I find it interesting to study the various types and colours of clothing people choose to wear. I have read that the different colours a person chooses "represents" their personality in some way. That wearing red shows your confidence, wearing yellow shows you're comfortable with your beauty and looks, and wearing black represents your desire to hide in some way, and so on.

I'm sure we all choose the colours we wear for the day for a good reason. Perhaps it's to co-ordinate an outfit, or it's the only thing you had clean that day, or it just represents what you feel like wearing. Whatever the case may be, people do indeed take notice of the things we wear. And they can sometimes be an advertisement for our present mood or state of mind.

And I of course take notice of the clothes that our beloved characters in Star Wars don. But for this entry I wanted to focus on the similarity I see between Luke and Anakin, and the steps they each took in their lives.

In both A New Hope and The Phantom Menace we see Luke and Anakin in very light, almost fully white, outfits. Sure, it's to help keep one a little cooler in the Tatooine sun, but I also think it represents the innocence both characters held at that time in their lives. Anakin only knew good in his heart and lived to try and devise a way to get himself and his mother out of slavery and away from that planet. He didn't know evil at that point ... all he knew was to be a good kid, do as he's told and one day he would find a way to save his family and others he cared about from that tired life. His light coloured clothing showed his light-hearted nature and innocence.
And Luke wore similar garb as he toiled away on Tatooine as well. As I'm sure it was also to ward off the hot sun, his light coloured clothing still gave him the appearance of a "kid" who hadn't experienced much outside of his family farm and had no idea of the reality of the state of the galaxy. His innocent and good-hearted nature shone through as brightly as a sunny Tatooine day.

In The Empire Strikes Back and Attack of the Clones, both Luke and Anakin had taken a slightly darker look. Anakin was wearing darker brown robes with an even darker vest underneath. He was learning more of the galaxy and the turmoil it was in and was having confused thoughts about his own life. He had terrible dreams of his mother's fate and was falling in love with Padme when he knew it was wrong. He was going through an emotional turmoil much as the galaxy was in turmoil and his clothes were representative of his growing brooding nature. Now I know many of the Jedi wore brown robes, but his appeared to me to be darker ... and buried beneath was an even darker vest.
And again, Luke had taken a brown coloured jumper style suit in Empire. Gone was the white that represented his innocent nature. He had destroyed the Death Star and had jumped to hyperspace in his own life. He didn't look at the galaxy through the same wondering eyes ... he saw what was happening and his mood was darkening. And when he found out Vader was his father, his mood darkened even more. Which I will get to in the next segment.

Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith show a definite change in both characters. Anakin goes through much of the movie in a dark robe, with a black vest which thoroughly conveys his dark, brooding nature. He has nightmares about losing Padme, and has certain thoughts about the Jedi Council that lead him think and act the way he does. He has a general loathing for anything that will get in the way of saving what he holds close to his heart beneath the black vest. And of course he winds up in a completely black suit which is his life preserver ... a symbol of all the hatred gained, and the innocence lost.
And Luke enters the scene as a Jedi all decked out in black. Gone is the brown jumper to be replaced by a sleak, streamlined black outfit. But in his case, it doesn't look foreboding or evil like Anakin's does. He looks more determined and strong and ready to take on the galaxy's villains. He looks mature and able-minded to get his task completed and save the galaxy. His mood definitely darkened after learning the truth about Vader and that darkness within himself is shown in his clothing. Like Anakin, his innocence is gone. Gone is the white outfit that symbolized his naivete, to be replaced by a gritty and determined black outfit that showed his real power.

I think both Anakin and Luke grew up in a similar fashion. They both started off as innocent bystanders in the galaxy, both went through painful and revealing ordeals and both ended up becoming darker in personality as their lives went on. They each took different paths in the end, but the colours they chose to represent themselves very much show them as father and son.