Is she gorgeous because she appears so helpless, or in spite of it?
The profoundly famous slave bikini in George Lucas’s Return of the Jedi, which is on display at EMP until October 4, is an intimate concoction involving straps and leather, gilded coils, and rose-red silk. In the movie, its wearer, the dreamy Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), looks like she swirled up from a genie bottle. S&M–y accessories play up the style, and it works. Leia’s hair is long and elegantly braided; her face is perfectly cosmeticized with shimmery retro bronzes. Filth surrounds her, but her skin is white as cocaine…
