Ashley Eckstein: Her Universe Interview

Star Wars: The Clone Wars star Ashley Eckstein is doing her part to build a better universe. With Her Universe, her fashion and lifestyle brand for fangirls, the Ahsoka actor aims to make fandom a better place for everyone. Founded in 2010, Her Universe caters to women and girls with the hope of emboldening them. The fashion line, which recently expanded with a collection for men called Our Universe, boasts licenses to popular properties like Doctor Who, DC, Disney, Marvel and -- of course -- Star Wars.

At New York Comic Con, Eckstein spoke with CBR about Her Universe's mission and growth. She discussed her goal of building a community around fandom and fashion, how her annual Comic-Con International in San Diego fashion show empowers fans and her favorite projects. She also teased what's next for the brand, Her Universe's upcoming gaming lines and more.

CBR: How would you explain Her Universe to someone who has never heard of it before?

Eckstein: So Her Universe is a fashion and lifestyle brand for fangirls, and we've also started to make some men's fashion called Our Universe as well, but -- when I founded the company back in 2010 -- there was pretty much nothing for fangirls. At the time, 45% of all sci-fi and fantasy fans were women and girls and 85% of all consumer purchases were being made by women and I thought, "These numbers aren't adding up." Like, "If you make us something, we will buy it."

I also found out that women and girls were being bullied and being bullied terribly for just liking this world. You know, we're here at New York Comic Con and you see so many women on the floor, but in the past, women and girls didn't feel comfortable -- not all of them felt comfortable to step into the spotlight and say, "Hi, I'm a girl and I like Star Wars." So many women and girls were kind of hiding their fandom, and so I wanted to create Her Universe so fangirls could be themselves and step into the spotlight and proudly say, "Hi, I'm a girl and I like Star Wars."

You know, we've come so far. Now the Wonder Woman movie is one of the greatest films of all time. The lead of the new Star Wars franchise is a girl. It's hard to believe, but just back in 2010, that wasn't the case! So Her Universe caters to all fangirls and we make Star Wars merchandise, Marvel, Doctor Who -- I'm wearing the new Doctor's costume -- DC, lots of Disney. We do all sorts of things. It's fashion: dresses, coats, tops, skirts. All of the above!

How did Our Universe develop?

My mission from day one was to not say that this world is just for girls. I was trying to debunk the stereotype that it wasn't just for men and boys, but my mission was to say that this world is for everyone. These stories are for everyone. Star Wars, to me, is a story of hope. It's a story of good overcoming evil and you can't put a gender on that. So, by making Our Universe, I wanted to make pieces that I knew that men weren't getting. So, for example, I just released a Star Wars: The Clone Wars fashion collection. There's not a really cool Captain Rex jacket out there or an Anakin Skywalker hoodie, and so I wanted to cater to everyone, to all fans, and -- if there's another company that's not doing it -- well, why shouldn't I cater to men and women? So both genders can enjoy these properties together.

Every year at San Diego Comic Con, you host a fan-driven fashion show. What can you tell us about that process and what it means to you?

So going back to Her Universe being a lifestyle and fashion brand… To me, Her Universe is two parts: it's a merchandise line, but more importantly, it's a community and a lifestyle. My mission for Her Universe from day one is that it would be community-based and fans would feel comfortable to be a part of the community and live a fandom lifestyle.

I also wanted to provide opportunity in that community, so whether it be in fashion design or writing or in the business, it's my passion to provide a platform and provide opportunity. So the fashion show is just that. It's kind of like Project Runway meets geek fashion and it's a competition show and every year we pick 25 designers and those designers get to design a geek couture piece, an original geek couture piece, one of a kind, and they get to show it off at the fashion show and we pick three winners and those three winners get to design a Her Universe collection to be sold at HotTopic and it's an actual professional experience. They get paid. They get a royalty for all the pieces sold. They really get to learn the ropes of fashion design. So that's my passion, and to see that it's five years strong and that so many designers are now professional designers because of the fashion show or they've even changed careers -- they were in a different career, and they've switched to fashion because of the fashion show and, again, that's surreal. That makes me so happy, because that was the mission.

Next Page: Her Universe Gets Into Gaming & More

Can you tease any upcoming Her Universe projects?

You know, I think this year was really exciting because I had the opportunity to write my first book. I wrote a book for Disney called It's Your Universe: You Have the Power to Make It Happen and it's part autobiography but, more importantly, it's part advice book on how to make your dreams come true. It's a step-by-step guide on how to dream it and do it. It was such an incredible experience. I got to work with Disney on the book and go on a nationwide book tour and hopefully this is just the start for more books. I would love to continue to write more, but I'd also love to provide opportunity to authors to write more, so it's a passion of mine. I've been trying to do it for a while and so hopefully more books are in our future.

Aside from Star Wars, which license were you the most excited to work with?

Well, because I'm such a massive Disney fan, any Disney property I geek out over. So we do have actually two pretty major Disney collections coming soon, before the end of the year, so stay tuned for those. But I would have to say Wonder Woman. I loved getting to design for Wonder Woman and I got to design an active wear collection for it as well as a fashion collection with our fashion show winners and we really got to dive deep into designing all aspects for Wonder Woman, so that was really cool. That was a "pinch me" moment.

Can we expect any new licenses coming up?

Actually, yes! You can. We just released our first gaming collection. So we released a Tomb Raider collection pretty recently. That's currently on our website, but we have two more gaming collections coming soon, so I can't say what they are just yet, but I'm excited to venture more into gaming because the only reason I haven't done it more so until now is I've had a pretty strict rule that I won't design for a property unless I'm a fan of it, because I feel that the designs need to come from a fan's perspective. For gaming, I've known that gamer girls are greatly underserved, but I didn't feel that I could do the lines justice. Well, now we have a lot of gamer girls on our team and we were very excited to kind of dive into gaming, so expect more gaming designs coming soon.

What can you tell me about the development process behind your Doctor Who outfit?

First of all, I was so excited to see Jodi Whittaker as the Doctor. I've become a huge fan of hers and, you know, she appeared at our fashion show and actually walked the runway in this coat! The actual coat that I'm wearing was the coat that she wore! So I am keeping this coat. This is like my personal favorite new piece. This is her costume.

So we're not a costume licensee; we're a fashion licensee, but -- because her costume is fashion -- we tried to be as exact as possible. So we took some liberties for fit, like we added a little TARDIS embroidery on the waistband and we added a sonic screwdriver pocket on the inside, but we tried to make it as true to her costume as possible, so you could cosplay and be in style at the same time. Let me tell you what: it's the pants, the top, the jacket and they are so comfortable. I've been wearing it all over this city today and I do not want to take it off. I literally want to live in this coat now.