Star wars is not sci-fi, it is FANTASY. It's always been about cool planets and cool aliens and cool ships, Star Wars is very much about style. And I suppose you real chinese emperors and european nobles looked silly too. I think the OT costumes look silly, why would a princess wear a white sheet and a city administrator wear "dress down day" clothes with a cape? The OT costumes made no sense. The ornateness of the PT costumes re more realistic than the thrown together OT costumes.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/003-The_Imperial_Portrait_of_a_Chinese_Emperor_called_%22Xianfeng%22.JPG