Blade Runner Costume Design (2020)

Summary

Note: In all interviews, Ridley Scott brings up only Charles Knode as the costume designer for the picture, with Knode having drawn all the costume sketches for the main characters; presumably, Kaplan's duties were most likely in the realm of 'assistant costume designer'. Blade Runner's visual style was intended to be both old and new, being a futuristic spin on the 1930s and 1940s fashions, as per the film itself being a futuristic noir. The noir influence is seen very clearly with the costume worn by Harrison Ford as replicant hunter Rick Deckard, who always wears a brown trenchcoat over various custom-made patterned shirts. It should be worth noting that he was meant to be wearing a hat in Charles Knode's costume sketches, but thanks to having just filmed Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ford was adamant to not wear any headwear at all! Really, can we just take a minute to appreciate just how many quirky patterned shirts were custom-made for Ford's title role? Of course the highlight for me is the green and brown shirt crisscrossed with red and blue lining, but the other shirts are pretty fun too! In some scenes, Ford wears a brown blazer instead of his trenchcoat. According to this auction listing, the blazer - and presumably the rest of Blade Runner's costumes - were constructed at Ital Costume, a Hollywood costume house. (I don't know if the striped sweater and grey cardigan that Ford wears in Blade Runner's final scenes were custom-made items, or if they were just vintage clothing Knode or Kaplan had found) Fellow detective Gaff (Edward James Olmos) is dressed more like an Edwardian 'dandy', wearing a yellow or silvery waistcoat under his slightly futuristic vinyl-lined trenchcoat along with bow tie and trilby hat. Gaff also sports a grey variation on the vinyl-lined trenchcoat as well in some scenes, again obscured by the film's atmospheric lighting. (As for other named LAPD characters in the film, I have no idea if the suit worn by Morgan Paull as Holden, or the sh...