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
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.