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In Carrie Fisher's one-woman show, “Wishful Drinking,” she mentions that George Lucas wouldn’t let her wear a bra with her white costume in Star Wars: A New Hope because there was “no underwear in space.”

Is this word-of-god canon, or have other Star Wars properties mentioned the existence of (let’s say human) characters (especially Leia) wearing underwear in the Star Wars universe, and Lucas was just being gross?

I’m most interested in Disney Canon -- now that Lucas's private comment to Fisher has become more well-know through Wishful Drinking's successes (on and off Broadway, as a book, and on film), has there been any underwear in the new canon?

Multiple commenters have noted instances of underwear throughout the Extended Universe/Legends canon, but the "Canon" portion of the Wookieepedia article about “Underwear” (yes, there is one) only seems to list one allusion to underwear (it’s tighty-whiteys) in the current canon (Heir to the Jedi, though they are only theoretical, not literal underwear) and another mention in a canon children’s book that also references a number of out-of-universe things.

To unpack the Heir to the Jedi underwear mention for a second: in Heir to the Jedi (the first entry into Disney Canon) apparently a character meeting Luke Skywalker for the first time says: "You hear about someone blowing up the Death Star... you think someone like that is all about duty and righteousness and wears super-tight underwear." While this suggests that the concept of underwear exists, it's vague whether "super-tight" is the telling detail (as it would be in our underwear-wearing culture) or if it's "wearing...underwear" that is the telling detail in the possibly-underwearless Star Wars universe...

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    This would explain why Obi Won only left his robe behind.
    – ibid
    Commented Dec 30, 2015 at 6:07
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    +1 just for writing a question about underwear of SFF and actually making it a sensible one!
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Dec 30, 2015 at 6:07
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    In the EU novels, there are literally dozens of examples of people wearing underwear. Too many to make into a sensible answer.
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 30, 2015 at 11:14
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    Having nearly finished Knights of the Old Republic video game, if you remove a characters clothing, they're left in underwear. There's also a cut scene of Bastila in just bra and panties.
    – Michael Itzoe
    Commented Dec 30, 2015 at 15:45
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    @Aith yeah George, uh huh..... Except every ship has perfect gravity simulators that never fail no matter how damaged the ship is.....
    – dunraven
    Commented Jan 1, 2016 at 1:37

2 Answers 2

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+250

I know it's hard to see, but this is a picture of Anakin after waking up from his bad dreams

anakin waking up WITH FREEHAND CIRCLE!!

You can see that he is wearing some kind of tight, black garment on his legs. This seems to be at least his sleepwear, and as it is definitely not his normal robe. This seems to be as close as we can find as to underwear in space, but I am still searching. I would say, though, that this does a good enough job of proving Lucas wrong.

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    I made one. Rollback to see it.
    – ibid
    Commented Apr 1, 2016 at 18:42
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    Ooh, this is great. But there's no way to know if he wears it under his robe or if he put them on just to go to bed, which would make them pajamas...
    – dunraven
    Commented Apr 4, 2016 at 0:47
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    after watching the movie again last night, they are indeed pajama pants
    – Skooba - Stands Against AI
    Commented Jan 11, 2017 at 19:57
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    @Skooba I'm sorry you had to do that
    – CHEESE
    Commented Jan 11, 2017 at 23:30
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    But Anakin is not out in space during that scene. He's on a planet. Now blast him off of Coruscant, and ...
    – RichS
    Commented Jan 28, 2020 at 4:22
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I know... this is a stretch...

It may depend on what you call "underwear" as we see in The Force Awakens; Finn has black undergarments beneath his trooper armor. Although it is full length, we here on Earth have "long underwear"...

finny mcfinerson

ALSO... I can't believe this was not mentioned in the comments at least... what do we consider this... a gold "bikini", but why would there be swimwear on a desert planet!!

solid gold baby

In Addition Luke is seen wearing some sort of undergarment resembling "tighty-whiteys" during his time in the bacta tank in ESB.

luke dunk tank

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    Slave Leia's outfit is clearly intended as outerwear to deal with Tatooine's excessive heat.
    – DCShannon
    Commented Mar 30, 2016 at 21:34
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    @DCShannon: Of course. It's strictly intended to be functional.
    – Ellesedil
    Commented Mar 30, 2016 at 21:44
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    If you have to ask this "why would their be swimwear on a desert planet" you will never make it as a Hutt.
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Apr 1, 2016 at 21:42
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    Finn is wearing cargo pants in this picture. Do you mean to tell me that in the future, women still don't have real pockets on anything and men get cargo pockets on their underwear?
    – MissMonicaE
    Commented Oct 27, 2016 at 16:24
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    @MissMonicaE Of course that isn't the insinuation. This is in the past, not the future.
    – Gorchestopher H
    Commented Jan 11, 2017 at 19:52

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