From Olivier Theyskens to Demna Gvasalia at Balenciaga or Marine Serre and Simon Porte-Jacquemus ... the retro-futuristic silhouettes of Ridley Scott's famous sci-fi movie from 1982 have never ceased to inspire fashion designers.

By Ludmilla Intravaia

The eternal retro-futuristic elegance has a face, that of Rachael, the divine Replicant in a film that has marked generations of spectators, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, a science-fiction masterpiece, whose stylistic influence has never ceased to dazzle fashionistas, all around the globe. Check out Rachael's first appearance in the movie, in the video below.

Blade Runner, released in 1982, is a vivid illustration of its decade fashion style, as one can see Sean Young's fragile silhouette, contrasting with her clothes oversized shoulders (see below). That same year, the costume designer of the movie, Michael Kaplan, was awarded the Best Costume Design Award by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and will be honored, next January, by the American Costume Designer Guild for his whole career including, among others, costumes for Star Trek and Star Wars.

After his Fall-Winter 2019 fashion show, Belgian designer Olivier Theyskens told Fashion Network website how his collection took up "a lot of references in the looks and sound design of the movie Blade Runner that I loved, when I was a child" (listen to Olivier Theyskens here). The models walked on the original score of the film, played in reverse speed, as indicated on the website of the French newspaper Le Monde, the day after the show (read here).

Discover Olivier Theyskens women ready-to-wear Fall-Winter 2019-20 fashion show, on March 1, 2019, in Paris.

Demna Gvasalia's Summer 2020 for Balenciaga, too, features the same type of oversized silhouettes (see below).

Discover the Balenciaga ready-to-wear Spring-Summer 2020 fashion show, on September 29, 2019, in Saint-Denis.

This Blade Runner trend did not go unnoticed in the press. Thus, last October 14, Le Monde published a fashion reportage entitled "Oversized blazer, silk crepe, XXL jewelry ... The spirit of Blade Runner hovers over autumn wardrobe" (look at it here). On October 30, the Huffington Post website analyzed "What Blade Runner predicted in fashion for 2019" (read it there), pointing to fashion designers Simon Porte-Jacquemus and Marine Serre (see for instance the transparent raincoat of Replicant Zhora and the one from Marine Serre Spring-Summer 19 collection, below).

Already, in June 2018, the Italian label Prada produced the film "Nylon Farm", showcasing its emblematic material, harvested here, on artificial sheeps, in reference to the novel "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" by American novelist Philip K. Dick, adapted to the screen as Blade Runner (read this Boudoir Numérique paper : "Prada under tech influence").

Finally, this trend also affects the music industry, since the American rapper Lil Nas X has translate the Blade Runner universe into his music video Panini, last September (to learn more, read the following Boudoir Numérique paper : "Lil Nas X in surfing on Blade Runner Imagery").