With cosplay all the rage at San Diego’s just finished Comic-Con 2024, we know the PVC, leather, spandex and latex was out in full force. The faithful recreations of beloved science fiction, fantasy, anime and gaming costumes were, as always, stunning. But less we forget one of the most iconic costumes in all of fantasy…the golden bikini costume worn by Carrie Fisher on the set of “Return of the Jedi.”
This iconic costuming just sold at auction for $175,000.
The seven-piece outfit, which includes hip rings, armlet and bracelet, then the bikini itself went to an unidentified bidder (as is usually the case with such high-priced, well-known pieces) during the two-day sale that featured over five-hundred pieces of Hollywood lore. Wearing the revealing outfit, when forced into slavery at the slimy hands(?) of Jabba the Hut, host of the sale, Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, described Carrie Fisher’s fantastic couture as “among the most memorable” in all of the Star Wars story.
Fisher told NPR in 2016 that wearing bikini, based on sketches by costume designer, Nilo Rodis-Jamero wasn’t her suggestion nor her choice, and that she felt “nearly naked,’ in it. Jeweler/ sculptor Richard Miller used resin and urethane to make the outfit, to fulfill director/writer/Star Wars creator George Lucas’ desire to show a grown-up Princess Leia.
Miller said he fit the outfit to a mannequin cast from Fisher’s body but when it came time to shot Fisher’s scenes wearing it she had lost such a considerable amount of weight he felt the bikini didn’t actually fit her correctly.
The Heritage Auctions sale took in a total of $5.9 million. Also sold was a model used on screen of a Colin Cantwell Y-wing that leads the final filmed attack on the Death Star in the first Star Wars film that was released, “A New Hope.”
It sold for $1.55 million.
