Blade Runner (1982)

Costume Design by Charles Knode & Michael Kaplan

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 more in the realm of 'assistant costume designer' as well as dressing the multitudes of extras, mostly in contemporary clothing, that the film's outdoor street sequences required.

Blade Runner's visual style was intended to be both old and new, depicting a future where technology had not made life better but had if anything reverted it, with the film taking a good few cues in both design and story from the noir genre, making the film's design sense almost anachronistic. One major aspect of this was, of course, the film's costume design courtesy of Charles Knode (who was also costume designer for Scott's later fantasy film Legend), who designed a visually rich and diverse wardrobe, with heavy influences from 1940s fashion, but enough anachronistic flourishes (and a few 1980s fashion touches) to end up as futuristic. This noir-influenced anachronistic design sense is seen rather clearly with the outfit worn by the main character, detective and 'blade runner' Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who always wears a brown trenchcoat over a patterned shirt (it should be worth noting that he was meant to be wearing a hat with the coat as seen 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 Deckard sports during the film? Of course the highlight being the green and brown shirt crisscrossed with red and blue lining, but the other shirts are pretty fun too!

Fellow detective Gaff (Edward James Olmos) is dressed in a similarly archaic fashion, wearing a yellow or silvery waistcoat under his slightly futuristic vinyl-lined trenchcoat along with bow tie and trilby hat, making the character look like the classic image of a 'dandy' in comparison to Deckard's schlubbier 'gumshoe' look. Gaff also sports a grey variation on the vinyl-lined trenchcoat as well in some scenes, again obscured by the film's atmospheric lighting.

The police officers that usually flank Gaff and other members of the future LAPD wear futuristic uniforms consisting of motorcycle armor over string vests and caps with visors fitted on, with leather armor around the legs as well it seems. Another uniform that we only know exists thanks to publicity photos is even more fascistic, being a brown vinyl coat worn over a collared tunic.

And of course there is the rogue replicant Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) just wearing a large leather trenchcoat for most of his appearances, giving the character a rogueish look, as well as the jacket being covered in piping to give a futuristic feeling - though I feel Hauer's shock of hair is what really made the character stand out! With the exception of Sebastian and Tyrell's nightgown (both of which we will get to in a bit), the rest of the men's fashion in the film isn't really worth noting, being more or less plainclothes.

Deckard ends up falling in love with the prototype replicant Rachael (Sean Young), who is one of the film's most remembered characters, partly thanks to the many fancy costumes she wears throughout her scenes, being the perfect example of the film's homages to the glamour of 40s fashion often seen in noir films, the padded shoulder suits designed by Gilbert Adrian being a major influence, combined with the then current trend of 'power dressing' that had started in the late 70s, making Rachel's outfoits both anachronistic and in line with the fashions of the day. The first costume Rachael wears is a shiny black two piece suit made out of silk with black snakeskin pieces fixed on the collar and shoulders. A prim yet glamorous design, this ended up as one of the most famous costumes associated with the film, the pompadour hairstyle adding to it.

Rachael's second outfit is a glamorous blur fur coat fixed with many different patterned fabrics, with a large high collar black fur wrap, lined with black silk going down in the middle, and with striped black and grey fur cuffs.

Rachael's third outfit is one of the most famous designs of the film, being a glamorous faux fur coat made out of chevron stripes of different fur patterns of grey and white, with the fur being grey and the ridged fabric being white, and the high collar making the coat resemble a parka.

Rachel's fourth outfit is another tribute to Gilbert Adrian's suits, this one being a silk two piece suit made up of striped colour fabrics, made up with metallic threads that made the suit seem more shiny and thus futuristic.

Rachel's last outfit is a charming brown-striped blouse, that is only seen briefly in towards the film's end.

The scientist and corporate leader Tyrell (Joe Turkel) first is seen in a blue tuxedo, but during his second appearance wears a white dressing gown, stitched with mosaic-like patterns all across, with different patterns on the collar and sleeves - the implication being that he was so opulent he could even wear a gown that was a bed in its own right.

Sebastian (William Sanderson) is in one of the more memorable costumes of the film, being clad in a vivid studded multicoloured jacket and striped overalls, worn with a leather cap. This was to intentionally make him look like a mischievous and whimsical character, especially considering that he for all intents and purposes he was the future equivalent of a toymaker in the story. The coat in particular was actually much more vibrant than that the film's direction showed, especially with the rainbow pattern on the back.

Pris (Daryl Hannah) was originally a 'pleasure model' Replicant, and this translates to her rather sensual and very 80s design sense, with her loose tiger-pattern striped jacket, worn over a shimmering patterned romper, vest and stockings, finished with a studded choker and large white hairdo, which was just a wig Hannah used as she did not want to cut her hair for the shoot. For certain scenes, she paints her face with white makeup with black spray around the eyes.

Zhora (Joanna Cassidy) is another rogue Replicant who has found work in a local 'Snake Pit', as an exotic dancer, and during her escape from Deckard, wears nothing but a leather bikini, and leather padded boots fixed with metal spikes, finished with a clear plastic raincoat worn over it. This design seems rather remniscient of kinky 'space babe' designs a la those in Barbarella, perhaps Zhora was a homage?

There are also several dresses dresses worn by the other performers at the Snake Pit bar - it's a crying shame that so many of these outfits have so little screentime, because a good few of them are wonderful designs in their own rigjt, especially the ornate dresses worn by the more wealthy citizens. Apparently these dresses can be seen the photos taken of the Snake Pit dancer costumes for Charles Knode's personal 'production bible' of the costumes he made for the film, which sadly has not been scanned by whoever owns it yet.

Lastly were also the beautiful dresses that were only seen by background performers in the various street scenes, as well as a dress worn by Deckard's former wife, only visible in one photograph. It should be worth noting that there was much footage that never made it into any of the final theatrical cuts, hence explaining the abundance of rather elaborate costumes mostly only clearly seen in production photos. Of course, it should be worth noting all the glamour is worn by the more well to do, with most of the extras just being in often very grubby contemporary wear.

(A brief note - because of the film's more dynamic direction often not showing costumes in full or in clear lighting, a lot of production photos were used in this post, and I had to find most of them online with no clear sources. Apologies if it was distracting, or if I didn't manage to remember where I'd found the images! I know one of them was a public Imgur gallery.)

Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Costume Design by:

- Ann & John Bloomfield ( notable efforts: The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), Doctor Who 'The Face of Evil' and 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977), The Wicked Lady (1983), Conan the Destroyer (1984), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Space Truckers (1996), The Mummy (1999), The Mummy Returns (2001) )

The film that helped kick off a boom of sword & sorcery films in the 1980s, and perhaps one of the first non-animated fantasy films that was an adaptation of an established fantasy story as opposed to one from mythology or folktales, in this case being adapted from Robert E Howard's pulp short stories featuring the titular Conan the Barbarian. The film was directed by John Milius and produced by Dino De Laurentiis, a familiar name with lavish scifi & fantasy films (having also produced Barbarella, Flash Gordon and Dune, as well as the sequel Conan the Destroyer and sort-of-sequel Red Sonja), with John Bloomfield hired as costume designer - before this Bloomfield had primarily worked in British television, which included serials of Doctor Who, such as 'The Face of Evil' where Bloomfield had designed some 'primitive' outfits that bear a lot of the hallmarks - materials of rough textures, as well as patterned sweeping robes and bulky armour - of costumes he would create later in his career, including Conan the Barbarian. Also working on the film was respected scifi artist and designer Ron Cobb, who acted as production designer on the film and thus designed many of the armor suits and carved medallions worn by various characters, as well as the sets for the temples - his gallery of concept designs can be seen here.

Bloomfield's designs for Conan consist of a mix and match of historical influences, conveying the sense that the 'Hyperborean Age' had occurred before established history and given rise to existing cultures. Here, mostly thanks to Milius' influence, most of the film's costumes are fairly muted and uniform in colour scheme, being mostly earth tons and made of leather or chainmail in the stereotypical fashion of a 'barbarian' warrior - horned helmets and furs a plenty! Briefly, Conan and his comrades Valeria (Sandahl Bergman) and Subotai (Gerry Lopez) sport more casual wear, with Conan in a long coat made of alternating triple-coloured fabrics, with Valeria in a brown dress with golden trim and studs, and Subotai just in a fur-lined red coat.

Just before the film's credits, Conan is briefly shown as a king atop a throne, clad in a robe with large shoulders (sadly not seen proper thanks to the fur cloak) and black greaves adorned with golden trim. This outfit was reused in the sequel Conan the Destroyer, but worn without the cloak allowing us to see the golden-lined shoulder armor.

When Valeria is killed in battle, she manages to reappear as a warrior spirit, and is glad in glittering silver armor, worn with white fur boots, and a fur lined helmet fixed with silver wings, as a reference to the popular image of the valkyries of Norse legend. Apparently she would have also worn a silver cape too, but this never made it into the film and is only seen in a production photo.

Conan also comes across the surly Akiro, Wizard of the Mounds (Mako Iwamatsu), who is clad in a tattered robe made of grey piping and messy orange and red fabrics, fixed with stone-like discs all over - the design is convincing enough to come across as if it has been cobbled together from various shrubs, and Bloomfield would come up with similar designs on the infamous Waterworld a over a decade later.

Conan and his friends are hired to rescue the daughter of the aged King Osric (Max von Sydow) who sports one of the more vibrant outfits of the film, but is sadly never seen in movement - Osric's clad in a fur-lined cloak of peach which has been stitched with coloured fabrics in shapes, and is worn with a golden chestplate and arm-guards, and is worn with a fur-lined round crown, similar in shape to the fur hats his maids wear. Also of note is the dignitary in the round black and gold hat, who is sadly not seen properly or in close-up.

Osric's soldiers are in brown and gold armor worn over furs, with the helmets being especially notable, not just because of the design (slightly resembling these of samurai) but also how they have a primitive 'face shield' that can be flipped up when not in combat. Like most of the armor designs of the film, these were designed originally by Cobb rather than Bloomfield.

The villain of the film, who murders Conan's parents and fuels his quest for vengeance, is the tyrannical warlord and cult leader Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), who sports several especially imposing outfits in the film, the first - and best - being his battle armor. The armor is designed with a snake motif (to fit both with his cult's imagery and his general affinity for snakes), with the helmet carved to have upright snakes as 'horns' and his shoulder armor being in the shape of snake heads. The chest armor is equally ornate, carved to have eyes and curled snakes, and is worn over striped trousers and a fur cape.

Thulsa's second outfit, worn during his proclamation to his cult, as well as during the cult orgy, is equally as memorable, and also much more colourful - the flapped headpiece is glittery silver with red markings, and is worn with a silvery and gold patterned robe fixed with large leather shoulders and a metallic waistband that is painted to resemble green scales.

When interrogating Conan, Thulsa is in a green robe fixed with silver beads all over, and worn with a black cloak covered in a dot pattern, and wears a black cloth belt fastened with a medallion of his cult symbol.

Thulsa's last outfit menwhile is just a simple black gown, worn with the same belt and wristguards.

Thulsa Doom has two lieutenants who serve him at all times, Thorgrim (Sven-Ole Thorsen) and Rexor (Ben Davidson), who both sport different armor and leather outfits throughout the film. Thorgrim's first armor outfit is a studded leather tabard covered in metallic discs, and worn with an almost crown-like helmet. which again is carved to have a curled snake on it.

In all other scenes, Thorgrim wears black armor, the waist armor in particular carved with a golden axe symbol - during the final battle, it is worn with a spiked helmet.

Thorgrim's comrade Rexor meanwhile, sports more outfits, with his hirst being a leather tunic covered in holes, and stitched with a red fabric symbol, worn with studded wristguards, black fur cloak and an angular horned helmet - the helmet in particular seemed borne out of Ron Cobb's original design sketch for a 'neanderthal warrior' which never got used in the final film.

Rexor's second outfit is another armor suit, worn during the Thulsa cult's ceremony, is again carved with snake imagery, and again is fixed with leather parts that have the same disc holes on them.

During Conan's raid on Thulsa's temple, Rexor sports an a sweeping leather coat (again, fixed with ring holes), that is always open and worn with trousers held up with a red sash belt.

Rexor's last outfit is studded black armor, again the waist being adorned with a golden medallion-like symbol, and worn with another stylised horned helmet akin to the one he wore at the start of the film.

Osric's wayward daughter sports three dresses in the film, none of them getting enough screentime much. Her first dress is a simplistic silvery-white dress fixed in the middle with a golden medallion of Thulsa's cult symbol, as well as sporting a metallic headdress, which she wears with her second outfit, which otherwise consists of a silvery skirt and bikini. Her third outfit is a dark grey and green dress that has been adorned with sparkling red pieces, worn with a grey veil.

Thulsa Doom's elite soldiers don't appear much in the film, which is a shame as they're the most imposing designs - over their white breeches and shirts they wear ornate black armor (designed by Ron Cobb) which again is carved with the snake symbol of Thulsa Doom's cult, and the uniform is finished off with wearing a spiked helmet worn with an ominous face mask.

Lastly, are the robes worn by the various worshippers of Thulsa Doom's cult - the high priests wear the most striking outfits, being in black robes adorned with white and black trim around the large shoulders, as well as fabric strips of the same pattern hanging from either their headdress (such as the city high priest's) or cap (such as the priest at Thulsa's speech at the very end of the film) - these caps are worn by almost all members of the cult, with a visual rank system going on - all lower priests wear orange sashes and have the patterned strips on their caps, whereas the mere rank and file members are in totally plain white robes and caps, with no patterned strips.