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Every time I watch the 2nd family Guy Star Wars parody I keep forgetting to ask this but recently I saw it again.

Near the end at the point where Lando and Chewie break off from the Rebel Fleet Chewie (portrayed by Brian) breaks the Fourth Wall and points out in that scene Lando is wearing Han's clothing

Family Guy

and this is roughly the same scene in the actual movie showing that Seth MacFarlane was not just screwing with us

Episode V

now here's a comparison between what Han normally wears and what Lando wore when he was on Cloud City

I am wondering, why did Lando dress up in Han's clothes? It's an awful coincidence that he decided to have a change of clothes and happens to look like Han's. Has it got something to do with how he was piloting the Falcon or is there a production reason for this? Does the novel state than Lando was wearing Han's clothes (or acknowledge that he dressed in clothes similar to Han's)?

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    That must be the traditional cultural outerwear of a Correllian freighter pilot...
    – Chris B. Behrens
    Oct 7, 2014 at 3:25
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    Yeah, it's the wifebeater and trucker cap of the Kessel Run crowd.
    – mxyzplk
    Oct 7, 2014 at 3:34
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    Most Occamy explanation: He didn't have time to stop and pack while running around helping people against Vader and becoming a fugitive. And hey, Han wasn't exactly using his wardrobe (which would be on the Falcon) at that time, anyway. It's not like he could ask Leia or Chewie for a change.
    – Shisa
    Oct 7, 2014 at 4:35
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    @Shisa I like the notion that Han has a closet full of the same white shirt, black vest and pants somewhere on the Falcon. He seems like the type of person that would do something like that for practicality sake.
    – Monty129
    Oct 7, 2014 at 11:30
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    Why can't this be as simple as Han having some spare clothes on the ship, and Lando needing a change of clothes after leaving Bespin. It isn't like Lando had a chance to pack his suitcases after all.
    – Zoredache
    Oct 7, 2014 at 23:47

4 Answers 4

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From the New Orlean Comic Con in January 2011 (see below video)

Host: The real answer is that costume designer John Mollo decided to put him in the same clothes didn't mean anything as they [Harrison Ford and Billy Dee Williams] were actually sized differently.

The fan answer or the universe answer is it's actually part of the Corellien Core[/Corps?] group. If you look at Han Solo's pants he's got those red marks on them and stuff it's from the old army basically, so it's the same uniforms.

Billy Dee Williams: Yeah we're all in the army. I started as a Steve Wynn, owning Las Vegas, only to join the army to become a, I guess I was a General or something.

Host: I think we should start a new rumour that you left all your clothes on Cloud City because you had to get out of there so fast and Han had plenty of clothes on the Falcon. How's that work for everybody? That's my new answer.

Basically it's an old army uniform. It was never meant to mean anything significant.

Youtube video

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    The host's "real answer" doesn't make any sense grammatically. I don't understand what his point is.
    – user45623
    Jan 6, 2016 at 4:24
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    After listening to this a million times, I finally understand what he's saying: Mollo decided to put Lando in a costume and didn't mean anything by it; Harrison and Lando weren't even the same size, so it wasn't literally the same set of clothes, just a similar set.
    – user45623
    Jan 6, 2016 at 5:14
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    The first sentence doesn't seem to make logical sense (ignoring the grammatical problems with it). How is the part of the sentence that comes before the word "as" explained by the part of the sentence that comes after it?
    – Hack-R
    Sep 16, 2016 at 4:31
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    @Hack-R he's saying that as they were different sizes, it wasn't the actual clothes that Han wore. And the grammatical problems are because I transcribed it word for word, and he was thinking on the spot and rewording his answer mid sentence.
    – Moogle
    Sep 17, 2016 at 8:45
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    That's probably "Corellian Corps", not "Core", given the army connection.
    – anaximander
    Jul 7, 2017 at 8:38
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Lando left Cloud City with nothing but the clothes on his back. He was on the Falcon where Han presumably kept all his clothes. He borrowed Han's clothes since carbonite Han doesn't need them.

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This was addressed by Leland Chee in Star Wars Insider 131. Those are indeed Han's clothes.

Q. I re-watched The Empire Strikes Back after the Family Guy parody "Something, Something Dark Side" and it does look like Lando is wearing Han's clothes when he and Chewie leave the Rebel Fleet to find Han. Why is this? It's kind of... should I say, creepy?

Ask Lobot: Given the circumstances in which Leia, Lando, Chewie and the droids had to flee Cloud City, Lando didn't have a whole lot of time in which to pack. Given that Han and Leia never apparently found a change of clothes for who-knows-how-long traveling from Hoth to Bespin, it's quite clear that to the Rebel Alliance wardrobes are not a priority.

You also have to sympathize with Lando a bit here. Had the Rebels not decided to look him up on Bespin, the Empire never would have taken any notice of Lando's Cloud City mining operations. Knowing that Lando is going out on a limb to save Han from the clutches of one of the Galaxy's most vile crimelords, borrowing someone's clothes seemed pretty insignificant. Heck, he's already got Han's ship and co-pilot.

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Hard to say in the storyline. From the filmmaker's perspective though... the change of clothing is another visual cue that Lando has abandoned his commercial interests and is now one of the rebels.

Plus, Han's outfits just look cool. Lando's first outfit would look a bit fruity on the Millennium Falcon... I mean, this is Star Wars, there's no place for a caped crusader.

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    So only bad guys wear capes in Star Wars?
    – DCOPTimDowd
    Feb 27, 2018 at 20:02
  • Concerning capes on the Falcon, when Lando owned her he had a wardrobe on there stocked with capes, there is definitely a place for them on board - both literally and figuratively.
    – Ongo
    Feb 18, 2019 at 2:15

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