Out of the Unknown (1965 - 1971)

A science-fiction anthology series that has sadly been overlooked (and not helped at all by how a lot of its episodes have been lost, thanks to the BBC and its 'junking' procedures - a fate suffered by many old televisions series), Out of the Unknown was partly adapted from many existing scifi stories br writers including JG Ballard, Phillip K Dick, Isaac Asimov and John Wyndham. Though most of the episodes (that are surviving at any rate) just had their cast in contemporary clothing. It should also be worth noting that, sadly, most of these episodes have their costume designers uncredited.

'The Dead Past'

The cast of this episode wore futuristic suits with no collars or lapels, worn over vests with a similar design. One cast member wears a buttonless jacket made of a hexagonal fabric pattern - a time when that wasn't a hoary old scifi visual design cliche.

'Thirteen to Centaurus'

This episode involved a space colonization team, with the civilian members all lined jackets with leather straps on the collars and sides of the jacket, with the position of the straps reversed depending on the wearer's gender. Strangely, these uniforms would be regularly reused in other scifi productions such as; the Doctor Who serial 'The Ice Warriors', The Avengers episode 'The Living Dead' and The Tomorrow People serial 'The Dirtiest Business' - the latter two reuses were in colour, revealing the uniform's colour to be beige.

The military members of the colonization team wear vinyl-panelled tunics with large shoulders and a v-shape panel on the front - sometimes these uniforms are worn with a cap that seems to have been military surplus rather than made for the production.

'The Machine Stops'

Costumes by: Barbara Lane

This episode involved a society in thrall to 'the Machine' which cares for everyones needs under the ground, and had one of the more inventive costumes of the series yet, courtesy of Barbara Lane. Lane would go on to have a long career in costume design, but it is striking that the underground humans such as Vashti (Yvonne Mitchell) are wearing conical headpieces, as Lane would design similar headpieces such as the the one worn by the stone person Eldrad in the Doctor Who serial 'The Hand of Fear', as well as the headpieces worn by the Mutoids in Blake's 7, which Lane was costume designer on for its first series. Vashti doesn't get many good shots, but at first is wearing a slightly shiny bodysuit with the headpiece.

There is a female attendant wearing a jumpsuit whose leg bottoms end in frilly flares, with differently coloured stripes going around the waist. The jumpsuit is worn with flat headpiece that is curved in a way to resemble hair almost.

Vashti's son Kuno (Michael Gothard) wears a white (? who knows in the black and white) jumpsuit that is also worn with a padded armor piece for protection when attempting to escape the underground society and journey onto the surface. In other scenes, he wears a toga-like garment over a hexagon-patterned vest, worn with tights. Other men in this machine-controlled city dress similar, with the same diamond-like headgear as well.

'Too Many Cooks'

This episodes cast wore gowns with robes consisting of cross-crossing fabric stripes; the elder was only distinguished by their robe being in white rather than black.

'Immortality, Inc.'

The denizens of the future in this episode wear wide-shouldered tunics; one notable exception is the woman who wears a silvery dress with ornate jewellery around the collar.

'Liar!'

This episodes cast wear a variety of sleek futuristic jackets and jumpsuits; the jackets and jumpsuits tend to have vinyl lining around the cuffs and transparent patches on the chest, with one woman cast member wearing a jumpsuit with a colourful patterned v-neck panel.

'Beach Head'

Costumes by: Charles Knode

This episode involved a spacecraft crew on an alien planet, all clad in some of the most colourful uniforms ever worn in science-fiction, with the commander and his staff in striped tunics of grey and shades of pink, fitted with red pieces at the shoulders and worn with trailing bellbottoms. The security staff wear uniforms of the same pattern but are of a darker shade of grey and with yellow and brown stripes instead.

Just visible in the surviving production photographs is a security guard uniform consisting of an asymmetrically designed grey, yellow and orange uniform, with the same bell-bottoms as the other male crewmembers.

The women members of the crew are in less outfit colourful uniforms, though these still have the red shoulder straps, as well as being fitted with a see-through plastic piece around the skirt segment of the tunic.

For ceremonial duties golden vests with v-shape lapels are worn over the uniforms

'The Naked Sun'

Costumes by: Charles Knode

This episode again had its costumes designed by Charles Knode, though the futuristic uniforms this time were not as vibrant, being just grey shirts witn faux-pockets and blue panelling around the shoulders and collar.

The costume highlights were the denizens of the planet being investigated by space policeman Elijah Bayley (Paul Maxwell) - the women Gladia (Trisha Noble) sports two dresses, the first being an orange one with pieces on the top, and the second being a flowing pink one again. This episode is sadly lost and had to be reconstructed from surviving production photos like 'Beach Head' was.

The men of the planet are in simularly flowing garb, though in shades of stoney grey instead.

Some other striking outfits are worn by the robot humanoid servants; purple vinyl hooded outfits, with trailing silver skirt pieces that have purple stripes, and then being worn with sunglasses no less - absolutely one of the most striking designs of this serial in my opinion!

'1 + 1 = 1.5'

In this episode, the male scientists wear a variety of futuristic jackets, one of them appearing to have coloured panelling down the front and sides.

'Target Generation'

The future denizens of this episode wear a form of jumpsuit that is cut around the top half to resemble a tunic.

'Get Off My Cloud'

This was an episode of the third season that is, sadly, entirely lost (the fourth season would just entirely head into horror territory, with no science-fiction tales being adapted), just only existing now as a couple of production photos. The story would have involved a science-fiction author retreating into his own imagination, and as such coming face to face with his own characters - these included a space princess in a silvery shiny dress (sadly, no photos of her in full) as well as two space warriors in amazingly cheesy perspex armor and pointed helmets, these absolutely being a spoof of the designs in space opera comics such as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers or Dan Dare. I only have to wonder who the costume designer for this episode was!

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.)