Princess Leia’s Metal ‘Jedi’ Bikini Headed to Auction
Princess Leia’s infamously impractical golden bikini, worn while Jabba the Hutt enslaved the princess at the beginning of Return of the Jedi, is one of over 50 Star Wars lots set to sell at an upcoming auction hosted by Profiles in History.
The costume, designed by Richard Miller, is expected to fetch between $80,000 to $120,000, and is billed as part of “the most important and complete compilation of original Star Wars pieces to have survived production in private hands.” The wares included in the lot were used on set, though the costume seen in the movie was a resized version made to account for actress Carrie Fisher’s weight loss while shooting.
The lot also includes various alternate iterations of the costume nixed by George Lucas, as well as several design and paint studies, and a letter of authentication signed by Miller. “It’s every schoolboy’s fantasy but it’s also a very signature, iconic piece,” Brian Chanes, consignment manager at Profiles in History, told The New York Post.
Fisher offered a similar, though more critical, interpretation of Leia and the costume during a 1983 interview with Rolling Stone: “The only way they knew to make the character strong was to make her angry,” she said. “In Return of the Jedi, she gets to be more feminine, more supportive, more affectionate. But let’s not forget that these movies are basically boys’ fantasies. So the other way they made her more female in this one was to have her take off her clothes.”
Profiles in History is also offering other unique Star Wars pieces including original posters, script pages and cameras used to film the movies. Other props featured include a prototype Darth Vader helmet ($30,000 to $50,000), a Rebel Fleet trooper tunic ($25,000 to $35,000) and helmet ($150,000 to $250,000) featured in the film and the original miniature Rebel Blockade Runner — the first space craft seen in the series — which is expected to garner between $200,000 and $300,000.
“It’s exceedingly difficult to find anything of this nature from the original trilogy,” Chanes said. “These are actually from production. That’s what created history and mythology of Star Wars and that’s why it’s so important.”
The Star Wars lots are a fraction of the upcoming auction, which also includes props and memorabilia from Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Back to the Future, The Terminator and Jurassic Park. The entire catalog is available to peruse online. The auction will take place between September 29th and October 1st, with bidding beginning at 11 a.m. each day.