R.I.P. Shawna Trpcic, costume designer for The Mandalorian and Firefly
An Emmy winner for her work on The Mandalorian, Trpcic created and updated looks for iconic characters like Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, and many more
Aux News Firefly
Shawna Trpcic has died. A prolific costume designer, Trpcic was most prominent in the realm of genre TV, where she provided the looks for ambitious space-set series like Firefly and recent Star Wars entries Ahsoka, The Mandalorian, and The Book Of Boba Fett. A recent Emmy winner for her work on The Mandalorian, Trpcic has received numerous tributes this weekend from the Star Wars community, with producer and director Jon Favreau writing in a post for the official Star Wars site that, “Her creativity brought this world to life.” Trpcic’s death was confirmed on Friday by the Costume Designer’s Guild. She was 56.
A California native, Trpcic worked, in the early portions of her career, in the costume department of films like What Lies Beneath and Barry Levinson’s Toys. But her primary arena, even early on, was television, including a long early stint as costume designer for Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Her first major burst of attention came in 2002, when she was hired as assistant to costume designer Jill Ohanneson for the pilot of Joss Whedon’s space Western Firefly; when Ohanneson was unable to sign on for the full series, she recommended Trpcic for the job. The result was some of the most memorable costumes in 2000s-era television, as Trpcic emphasized the show’s deliberate blending of Western and Eastern aesthetics to create the looks for each of the show’s characters—including doing design work on the iconic “Browncoats” that would help define the series’ identity for decades to come.
Firefly kicked off a long collaboration between Trpcic and Whedon; she would ultimately design costumes for several of his TV shows (including the last two seasons of Angel, and all of Dollhouse), as well as films The Cabin In The Woods and Much Ado About Nothing. She also continued to spread out into other major sci-fi projects, including serving as designer on Torchwood miniseries Miracle Day, and short-lived superhero series Powers.
A life-long Star Wars fan, Trpcic joined The Mandalorian in its second season, working to flesh out the look of its faux-Western take on the Star Wars universe. Writing about her today, series writer and producer Dave Filoni said that,
Shawna had a deep love and appreciation for Star Wars. You can see that in every piece of work she did with us. She loved everything about being a part of these stories, including connecting with fans and being a part of that community. I feel like she has always been a part of Star Wars. Her costumes tell a story, providing the suggestion of a life experience that happened before the cameras rolled. I loved collaborating with Shawna, and I will miss her presence.
Trpcic quickly became the go-to costume designer for Disney+’s Star Wars series, having come back to work on The Book Of Boba Fett—where she did updates and re-designs for the title character’s iconic armor—and the recent Ahsoka, building on her work on the character’s first live-action appearance in Mandalorian. She was also a regular at the Star Wars Celebration conventions, where she would often take the time to serve as a judge for the official cosplay contests.
Per Variety, Trpcic is survived by her two children. A GoFundMe has been set up to support them in the aftermath of her death.
14 Comments
What an absolute shame. Say what you will about the Star Wars shows, the costume design has been wonderful and obviously designed by somebody who loved the property. There is some more info about her on her family’s Gofundme page. RIPhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/shawna-trpcic?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer
So she’s the one who saved Whedon a ton of money by making the Alliance armour out of spare “Starship Troopers” gear? And more importantly, gave River’s dresses juuuust the right amount of floatiness to subtly suggest crazy? She did good work, and will be missed.
She also altered her own wedding dress for the episode “Shindig” (which she talks about in the commentary, which I highly recommend).
If I remember correctly, that audio commentary features solely women from the cast and crew, and not to make too big a thing of it, but they all sounded a lot more relaxed and comfortable than some similar commentary tracks I’ve heard with both men and women.
RIP to a true talent
As with any young(ish) death, this is very tragic, but… why is it a fundraising opportunity, and why is that information being boosted here with zero critical examination? Given Trpcic’s age, her “children” are presumably adults, and with her high-profile career, it’s hard to imagine they won’t be inheriting more than enough to bury her and settle her accounts.It’s also very telling that the description is the extremely vague, “for any unexpected costs.” Even the fundraiser admits there’s nothing that needs paying for. Somebody is just asking for $30K+ for no reason other than crass opportunism. Particularly given that they’re begging for money from fans who almost certainly make much less money than Trpcic did, the whole thing leaves a really bad taste in my mouth, and I’m disappointed that a “journalist” didn’t think of any of this.
She had vowel-deficiency in her name.
Why would you make a comment like this?
And you have a couth deficiency in your discriminator circuit.
It was her idea to make the coats brown.But seriously, I loved her work and costuming will be poorer for her absence.
You tend not to think about it, but what she and coworkers do is incredibly important. And as a fan of those shows, I’d say she was very good at it.
Costuming is a huge part of what can make film and TV work. I honestly think that the biggest boon to the Golden Age of superhero media (pretty much from Spider-Man onwards) was creating costumes that didn’t look like shit. The digital effects could be sub-par, the writing could be cheesy, but as long as the costumes were cool, it did a lot to sell the realism.
Wasn’t pleased with the Boba Fett update but Ahsoka costumes were spectacular.56 is way, way too young. RIP.
I really feel like a huge ass for saying this but…man, I am already burdened by the tragedy of life and the world and…I don’t need to know about some costume designer dying I’m sorry, but this isn’t a news. At all.