By: Corrine Hung

Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction sold a famous character from Star Wars, Princess Leia,’s gown with bids closed on June 28.

However, things didn’t go as well as people expected. The auction company expected to fetch 2 million dollars. But instead, it went unsold. It didn’t reach the seller’s minimum price. Bidders stopped the auction at the price of 1 million, with a final bid amount of $975,000, far behind what people had estimated.

The character who wore the gown, Princess Leia, was played by Carrie Fisher in 1977’s “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,” the gown designer was John Mollow. With the job at “A new hope,” John Mollow even won the best costume design award at the 50th annual Academy Awards in March 1978.

Princess Leia’s gown by John is also honored as a historically significant piece that is the last only piece found to exist. According to Barneby’s Magazine, Propstore Auction founder Stephen Lane said that many collectors feared the garment was lost forever and had spent 40 years finding the dress.

People went on to find the garment, but no one saw it. Until Lane met up with a former crew member, Lane said that he found the gown in a ratty old plastic bag hanging on the back door of the crew member’s office.

Lane said the dress was in “really poor condition,” but he recognized it because of the armored belt. And according to the Prophouse Auction lot description, someone,unknown yet, stored the gown in a London attic until it was finally discovered.

With an important meaning to Star Wars fans, people thought the gown should be sold at a good price in the auction. Before the auction, Barneby’s even estimated that the final sum of the garment might be sold even higher than Propstore, saying it could be set to sell for $2.5 million.

Propstore, the company behind the auction, is now still trying its best to sell the gown out with post-auction.

“It may be sold after the auction in a private-treaty sale or maybe re-offered again in

a future auction,” Lane said in a statement to NPR.

However, since the gown has yet to be sold, it is also estimated to be put out for display collection and never to be sold.

sources:

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/28/1184781055/princess-leia-dress-star-wars-auction

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/22/entertainment/carrie-fisher-princess-leia-gown-auction/index.html