Exclusive: The 'Yoda Dress' From The Oscars, Explained

We recently showed off photos of journalist Willow Bay at the Oscars, wearing a dress with Star Wars character Yoda printed on it. It was pretty sweet.

In case you missed it: Willow Bay is the wife of Disney CEO Bob Iger, and currently serves as Director at USC's Annenberg School of Journalism. There was nothing in her past (at least, on the record) to suggest a hardcore Star Wars fandom, so naturally we couldn't help wondering what the story was behind the dress.

We reached out to Ms. Bay by email, who was gracious enough to explain where the dress came from and why she wore it. According to Bay, the dress is from designer label Rodarte, and is just one of a series of dresses from the designer with scenes printed on them from the original Star Wars trilogy.

She had very little information about how or why Rodarte created this line of dresses, commenting only that, "They went into the [Lucasfilm] archives and selected the images" that they wanted to use.

As for why Bay chose one of Rodarte's Star Wars dresses, the answer was simple.

"I fell in love with them, and Yoda in particular," she explained. "What I find so fascinating is how the image appears in photographs. Yoda is crystal clear, wise and strong, even draped along the column of a dress."

She's not wrong. There are a number of press photos circulating the Internet of Ms. Bay at the Oscars, and in every one, you can see Yoda quite clearly.

So there you are. But you may still be thinking, Why Star Wars, at all? Why wear Yoda to Hollywood's biggest night? It sounds like Ms. Bay was looking to bring a little whimsy to the über-formal event.

"With all the anticipation of the new Star Wars release later this year," she said, referring to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, due in December, "I thought an homage to the original movie and Yoda on the Academy Awards red carpet might be fun."

(Incidentally, we have attempted to contact the Mulleavy sisters — the designers behind the Rodarte brand — to find out more about how and why the dresses were made. Should they respond with details, we'll bring them to you.) After a little digging, we turned up some Instagram pictures that show off the rest of Rodarte's Star Wars collection. Heres's C-3PO and R2-D2.

Turns out, Willow Bay was not the first celebrity to wear one of Rodarte's Star Wars dresses on the red carpet. Here's Kirsten Dunst at the Met Gala late last year wearing a surprisingly chic Death Star.

A closeup of Yoda and Luke Skywalker.

And here are all five dresses, at what appears to be the runway event where they were unveiled.

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