A Hollywood Costume Designer's Advice
by Philip Chien
Aggie Gurard Rodgers has been designing costumes for movies for over three decades. Her first screen credit as a professional costume designer was “American Graffiti” in 1975; her most recent is “Leonie.” She's designed costumes for Harrison Ford in three of his most famous movies - “American Graffiti,” “Return of the Jedi” and the “Fugitive.” She was nominated for an Oscar for Oprah Winfrey's “The Color Purple.”
The costume Rodgers is best known for is Princess Leia's metal bikini from “Return of the Jedi.” It's an icon, one of the most famous movie costumes ever -- and one that has increased the hormones in teenagers since the movie premiered in 1983.
Rodgers was unaware of the cult phenomena surrounding the metal bikini costume until this author interviewed her in 2006. I showed her the website Leia’s metal bikini, where over a hundred women have posted photos of themselves wearing homemade versions of the costume. Some of those women will only pose in the privacy of their own homes for their boyfriends; others proudly wear the costumes to parties, science fiction conventions, and other public events. Many of these amateur models weren't even born when the movie came out.
The first amateur copies of the costume appeared within weeks of the movie’s premiere. There are some amazing variations: homemade versions, commercial versions which retail for about $200, and at least one fan who has posed publicly in a body paint version. Most of the versions try to create the look of the original costume; others go for authenticity. Costumer Joreth noted that her version is designed to be identical to what Leia would have actually worn – with hand shaped copper parts, not just plastic painted to look like copper.
It's more than just the fascination of anonymous fans; actress Melissa Joan Hart (“Sabrina the Teenage Witch”) has been photographed wearing the costume.
One website gives the following instructions for making your own costume: “start with a Leia-shaped person. Have a close friend mold a piece of wire around the Leia-shaped person’s body ...”
Rodgers gives advice for fans who want to make their own versions of the costume. “There’s a lot of stretchy fabric out there. I would use rubberized material from anywhere. And hand stitch it so there aren’t any big explosions when you’re walking about.” She notes that small, tight stitches will avoid accidental exposure of more than you wish.
For the movie “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” the costume department made a mold of Carrie Fisher’s torso for a custom fit. Several specialized versions of the costume were created. Rodgers said, “One was a hard metal piece that (Carrie) wore when she was not doing any stunts and one was a rubber piece that we formed so that she would be comfortable when doing stunts. It was lined with leather so it wouldn't chafe her body.” In addition, costumes were needed for Fisher’s stunt double.
Rodgers said that Fisher’s costume was a good fit and there were no “wardrobe malfunctions” on the set. She said “Most of the crew are men, and they really enjoyed being on the set.”
Carrie Fisher’s memories of the costume aren’t as fond. On her website she said, “What do I remember from making the movies? I remember that iron bikini I wore in "Episode VI": what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell. I was lying next to Jabba the Hutt, in the third film—the one I can't remember the name of. (I keep wanting to call it "Rebel Without a Cause.") The actor who played Boba Fett stood behind me while I was wearing the bikini, and he could see all the way to Florida. My mother was always the girl next door. I wasn't quite girl-next-door material; I was the girl-next-dogstar, the one in the titanium thong.”
Scripts were only distributed a couple of days before filming to avoid leaks (in the pre-Internet era fanatical fans would hunt through Lucasfilms’s dumpsters for discarded copies of the movie’s script) so creator George Lucas gave Rodgers verbal instructions. She said, “His eyes started sparkling when we talked about it. I wanted 25 yards of fabric to be flowing through the scene but we couldn’t really quite make that work.”
So what was Rodgers’s inspiration? “I credit that to the most wonderful man who loved women - (artist) Frank Frazetta. He really loved (the female) form. The fact that (Leia’s costume is) such a female sensual costume - I think is terrific.”
Fundamentally the costume is an incredibly misogynist male chauvinist fantasy – Jabba the Hutt used it to denigrate Leia to try to break her will as part of enslaving her. But many fans look at it as a piece of female empowerment: Even in that slave outfit, Leia's strength and will prevailed, and ultimately she ended up strangling Jabba with the costume's chain.
Rodgers has two sons and she made homemade Halloween costumes for them when they were growing up. So what kind of costume does a top Hollywood costume designer make for her own family? “I just get things from Goodwill [to put together] – costumes are more about what’s going on in your mind.” She made versions of the “Star Wars” costumes out of tinfoil and cardboard and noted that her family really enjoyed it.
Rodgers’s favorite costumes are from “The Color Purple,” “Because (the story) has such depth and went through so many periods and was such a powerful book.” Oprah is her favorite actor because “She was so wonderful to be around.”
The most recent licensed product with the Leia bikini is an action figure “Leia Unleashed” from Hasbro. It retails for $15, but don’t expect to find it in the stores. If you do find it, expect to pay far more. Many employees at toy stores realize that when hot new toys come in, they can make a couple of extra bucks informing local collectors, who quickly purchase them -- often before they’re even put on the shelves. They show up for sale at science fiction conventions and collectors websites for anywhere from $50 to $150.
The costume has even appeared in the sitcom “Friends”’s episode “The One with the Princess Leia Fantasy”, with actress Jennifer Aniston wearing the outfit 13 years after the movie premiered. More recently, Kristin Bell wears the costume in the movie “Fanboys” and Yvonne Strzechowki in the TV series “Chuck.”
In an episode of “The Big Bang Theory” the main characters are playing “20 Questions.” Wolowitz asks, “Is there a picture of you in my wallet wearing a metal bikini?” Leonard replies, “God I hope not” and adds, “No, I’m not Princess Leia.”
While the Princess Leia bikini costume is certainly famous, it was a very tiny part of “Return of the Jedi.” Leia is wearing the costume on screen for just 124 seconds in the 134 minute movie. But the costume was so memorable it's made its own place in movie history.
Photos copyright 1983 Lucasfilms. Used with permission.
Links
Leia’s metal bikini website.
Description of the "Friends" episode with Jennifer Aniston.
Order Friends - The Complete Third Season
from Amazon.com.
Order Star Wars Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983 & 2004 Versions, 2-Disc Widescreen Edition)
from Amazon.com.
Order The Color Purple (Two-Disc Special Edition)
from Amazon.com.
Aggie Gurard Rodgers's official website.
Aggie Gurard Rodgers on the Internet Movie Database.
Carrie Fisher's official website.
Order the Star Wars Unleashed Slave Leia Action Figure 2004 Edition By Hasbro
on Amazon.com.
About the author
Philip Chien enjoys movies and costumes, and especially enjoyed Princess Leia's metal bikini in the movie “Return of the Jedi”.
© 2009 neatinformation.com. All Rights Reserved.
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