Blade Runner Costume Design (2020)

Blade Runner's future still feels futuristic even today - while many sci-fi films of that era don't. I think it's largely due to the brilliant production design and cinematography. Just about every creative department over-achieved spectacularly. I saw it in 70mm when it came out it and it absolutely blew my teenaged mind. Even as a hardcore sci-fi fan, I'd never seen anything like BR's vision of an eclectic urban dystopia.

Today, it's hard to appreciate just how much of a visual sledgehammer Blade Runner was in 1982. The film doesn't look all that shocking from modern perspectives but that's only because BR so strongly influenced almost every other vision of the future that came after. It simply defined what compelling visions of the future should look like. It's hard to put your head back into a world where nothing had ever looked like that.

If you haven't seen the restored version that film archivist Charles de Lauzirika did, do yourself a favor and watch the 4K HDR10 version (released in 2017). He spent years painstakingly rescanning the original camera negatives (something rarely done for remasters) and the result is a revelation.

One of the reasons modern sci-fi films (e.g., Blade Runner 2049) seem so flat to me is because of the costumes. They're always too minimal and too forgettable. There's really nothing special about the fashion in that movie.

Compare that to the hyper-maximalist 80s movie outfits. The original Blade Runner has more creativity in one outfit than pretty much the entirety of the sequel.

I wonder why that is. My guess is that it's just a symptom of the same thing that causes everyone to stop buying colorful cars, and instead default to a grayscale one: fear that being too outlandish or creative will turn off potential customers/viewers.

It reminds me of a discussion from, who was it, Quentin Tarantino? He said he was anxious going into making his first film. A seasoned Hollywood veteran told him to relax—all those pros: the costume designers, the camera operators, sound, set designers, makeup, etc.… they're going to make the movie look fantastic.

> Rachael's third outfit (perhaps the most famous) is a fur coat patterned in chevron stripes of different fur colours of grey and white.

I always remember Rachel with it first dress. I almost forgotted the fur coat.

So wait, was Sebastian in poverty? His best friend is like the richest person on the planet.

I always thought it just went to show he likes dumpster diving for broken toys.