When Princess Leia and Lando Calrissian needed to infiltrate Jabba”s palace in “Return of the Jedi,” they couldn”t just waltz right in. Not with those famous faces. But while Leia opted for full facial absurdity, Lando chose a really strange helmet design.
Over twenty years after Lando lost his hat (presumably to the Sarlaac Pit), costume designer Nilo Rodis-Jamero revealed to Star Wars Insider Magazine (SWIM) just where the inspiration came from…a baseball glove.
During his interview with SWIM, Rodis-Jamero recalled the Eureka moment:
“[…] Every Friday afternoon, we used to run off to the ranch and we would play baseball. I remember jokingly putting a baseball glove on engineer Wade Childress”s head, and that was the birth of Lando Calrissian”s disguise.”
Rodis-Jamero had Childress pose for a few Polaroids and quickly sketched the rest of the design straight onto the photograph. However, how the helmet went from what appears to be a veiled mask to to bony tusks is left unsaid.