tunics originally opened down the left side-front, but since the opening capability was seen only in the premiere, it was later decided that a zipper down the back would suffice for many tunics since the back was usually hidden either by the flight jacket or the dress cape, and always by the actors’ long hair. By putting a zipper down the back, the tunic was made easier, hence cheaper in man-hours, to sew. For a fan uniform, either way is acceptable. A side note for fellow authenticity freaks; Ultrasuede still costs approximately $50 a yard and most large fabric stores carry a very nice lightweight suede called doe-suede for approximately $8.00 a yard. For those who want an easy way to match the tunic color, I suggest the photograph of Maren Jensen that is printed in the BG Scrapbook on page 83, lower right corner. This photograph, taken in natural light, shows the actual color of both the Ultrasuede and the velour.
The dress uniforms of the Colonials are based on a neo-Greco/Roman style. For the combat crew, the standard dress uniform cape is slightly longer than hip length. For formal dress (i.e. the dress blue uniform seen only on Richard Hatch in Lost Planet) it is nearly calf length. The Commander’s cape is also calf length, but of a less full cut. The warrior’s dress cape is made of the same material as the jackets and is also the same color, lined with a material of a darker color. The Commander’s cape was lined with expensive white silk. Both the warrior’s and the Commander’s capes are outlined on the outer edges with a triple row of braid; two rows of checkerboards, one on either side of a solid stripe of braid. The braid colors were black and gold for the warrior uniforms, silver and black for the blue uniforms. I was informed by my sources that in the case of the main stars an interesting effect was attempted; look closely at the dress cape in closeups and you will notice that the two rows of checkerboards are mirror imaged. Due to vagaries in the cloth and braid, this effect did not always work. The same effect was done with better success on the sleeves of the tunics. The dress capes were attached to the tunics by hooks on the upper inside corners of the cape that hooked into small bar eyes sewn into the seam of the pentagon-shaped center neck piece of the collar insert. This leads to a question as to whether there were different combat and dress uniform tunics. My sources have told me that only combat tunics are left at Universal (this was almost 15 years ago and I suspect none remain there now - SJP) and that they did have a slightly shortened tail as compared to the dress tunics and obviously did not have the bar eyes for the capes. Some combat tunics may have had a crutch strap to hold them into the pants; such a strap was designed but not implemented in all the tunics. According to an interview with Anne Lockhart, she stated that there was a crutch strap on her tunic that was held in place with press studs.
The flight jackets were made of a dark brown shade of Ultrasuede, or, for later uniforms, velour, with chocolate brown real leather suede used for the epaulets. Interestingly, there was a field jacket made for Terry Carter which was identical in cut and style to the warriors’ jacket. The main differences were that it was in the same dark blue as the command uniform, with black epaulets. The piping around the epaulets was done in silver as was the piping around the collar. The jacket clasps were silver. The reason given for not using it was that Colonel Tigh never went to a planet’s surface and so never needed to wear it. Supposedly Adama had one as well, but if it was even made, my sources have not said.
The pants as actually used on BG were somewhat unusual in several respects. The pants were made of the same fabric as the tunics and jackets and like them were fully lined, although in this case the lining was done for the sake of comfort as well as durability. The pants were full length, front-fly carrier waistbanded, that is, the waistband had belt loops built in, as, quite frankly, most pants and jeans do. The pants did not have pockets of any kind, but to have had pockets would have spoiled the lines of the pants according to the designer. The cuffs of the pants were of interest as there were four strings that came out of the hem-cuff which, I was told, were designed to be pulled tight to snug the cuff around the ankle and wrapped around the sole and instep of the foot to keep the pants down when the various boots were worn (a feature very visible in the premiere when Colonel Tigh is stealing warrior uniforms). This proved to be uncomfortable and unwieldy so a strip of 1 1/4 inch wide elastic tape was simply stitched on the legs at the inner and outer seam, leaving the strings intact. As one who has made and tried the two styles of fastening the pants down, this writer’s suggestion would be to use the elastic as it is much more comfortable.
There is a minor dispute among BG fans as to whether Cain’s pants were of standard design. In some shots in The Living Legend, it appears Cain’s pants were made of corduroy with back pockets. My sources at Universal found that the pants stored with Cain’s uniform were of the standard design except that they were made of a brown color. My sources did hint that they couldn’t rule out the possibility that in perhaps one or two shots of the episode, Cain actually did wear a pair of corduroy, back-pocketed pants as one of the persons working there did seem to recall that for one day’s work Lloyd Bridges had to wear a pair of pants that were not designed for his uniform. You figure out why my sources seemed strangely reticent to discuss it further; suffice it to say that the pants stored with Cain’s jacket seem to have been repaired in the rear seam area!
The next area to cover are the combat and dress uniform boots. The combat boot were a brand of boot worn by motocross riders made by Sidi Boot in Italy in 1978-79 and known as the Enduro Full Bore Trophy Series. There was also a copycat boot made in the US known as the US Grand Prix boot made at the same time as the Full Bore. Original boots of these types are very difficult to find today. The Full Bore boots used on BG were painted with shoe paint to appear a dark brown (more information on the Sidi Full Bore boots used on the BG series can be found here). The dress boots were custom made to fit the actors’ feet. Little is remembered about how or when this was done, at least by my sources. However, the boots were made in two colors, a blue black for the command crew and formal full dress, and a medium brown for the standard full dress.
There were also dress gloves made for all of the main cast. They can be seen on background extras in Living Legend (Cain’s escort) and Take the Celestra. They were almost elbow length with a slightly flared gauntlet. About 1 inch in from the end of the cuff, a row of checkered braid was sewn around the gauntlet and below that a 2 inch diameter version of the sleeve patch was sewn on. These gloves were black for use with the blue uniform and the dark brown of the cape for the warrior uniforms.
Perhaps the easiest way to continue from this point is to follow a Q & A format for the rest of the article, so here we go!

Q. How many uniforms were made by Universal, how many are left, and what did they cost to make?

A. The answer to the first question is not known. There are, at the time of writing (1988) about six uniforms left, four male, two female; one of the female and two of the male uniforms are velour. An off-the-cuff figure given me for the cost of the lead actors’ uniforms was in the range of $1000 in 1978.

Q. What material were the dark blue command uniforms made of, and did they open down the side, as no zippers are visible?

A. The command uniforms were made of dark blue Ultrasuede. According to my sources, only Adama’s, Tigh’s, and Omega’s tunics opened completely down the side with Velcro; the background extras had Velcro just down the shoulder seam and were pulled over the head.

Q. Were the Life Officer and Medtech uniforms made of Ultrasuede also?

A. Yes.

Q. What material were the white uniforms seen in War of the Gods and Experiment in Terra made of?

A. The tunic and pants were Ultrasuede, the jackets were made of velour, although at least one was made of Ultrasuede, according to my sources.

Q. Athena and Sheba seem to have been the only female warriors with the motocross boots; the others had tight, calf-high boots. Why?

A. The motocross boots were not readily available in smaller sizes since there were not many females in motocross racing at the time.

Q. What brand of watch did the warriors wear?

A. That’s a tough question as my sources, after ten years, can only recall that it was an early version of an LED calculator watch made by Bulova and cost in 1978 around $200. Bulova have not produced the exact Colonial type watch for many years, as LED watches fell out of favor with the public.

Q. Why did Apollo wear a blue uniform for his wedding?

A. The blue uniform was his formal full dress uniform as worn by officers of the rank of captain and above. Like all services, there exists a series of uniforms running as follows; fatigues (combat uniform), service undress (see the next question), service full dress, and formal full dress.

Q. Were there any service undress uniforms?

A. Yes, according to the designer, but only post facto. It seems that after the BG Scrapbook was published, the photo of Dirk Benedict taken during a costume test, showing an unbraided cape, no necklace, and combat boots, made the designer reconsider that perhaps this would be a suitable undress uniform.

Q. Why, in the premiere, is Starbuck supposed to recognize the impostors based solely on their insignia, when all the insignia look alike?

A. Because originally each squadron was distinguished by the colors of their patches and the color insert in the collar pins. Under testing, though, the red battle stations lights turned the Red Squadron insignia (the only other squadron supposed to be seen) totally black. The Red Squadron patch was a red background with black border and triangles, and a few were actually made. A great idea, but unfortunately unworkable.

Q. Did each ship have its own insignia?

A. Yes. The only time this was seen, however, was in Living Legend. The designer had thumbnail sketches drawn up for each battlestar in the fleet. Each ship had its own helmet ornament, sleeve patch, and collar pin design. The collar pins are standard military pins; that for the Galactica is the Army Military Intelligence pin, worn upside-down compared to standard military usage. The gold pins worn with the warrior uniforms had the petal inserts painted dark blue; the standard military color is black. The silver pins worn on the blue uniforms were plated and had black inserts. The Pegasus pin is the Command Ashore Project Manager pin from the Navy.

Q. How far down the front of the tunic did the quilting extend?

A. On the males, the padded part of the quilting extended approximately to the nipple line while on the women it extended to the bottom of the breasts. The unpadded quilted area extended down to, but not below, the waistline, and the flap below the waist was unpadded and unquilted. The five part front and four part back neck inserts was also padded, at least in the early uniforms; some of the later ones were only padded on the front of the neck insert. The collar insert was fairly much the same size on all uniforms; the area that changed was the quilted front up to the shoulders. Comparison on Athena’s tunic and Starbuck’s show that the neck area is the same size, but the width of Athena’s quilted overlay is narrower along the shoulder line (compare the earlier mentioned photo of Athena to the Starbuck/Apollo photo on page 13 of the BG Scrapbook for a good look at this).

Q. Where were the pockets in the jackets?

A. On the inside lining only, one per side. The outside detail was merely three different sizes of cording sewn on for detail.

click to see some photographs of the Colonial uniforms illustrating Larry’s points.

(A good source on the web to see more photographs of genuine BG costumes is Chris Pappas’s page: he has several different tunics in tan and blue (one of which is a dress uniform tunic and shows the bar eyes for the cape perfectly), a flight jacket, a dress uniform cape, a G suit, a pair of dress uniform gloves, boots, a medical crew tunic, and other costumes. He has really a wonderful collection of authentic uniform items. This will take you directly to his uniforms page: Battlestar Galactica Original Costume and Prop Museum - Costumes)

�1988, 1991 Larry Mager
Originally published in somewhat different form in ANOMALY 15, 16, and 17

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