‘Star Wars’ Costume Up For Auction, Princess Leia’s Metal Bikini Could Be Yours [Video]
Princess Leia’s iconic slave girl costume is up for auction later this month. The infamous metal bikini could be yours, but only if you have upwards of $100,000 burning a hole in your pocket. The bidding is set to start at $80,000, and initial estimates have Princess Leia’s signature costume pulling in somewhere in the neighborhood of $120,000 at auction.
Reuters reports that Profiles in History is responsible for handling the sale, which is slated to take place between September 29 and October 1, 2015. Items up for auction auction include roughly 50 lots of Star Wars props and other memorabilia, and nearly 2,000 lots from other films, but Princess Leia’s skimpy metal bikini costume is the item that everyone is talking about.
The bikini is part of a lot that includes a mannequin dressed in the iconic costume from Return of the Jedi, original wax masters used in the creation of the costume, and a number of related items. According to Profiles in History, “This ensemble represents the most important and complete compilation of original Star Wars pieces to have survived production in private hands.”
Brian Chanes, consignment manager at Profiles in History, had more to say on the subject of the world’s most famous metal bikini costume
“It’s every schoolboy’s fantasy but it’s also a very signature, iconic piece. It’s exceedingly difficult to find anything of this nature from the original trilogy. These are actually from production, that’s what created history and mythology of Star Wars and that’s why it’s so important.”
Before you pull out your checkbooks, there is some bad news. This isn’t the actual costume worn by Carrie Fisher in Return of the Jedi, or at least it isn’t the one you can technically see on film. According to Profiles in History, the costume pieces included in this lot, “were used on set before being returned to the ILM model shop and replaced by altered versions, since several elements had to be redone due to Carrie Fisher’s weight loss during shooting.”
The auction flipbook, which is available via Profiles in History’s website, includes pictures of the actual costume, additional pieces, and rare slides included with the lot. It also includes Carrie Fisher’s measurements chart from the filming of Return of the Jedi, with adjusted measurements penciled in. The chart reveals that Fisher dropped from 103 to 89 lbs. during the shooting of Jedi.
Profiles in History uses Invaluable.com, an online auction marketplace, to handle offsite bids. So if you have the cash, but you don’t feel like traveling to California to buy a costume from Star Wars, you’re in luck. The sale is slated to last three days, with Princess Leia’s slave costume going up for auction on the final day, which is October 1, 2015. Bids start at $80,000, but don’t expect to get off that cheap.
Bidding competition for the iconic costume is expected to be fierce.
Princess Leia’s gold bikini is expected to fetch up to $120,000 at auction. http://t.co/MWasCa8QKm pic.twitter.com/bJXHxhBVDi
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) September 18, 2015
Other item that are up for auction, like a Rebel Fleet Trooper helmet that was used in the first Star Wars film, are expected to fetch even more than Leia’s metal bikini costume. The New York Post reports that helmet may bring in over $150,000, while a miniature of the blockade runner spaceship that carried Princess Leia in Star Wars: A New Hope could end up going for as much as $300,000.
[Photo by Stuart C. Wilson / Getty Images Entertainment]
