The bronze bikini-style costume worn by Carrie Fisher in Star Wars has sold at auction for more than £130,000. The outfit, which was auctioned with its original hip rings and bracelets, was donned by Fisher’s Princess Leia when she was captured by the slug-like monster Jabba the Hutt and chained to his throne in 1983’s Star Wars: Episode VI Return Of The Jedi . Wearing the costume, Leia went on to strangle Jabba to death with the chain that had been fixed around her neck.
Created by the Star Wars sculptor Richard Miller, the two-piece sold for $175,000 (£136,129) at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas on Friday (26 July). The gold-coloured costume is made from resin and urethane production pieces from the sculptor’s collection. Heritage Auctions said the interior of the bra has evidence of repairs and glue residue, used for on-set alterations to make Fisher more comfortable.
Princess Leia wore the garment with her hair in a long plait secured with a matching gold hair-piece. The outfit has been dubbed “one of the most memorable costumes in film history” by Heritage Auctions. Elsewhere at the auction, a miniature fighter ship – Gold Squadron Y-Wing Starfighter – that featured in the first Star Wars movie, sold for $1.
5m (£1.17m). The Y-Wing is one of two filming miniatures used for close-up shots built by the Industrial Light and Magic visual effects team.
American actor Fisher, who died in December 2016 aged 60 , said in 2015 that she was initially sceptical about the outfit because it made her vulnerable to the “occasional wardrobe malfunction”. At the time, the Star Wars franchise faced backlash for releasing merchandise with Fisher wearing the bikini, with some parents complaining about its appropriateness. In an interview in The Wall Street Journal in 2015, Fisher said it was “stupid” that people wanted to pull the merchandise.
“The father who flipped out about it, ‘What am I going to tell my kid about why she’s in that outfit?’ Tell them that a giant slug captured me and forced me to wear that stupid outfit, and then I killed him because I didn’t like it. And then I took it off. Backstage,” she said.
The actor also explained why she enjoyed killing villain Jabba in that scene, stating: “They asked me if I wanted my stunt double to kill him, but I wanted to. "I sawed his neck off with that chain. I really wanted to kill him.
”.
