IN FOCUS
A LOOK BACK
Blade Runner, 1982 Ladd Co./Warner Bros./The Kobal Collection
The Costumes of Blade Runner : Imagination, History and Pastiche
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isually spectacular, intensely action packed and powerfully prophetic since its 1982 debut, director Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner has returned in a definitive final cut, including extended scenes and never-before-seen special effects. Blade Runner is a complicated mixed-genre film, a sci-fi noir thriller with the thematic structure of a classic Western like High Noon.
The extraordinary costumes, designed by Charles Knode and Michael Kaplan, are key in creating a dark, dystopian vision of the industrial wasteland of 2019 Los Angeles. Drawing from the outlaw style of the American West, and both 1940’s and 1980’s fashion (with a heavy dose of Medieval, Renaissance and Edwardian cyberpunk thrown in), Knode and Kaplan build a costume vocabulary which seems both familiar and futuristic. Blade Runner’s artfully layered costumes showcase the designers’ inspirations, presenting the audience with an eclectic pastiche of time, place, and genre.While certain costume details anchor us to 1982, others reference those many styles and eras the futuristic movie encompasses. The patterned shirts and ties worn by Harrison Ford as anti-hero Rick Deckard are distinctly ’80s, but his long, brown overcoat references both the Western lawman’s duster and a noir detective’s signature trench coat. Gaff, a Mexican-
Japanese police lackey, played with panache by Edward James Olmos, is a Wild West Edwardian dandy in a skinny bow tie, quilted double-breasted jewel-toned vests and overcoats, and the cool twist of a ’40s stingy-brimmed porkpie. Murderous Replicants Leon (B.J.) and Roy (R.H.) stalk the grimy city streets outfitted as classic Western villains in menacing black coats, but in 1980’s leather. Sean Young's Rachael is a seductive femme fatale encased in Adrianinspired suits designed with sculptural oversized shoulders to create a sharp futuristic look. When Deckard finds himself in a nightclub teeming with party girls, they have the whiff of 1890’s Wild West prostitutes decked out in Schiaparelli-esque confections and ’80s prom dresses. Finally, the street people of 2019 Los Angeles— gangsters, punks, and Asian and Spanish hawkers—are dressed in intricately trashed but beautiful apocalyptic garb. Weaving their inspirations into densely-detailed visions of the future, Charles Knode and Michael Kaplan have created costumes which seem as sophisticated in 2007 as they were in 1982. Their costumes animate Blade Runner, gracing the story with both historical specificity and creative artistry, and helping to establish the film as a compelling cult classic. Audrey Fisher afisher@costumedesignersguild.com
Fall 2007 The Costume Designer
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