Within the first three lines of Philip K Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), we find the first reference to the character of Rick Deckard and his sartorial style. “A merry little surge of electricity piped by automatic alarm from the mood organ beside his bed awakened Rick Deckard. Surprised - it always surprised him to find himself awake without prior notice - he rose from the bed, stood up in his multicolored pajamas, and stretched.”
Although Dick’s novel and the subsequent film adaptation know as Bladerunner (1982) have been a source of much academic writing from a Fashion perspective, most of the discussions have tended to focus on womenswear and the fashions of the female characters within the Bladerunner Universe. Interestingly, in Dick’s original novel we observe that within the initial introduction of the characters, the very first reference of clothing is used as a description of a garment worn by the male protagonist of the book, Rick Deckard.
Beginning with Dick’s book but following on from the subsequent impact of the film, the fashion industry has continued to be inspired by Bladerunner (1982) and it has become a regular source of inspiration for many influential fashion designers such as Alexander McQueen and Raf Simons. For example, Alexander McQueen’s Givenchy Autumn/Winter 1999 Ready-to-Wear collection and Gareth Pugh’s Autumn/Winter 2006 Ready-to-Wear collection both draw on the Film Noir and Cyberpunk aesthetic present such as that seen in the character of Rachel’s with her forties inspired wardrobe and infamous fur coat.
What is most notable here is that these influences and examinations tend to focus on the impact of womenswear and the female body through exploration of the characters from the original film such as those of Rachel and Pris. There is much less investigation offered through the exploration of the male characters present within the Bladerunner universe.
Any discussion of menswear and the male bodies present within the book and the subsequent film are somewhat dismissed, with the fashion influence of these male characters largely ignored. In fact, their choice of clothing and the garments that they wear have clearly had a significant impact on menswear within popular culture and this gap in critical reflection from a fashion perspective is therefore a rich area of study to interpret and analyse. This discussion will therefore consider the impact of menswear within the Bladerunner Universe, drawing on the original 1982 film and concluding with Denis Villeneuve’s Bladerunner 2049 (2017) in which he reimagines the Bladerunner universe.