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Blade Runner Costume Design (2020)
One of the reasons modern sci-fi films (e.g., Blade Runner 2049) seem so flat to me is because of the costumes. They're always too minimal and too forgettable. There's really nothing special about the fashion in that movie.

Compare that to the hyper-maximalist 80s movie outfits. The original Blade Runner has more creativity in one outfit than pretty much the entirety of the sequel.

I wonder why that is. My guess is that it's just a symptom of the same thing that causes everyone to stop buying colorful cars, and instead default to a grayscale one: fear that being too outlandish or creative will turn off potential customers/viewers.

Old film makers thought they were compensating for a lack of the kind of CGI and world building options we have today, compensating with rain, mist, camera angles to hide the lack of scale, and with costumes, lots of background actors, detailed film sets, to make the world seem grander. Turns out they had actually hit a sweet spot.
There was a huge Lucasfilm book on the costume design of The Phantom Menace, it looked amazing, I would have bought it at Forbidden Planet but I was between jobs at the time.

It went into to much detail, the film has its detractors, but the book itself was fascinating. Although I still buy books I don't think I spend enough time reading them.

'Dressing a Galaxy': https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dressing_a_Galaxy:_The_Cost...

I would just think that taste has changed. I was actually thinking to myself that I prefer 2049's style as I was reading through this. But I was also born in the late 90's, so I assume it could be a generational difference.
It's not even so much that I like the taste / style of the fashion in the original Blade Runner, more that it just feels more real and interesting. The recent film feels like any other generic sci-fi movie.