Today is May 25th here in New Zealand, a well known date in history for Star Wars fans – the US release date for the very first Star Wars film in 1977. I wanted to choose something special to review today, something to fit in with the theme, and of course I couldn’t go past the Love And Madness x Star Wars crawl wrap bracelet. Featuring the opening ‘crawl’ text from ‘A New Hope’, this bracelet is a wonderful celebration of the classic opening to the first Star Wars film, and the perfect feature item for May 25th.
This is the original version of the Love And Madness x Star Wars opening crawl bracelet – black leather with yellow-gold plated panels, featuring the opening crawl text from A New Hope. This version is a limited edition item – it is currently still available direct from Love And Madness, priced at US$50.00 each (they only ship within the US and UK). Two different colour variations (charcoal/silver, and blush/rose) are also available to pre-order – these both feature the ANH text. Alternatively, if you do not buy leather products, Gamestop stores in the US stock a pleather version of the yellow-gold/black ANH bracelet, priced at US$29.99 each.
The bracelet came packaged in a clear plastic bag, inside a black satin drawstring bag. The black bag features the Star Wars and Love And Madness logos printed in silver on both sides of the bag – a lovely presentation if giving this item as a gift.
The Star Wars crawl wrap bracelet is made from a strip of black leather, with yellow-gold plated metal panels riveted on. Love And Madness spent 6 months developing this design, to fit the full text on a bracelet that can accommodate a variety of sizes. The bracelet text includes the opening phrase “In a galaxy far, far away….”, and the following three scrolling paragraphs of text, setting the scene for the film. The text is recessed in a ‘stamped’ style, and highlighted with a black antiquing effect.
There are 38 metal panels in total, featuring 1 to 4 words each from the entire opening crawl text. Each metal panel is attached to the leather with two gold-tone rivets (one at each end of the panel), so they are nice and secure. Each metal panel has a curve to it, so they sit nicely when wearing the bracelet in circular loops around your wrist. The leather measures approximately 7mm high, and approximately 93cm long – just over 3 feet! This is measured flat – the curve of each metal plate means the leather can’t lie fully flat, so it is just a little longer when worn.
The metal panels are approximately 6mm high – they look a little smaller in person than what I was expecting. They are shown clearly in the promotional photos from Love And Madness, and I knew the text would have to be small to fit the entire opening crawl text, so it shouldn’t be surprising – but that’s always part of the fun when finally seeing something in person. I love the size of the text – I can read it clearly on my wrist while wearing the bracelet – but it’s small enough that others have to look quite close to read it. That’s one of the great aspects of this bracelet, it is a very subtle Star Wars jewelry item – it doesn’t actually say Star Wars on it anywhere! You have to read a section of text to find a recognizable Star Wars reference, such as ‘Princess Leia’ or ‘the DEATH STAR’ – meaning you can sneak a little Star Wars fashion in your wardrobe, without it being too noticeable.
Interestingly, the fastening method for this bracelet was not shown in preview photos from Love And Madness – it uses a small gold-tone buckle, with three holes in the opposite end. Fastening a small buckle on your own wrist is a little tricky, but it can be done – though I prefer to have a little help, to avoid pulling the strap back too hard and causing wear to the leather. For me, it is easier to simply secure the buckled end over the top of the wrapped segments, but it is possible to tuck the buckle and end strap underneath, then secure, so the buckle is hidden when worn. The underside of the buckle end of the strap has ‘2016 (c) LFL’ printed in gold, while the underside of the notch end has the Love And Madness logo printed in gold.
I can wear this wrapped around my wrist 5 times – that is, I have 5 strips across the top of my wrist, with the two ends overlapping underneath. I was perhaps expecting 1 or 2 more buckle notches, as 3 doesn’t seem quite adjustable enough for a wide range of sizes – though you can certainly add an extra notch with a leather hole punch if desired.
Very early versions had a small spelling error – the word ‘ultimate’ was incorrectly spelt as ‘ulitmate’. This was fixed for later versions, such that all recent releases feature the correct spelling.
While photographing this bracelet, I noticed it has a slight chameleon nature – the gold panels give a look of stacked bracelets while against a white background, while its leather cuff design stood out more against a black background. It really is a little of both, giving this bracelet a huge range of styling options – slender stacked bangles, or chunky leather cuff, depending on the outfit you pair it with. It has a fantastic blend of strong style aesthetic with versatility – it can fit in anyone’s accessory collection.
While most of my jewelry collection is silver-toned (including my wedding band), sometimes you just have to go with gold. Even though I knew prior to ordering this bracelet that other colour variations were coming soon, I just love the way this version photographs – the strong contrast of the glossy yellow-gold against the black. And of course, in the films themselves, the opening crawl text is yellow against a starry black sky, so yellow-gold panels and black leather are a perfect pairing for this theme.
I am of course very keen to see more photos of the upcoming colour variations – the silver-tone panels of the charcoal/black version appear to have a more matte finish, compared to the gloss of this yellow-gold version. I don’t own much rose-gold jewelry at all, but I find myself particularly drawn to the blush/rose version, as it has a more feminine style, in contrast to the black leather of the other two.
Love And Madness plan to release future versions featuring the opening crawls to the other Star Wars films, which is excellent news. It is still quite rare to find Star Wars jewelry with a prequel theme, so I’m particularly looking forward to the bracelets featuring the opening crawl text from those three films!
Whether you excitedly read the opening crawl every time you watch a Star Wars film, or glaze over having memorized the words from countless viewings, it’s great to finally have a jewelry item celebrate the opening crawl text. These words literally started it all, back in 1977, and continue to introduce the setting for each episode in the saga so far.
