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.)
