Slave Leia costume

"It was like steel, not steel, but hard plastic, and if you stood behind me you could see straight to Florida. You'll have to ask Boba Fett about that."

- Carrie Fisher

The Slave Leia costume refers to the bikini-style outfit worn by Princess Leia Organa when she was captured by Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi. The costume was worn by actress Carrie Fisher and stuntwoman Tracy Eddon, and was created by costumer designers Aggie Guerard Rodgers and Nilo Rodis-Jamero, inspired by the works of fantasy artist Frank Frazetta. Star Wars creator George Lucas requested the costume in part based on Fisher's complaints about the lack of interesting costumes in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.

The costume has gained a huge fan following since the 1983 release of Return of the Jedi. Hundreds of female fans wear home-made and store-bought versions of the costume at science fiction conventions, many of whom post pictures of themselves on the popular fansite, Leia's Metal Bikini. Variations of the costume have been worn by characters in other Star Wars mediums, like Diva Shaliqua in The Phantom Menace, Zam Wesell in Star Wars: Jango Fett and Jedi Exile in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. The costume has also made several pop culture appearances outside of the Star Wars universe, such as when it was worn by Jennifer Aniston in Friends and Kristen Bell in the upcoming film, Fanboys.

Description
"She's in robes all the time, and then it's just like, 'That's what's under those robes? Holy smokes."

- Carrie Fisher

The bikini-style costume consisted of a brass brassiere fastened over the neck and behind the back with string, a brass thong g-string panty, leather high-heeled boots and red flowing veils attached to the front and back of the panty. Within the Star Wars-universe, the veils are made of the luxury cloth Lashaa silk and the leather boots are made from jerbas, a Tatooine beast of burden. The costume appeared in the 1983 film Return of the Jedi and was worn by actress Carrie Fisher and stuntwoman Tracy Eddon, both of whom portray Princess Leia Organa.

The costume is worn in scenes at Jabba's Palace, aboard the Luxury sail barge Khetanna and during the skirmish at the Great Pit of Carkoon. Jabba Desilijic Tiure, the Hutt crime lord, forces Leia Organa to wear the costume after capturing her during her failed attempt to rescue the enslaved Han Solo. Like other scantily-clad dancers previously in his service, the imprisoned Leia was forced to lay before Jabba, kept in place by a chain held by the Hutt. Jabba kept her in this submissive position in front of all his subjects and henchmen as a means of humiliating the princess. After only one day of imprisonment, however, Organa used the same chain that imprisoned her to strangle Jabba the Hutt to death.

Conception and creation
"His eyes started sparkling when we talked about it."

- Aggie Guerard Rodgers about George Lucas

Princess Leia Organa's slave costume was created partially in response to complaints by Carrie Fisher about the lack of interesting costumes her character wore in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Fisher felt one could not tell "she was a woman" from the wardrobe, and said of it years later, "I got one, sorry, two dresses, and the first one (looks) the same all the way around." Star Wars creator George Lucas gave the Return of the Jedi costume department only general instructions when it came to Princess Leia Organa's slave costume, but it was clear to them he wanted something special for the outfit; costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers recalled, "His eyes started sparkling when we talked about it."

The costume was inspired by the works of Frank Frazetta, a fantasy artist who often concentrated on the female form. The outfit was first developed in sketches by Nilo Rodis-Jamero, the Jedi costume designer who previously served as assistant art director of visual effects for The Empire Strikes Back. Rodgers then built the costume as part of the Industrial Light & Magic visual effects company. Sculptor Richard Miller also helped with the costume; veteran ILM model-maker Lorne Peterson brought Miller aboard for Jedi after he viewed several of Peterson's private sculptures and realized they were very similar to the Leia slave costume they were developing.

The costume designers made a mold of Carrie Fisher's torso so it could be designed to a custom fit. Rodgers and the staff created multiple versions of the outfit to accommodate different scenes in the film, including a hard metal piece for scenes in which Fisher remained still, and a rubber outfit she and stuntwoman Tracy Eddon could wear comfortable while performing stunts; Edden wore the latter costume when she swung from Jabba's sail barge with Mark Hamill's stunt double, Colin Skeaping. The outfit was lined with leather so it would not chafe Fisher's body. Rodgers originally wanted the costume's fabrics to be 25 yards long and flow throughout Jabba's palace, but the costume department could not make the concept work. Regarding fans who want to make their own slave Leia costume, Rodgers said, "There's a lot of stretchy fabric out there. I would use rubberized material from anywhere. And hand stitch it so there are no big explosions when you're walking about."

One of the moldmakers became extremely excited to learn that he would be doing the body-casting of Carrie Fisher and talked about it every day. The production department became concerned about the situation and, at the last minute, gave the job to another moldmaker. Peterson recalled, "If he had just kept his mouth shut and not been so enthusiastic, they would have let him go through with it." Similarly, Rodgers said many of the Return of the Jedi crew were men who "really enjoyed being on the set" during Fisher's scenes with the costume.

Carrie Fisher reaction
"I remember that iron bikini I wore in Episode VI: what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell."

- Carrie Fisher

Prior to the filming of Return of the Jedi, Lucas invited Fisher to San Francisco to show her a picture of the costume. Fisher said he showed her the picture "to frighten me into exercise, I think. He succeeded." Fisher was also asked to tone her body in such a way that she would have no lines or wrinkles around her waist for her scenes in which sit up straight in front of Jabba.

In the 1990s, Carrie Fisher would show Return of the Jedi to her daughter, Billie Catherine Lourd, who fell asleep the first time she saw it. During her first scenes in the slave costume, Fisher said she thought, "Oh my God, there is me with the good body," and tried to wake her, saying, "You are going to get this body, so pay attention." Despite her daughter's indifference, Fisher later said in Star Wars Insider interview, "but it's not a bad body to get, and of course I didn't know that at the time (of filming). We were all younger then."

Filming Return of the Jedi
"Most of the crew are men, and they really enjoyed being on the set."

- Aggie Guerard Rodgers

The metal framework that held the top together did not move well with the costume and it proved difficult to keep the costume in place during filming; several scenes had to be re-shot due to "wardrobe malfunctions." Fisher did not believe in the industry standard solution of using double-sided tape, so it became necessary for a wardrobe person to check whether her breasts were still secure and snug within the costume top after each take. Fisher said the costume "drove the wardrobe person nuts." Fisher herself also found the costume to be difficult to endure, and referred to it as "what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell." Fisher also said it was particularly revealing for the cast and crew around her. In particular Jeremy Bulloch, the actor who played Boba Fett, could see more of the actress that she was comfortable with. In an interview years later, she said, "if you stood behind me you could see straight to Florida. You'll have to ask Boba Fett about that."

Princess Leia wears the costume in Return of the Jedi for exactly 150 seconds of combined screen time, including facial closeups and shots of stunt doubles and visual effect images. Prior to the theatrical release of Return of the Jedi, artist Kazuhiko Sano was hired to create the, the first Jedi poster to feature a collage of characters. Sano was given no art specific art direction and his original sketches were largely accepted by Lucasfilm with few changes. The only specific request officials made to Sano was to replace an existing image of Leia Organa with one of the princess wearing her slave costume.

Carrie Fisher also donned the suit on the cover of an August 1983 issue of Rolling Stone, to publicize the magazine's interview with George Lucas entitled "Star Wars Goes on Vacation." The cover photo, shot by photographer Aaron Rapoport, includes Leia Organa sitting on a towel at a beach, laughing and holding hands with an Ewok; standing behind them are Darth Vader holding a boombox and a Gamorrean guard holding a beach ball.

Fan following
"Jabba put her into the outfit to humiliate her, but Leia was such a strong character, her will made the costume empowering."

- Amira Sa'id

Leia Organa's slave costume has become a popular outfit among female fans at fan conventions like Comic-Con International, Dragon Con and Celebration   ; group photos of women dressed in the costume is often among the most crowded and popular exhibits at such events. Many women who wear the costume say they enjoy the attention it affords them from male fans, who often ask to have their picture taken with them; the costume is also popular among fetishists who imagine the slave Leia physically assaulting them. Men and babies are occasionally dressed as slave Leia at conventions, although on a far less common basis.

Leia's Metal Bikini, a fansite dedicated specifically to Leia's slave costume, was launched in May 2002. The site was created and is maintained by Jamin Fite, who said he was inspired after he saw a photo of a female fan dressed in the costume; prior to that, Fite said, "I didn't even know girls were into Star Wars." The site includes images, video clips, information about where to buy a costume, instructions on how to build one and pictures of more than 280 female fans dressed in the costume. The site has been featured on such television channels as G4 and Spike and such magazines as Wired. During a broadcast from Celebration IV, Spike television personality Nicole Malgarini (wearing the Slave Leia costume herself) referred to Fite as the "slavemaster" and "the pimp of Star Wars.

Bellydancer Amira Sa'id began a dance routine wearing the slave Leia costume in 2005, and it has since become an extremely popular attraction at science-fiction conventions. Her performances are often set to music from Chalmun's Cantina, and she occasionally balances a prop Gamorrean vibro-ax on her head while dancing. Sa'id thought of the idea while trying to come up with a creative Halloween-themed show, and upon settling on the Leia costume she decided, "I've got to do this at conventions." At such events, Sa'id has won first place in costume contests and taught how-to seminars for first-time belly dancers, which was advertised on StarWars.com for Celebration IV. Sa'id first saw Return of the Jedi at age seven and was impressed that Leia turned a costume designed to humiliate her into a symbol of empowerment. Sa'id also regularly performs Star Trek- and Final Fantasy-related acts, and in recent years has performed some of her Star Wars dances Aisha the "Shimmy Girl," who dresses as Padmé Amidala in her torn Geonosis attire.

The website of Maxim, an international men's magazine, ranked Leia Organa in the slave costume the #1 "hottest nerd crush" and referred to it as "the nerd-universe equivalent of Phoebe Cates doffing her top in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Organa outranked such fictional characters as Dana Scully from The X-Files, Trinity from The Matrix, Lara Croft from Tomb Raider and Sharon Valerii from Battlestar Galactica. Carrie Fisher donning the slave suit in Jedi ranked second in a 2008 World Entertainment News Network poll for the most inspirational bikini moment; first place went to Ursula Andress as Honey Rider emerging from the sea in the first film in the James Bond series, 1962's Dr. No.

E! Entertainment Television ranked Carrie Fisher's scenes slave costume scenes in Return of the Jedi at number 16 in its August 2007 television special, "25 Most Memorable Swimsuit Moments." Several celebrities commented on the outfit during the E! special. Swimsuit designer Lisa Curran said the popularity of Leia's slave costume demonstrates the allure and popularity of the bikini swimsuit, even in a science fiction setting. Joel Stein, a Los Angeles Times columnist, said the costume demonstrates the power clothing and circumstances can change a viewer's perception of a person who had not previously been considered attractive; Stein said, "It's like, 'We didn't think of Princess Leia sexually. Oh! Chain her up to a really disgusting creature? We've got a hard-on." Actor Jon Abrahams, who said, "She's in robes all the time, and then it's just like, 'That's what's under those robes? Holy smokes." Stand-up comedienne Chelsea Handler said, "Carrie Fisher had a great body back then, and she had to, because she was wearing cinnamon buns for ears throughout the entire shoot of Star Wars." Comedians Randy and Jason Sklar joked that Jabba, not Leia, looked attractive in that scene, and Jason said, "He was Jared from Subway before Jared from Subway was Jared from Subway." Celebrity stylist joked that the costume probably sexually aroused Chewbacca.

Other Star Wars appearances
"You do recognize me. I wasn't sure you would, given my state...of undress."

- Zam Wesell

A variation of the slave costume appeared in another Star Wars film 16 years after the release of Return of the Jedi. Diva Shaliqua, a slave of Jabba the Hutt who appears briefly in the Boonta Eve Podrace scene of The Phantom Menace in 1999, wore an almost identical costume as that of Princess Leia. References to the costume have also appeared frequently in the Expanded Universe. In the 2002 comic Star Wars: Jango Fett, written by Ron Marz, bounty hunter Zam Wesell wears a similar garment during the Infant of Shaa incident. Like Leia Organa and Diva Shaliqua, Wesell wears the costume in the presence of a Hutt. She wore the outfit in order to seduce and Dreddon, a Hutt criminal with a bounty on his head; once the two were alone together, Wesell successfully killed him.

Leia's slave costume has also made appearances in several Star Wars video games in the 2000s. It appears in Star Wars Galaxies, the 2003 massively multiplayer online role-playing game, as a craftable item that can be made in a range of colors and worn by female player-characters. The suit is also worn by Jedi Exile in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords when she dances for Vogga the Hutt on Nar Shaddaa. The garment is called "dancer's outfit" in the 2004 game. The slave costume can also be unlocked for Princess Leia character in LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, the 2006 Lego-themed Star Wars LucasArts game; if the player holds down the B button on the controller while playing as the slave-suited Leia, she will start to dance by swinging her hips and waving her arms in the air.

Appearances in pop culture
"Yeah, oh, Princess Leia and the gold bikini, every guy our age loved that. It's huge. That's the moment when she stopped being a princess and became, you know, a woman!"

- Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay on Friends

Friends
The third season premiere of the hit sitcom Friends revolved largely a sexual fantasy Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) harbors about Princess Leia in her slave costume. The episode, titled "The One with the Princess Leia Fantasy," was written by Michael Curtis and Gregory S. Malins, and first aired September 19, 1996. Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) asked her boyfriend Ross if whether he has any fantasies, and he reluctantly admits the "gold bikini thing" Leia wears in Return of the Jedi "was pretty cool." Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) later confirms to Rachel that she is familiar with the popular fantasy and has worn the costume herself; Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) also confirms to Ross that he, too, had the same fantasy. At the end of the episode, Rachel wears a replica of the Princess Leia slave uniform and tries to seduce Ross. His fantasy, however, is ruined when he unwittingly visualizes his mother dressed in the suit, due to a conversation earlier in the episode in which Chandler said sex is sometimes ruined for him when he pictures his mother at inopportune moments.

Deal or No Deal
The Leia Organa slave costume was featured prominently in the Star Wars-themed episode of television game show Deal or No Deal on April 28, 2008. Contestants in the show choose monetary values from a number suitcases in order to try to win the most money, and the suitcases are opened by supermodels wearing different outfits in each episode. In this episode, the models wore slave Leia costumes; the show also included appearances from Imperial stormtroopers, R2-D2, Chewbacca, George Lucas and Carrie Fisher.

Chuck
The sixth episode of Chuck, an action-comedy series about a nondescript computer-whiz-turned-spy, prominently features the slave Leia costume. Sarah Walker, a Central Intelligence Agency spy played by Australian actress Yvonne Strahovski, gives protagonist Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) an engineered photo of the two of them dressed as Han Solo and Princess Leia, dressed in the slave costume, at a comic book convention. The photo serves as a cover story that the two are in a romantic relationship; Chuck likes the photo, but laments that the two had never been to a real convention together and are not a real couple. During a Halloween party at the end of the episode, Sarah appears wearing her own slave Leia costume, much to the delight of Chuck and the other male guests. Chuck and Sarah take another, genuine photo of each other together in the costumes. When Chuck asks Sarah where she got the costume, she replies, "Oh, the CIA can make anything."

Fanboys
Actress Kristen Bell dons the slave Leia costume in the upcoming 2008 film Fanboys, a comedy film about a group of friends who decide to break into Skywalker Ranch to steal an early print of The Phantom Menace. Photos released of Bell is the costume were met with great admiration from male fans in the blogosphere. Mike Sampson of JoBlo.com wrote of Kristen Bell pictures, "Nerds, I hope you are sitting down. I also hope you're wearing clean underwear. The following will blow your Mountain Dew soaked brain," and Egotastic! bloggers wrote, "Princess Leia's Gold Bikini is arguably the hottest moment in all of Geekdom, and to have a girl like Kristen Bell filling out those gold chains is making my head explode."

Merchandise
"Star Wars is based on nothing on Earth. its all in outer space (but the costume) is showing no matter where you are, it's a bathing suit and men find it very attractive."

- Lisa Curran, swimsuit designer

Official merchandise
Although the Kenner toy company released action figures of Princess Leia in various outfits after the theatrical release of Return of the Jedi, her slave costume was deemed too risque to warrant its own toy. The first slave Leia toy, which was called "Jabba's Prisoner," was not released until 1997 until Hasbro's "Power of the Force" collection. A deluxe version was released a few years later packaged with a sail barge cannon and a fabric loincloth. A 6 3/4-inches tall and 11-inches wide statue was released by Gentle Giant Ltd. was released after a sneak peek at the 2006 Comic-Con International at San Diego, California.

Fan made creations
Artist David Johnson created a statuette of Princess Leia trapped in carbonite while wearing her slave costume. Only one version of the eight-inch tall polymer clay sculpture was made; it sold on eBay for $70.99 plus $10 shipping on June 3, 2008. Comic book artist Adam Hughes created a lithograph of Leia in the slave costume, sitting on Jabba's sail barge on Tatooine clutching a vibro-axe and surrounded by bowls of fruit. The image is a fake poster of a show hosted by "Jabba Cruises" called "Last Daughter of Alderaan," also starring "Sarlacc the Magnificent." Exactly 250 editions were created specifically for Celebration IV and sold for $349 each.

Craftster Sammi Resendes of the blog Geek Central Station, created several amigurumi, or crocheted small stuffed animals, inspired by Star Wars characters, including Han Solo, Chewbacca, Yoda and Admiral Ackbar. Among the amigurumi figures was a Princess Leia wearing a slave costume made from Sculpey polymer clay. Resendes said her boyfriend made the costume pieces, and that the Leia figure was particularly difficult to make. Savoir Hair, a website dedicated to creating hairstyles and outfits for the Internet-based virtual world Second Life, created an exact replica of Leia's slave costume, which can be purchased and worn within the massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Leia slave costumes have even been designed for pet dogs and previously sold on Amazon.com.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (novel)