What Should A Slave Girl Look Like?
Jenny Agutter in Logan's Run
A year prior to Star Wars' (1977) arrival on the big screen, Logan's Run came out, and turned out to be a mediocre SF movie that got a lot more attention than it deserved at the time because SF flicks were so rare back in the day, and Star Wars hadn't come out yet.
It's true that Logan's Run isn't a sword and sandal flick and it's also true that Jenny Agutter didn't play a slavegirl in it (she's a "party girl"). But the outfit Agutter wears is so perfectly suited to the slavegirl look in sword and sorcery films that it's reasonable to consider it for this article. (Come to think of it, Star Wars wasn't a sword and sorcery flick either.)
Plus, Agutter's role as a party girl is close enough to being a slavegirl that it's reasonable to consider her one. Just like a slavegirl, her role is to have sex with lots of guys (perhaps gals, too) pretty much "on demand." The major distinction is, if she doesn't hit it off with the guy or gal, she has the right to turn them down, no questions asked.
Sounds like a prostitute really, but money isn't part of the equation. It was kind of career thing for Jenny's character.
The costume is actually an improvement over most actual slavegirl costumes, in fact, in certain respects it is better than the actual Slave Leia costume. It consists almost entirely of diaphanous cloth covering the body from the neck to mid-thigh, but with the sides opening above the shoulder, leaving the sides bare all the way down.
There's also a metal bra underneath the tunic but it can easily be discarded nowadays (see "Cave Dwellers") and in another costume she clearly is not wearing a bra. Seen from head-on the garment looks like it covers most of her body, but seen from the side, she looks virtually naked, with just her breasts and groin and butt covered by it, if she moves carefully. If she moves carelessly, that butt is out of there, man. Even when she moves carefully her butt has a tendency to hang out.
Seen from the side, walking, Jenny looks pretty durned naked.
Lucas' Slave Leia costume in Star Wars uses pretty much the same peek-a-boo effect from the waist down, with the purple "mud flaps" as I call them hiding her body from in front and the rear, but leaving it looking very naked from the sides.
Slave Leia's "mud flaps" have the same effect -- she can look pretty durned nekkid from the side as well.
But the real key to the success of Agutter's costume in Logan's Run is that because it's open from shoulder to toe on the side, it's very evident that she's wearing no underwear. There's nary a strap nor strip of cloth visible anywhere when you see Agutter from the side.
This makes sense for a party girl. Just bend her over, flip up the back flap, and it's party time. Same for the front side -- lie her down, flip up the front flap and have at. She doesn't even have to take the garment off, she can just go from one assignation to the next, flipping her flaps from guy to guy.
Makes great sense for a slavegirl, too.
Add some wrist cuffs, ankle cuffs and a gag (she's already collared) and you've got a great slavegirl costume for any PG rated flick. Make the material more diaphanous and put it on a woman with large, natural (i.e., bouncy) breasts, make it nice and tight, and you've got a great PG-envelope-pushing slavegirl outfit.
Agutter's costume is clearly based on the short slavegirl tunics that show up in a lot of sword and sandal flicks, so of course any slavegirl costume based on it would look very natural in a sword and sandal flick.
And if you want to take the costume to an R rating, just lower the front of it to below the breasts and let both the front and back flap extend to just below the crotch, revealing naughty bits both fore and aft with the wearer's every move.
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