Princess Leia’s famous gold bikini worn by the late Carrie Fisher in Star Wars has sold at auction for $175,000 (£136,000, A$266,000).
The costume, made famous from the 1983 film Return of the Jedi when Fisher’s character wore it while chained to Jabba the Hutt’s throne, was bought at a sale by Heritage Auctions on Friday in the US.
The seven-piece ensemble, which includes a bikini brassiere, bikini plates, hip rings, an armlet and bracelet, was designed by the late Richard Miller, the chief sculptor for Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas.
A miniature aircraft from the first Star Wars film, A New Hope, also sold for US$1.55m (£1.2m, A$2.36m) at the auction. The miniature Y-Wing Starfighter, which helped bring down the Death Star in A New Hope, was one of only two miniatures created for the production.
It was designed by US artist Colin Cantwell, after Lucas gave the direction that he wanted the film’s aircraft to have “distinct shapes so that the audience could immediately tell whether a ship was a ‘good guy’ or ‘a bad guy’”, according to Heritage Auctions.
The Hollywood auction also included a movie poster from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home by Bob Peak, which sold for $106,250; a Thor hammer from Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World, which sold for $81,250; and a Mandalorian helmet, bought for $40,000.
The wand used by Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban sold for $52,000, while an outfit worn by Macauley Culkin in the first Home Alone film sold for $47,500.
Princess Leia’s costume has become one of the most famous costumes in film history. It last sold for $96,000 at a Star Wars memorabilia auction in 2015.
Fisher, who shared her strong feelings about the costume over the years, revealed in 2016 that she thought Lucas was “kidding” when he first showed her the bikini, saying she felt “nearly naked, which is not a style choice for me … It wasn’t my choice.”
Miller added soft material to the costume so that Fisher would be more comfortable in it. “However, she still didn’t like it. I don’t blame her,” he once said in an interview. “I did put leather on the back of it to help it feel better.”
