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Copying a replicant

I’m getting a bit of a jump-start on Halloween this year. Last year I was Jane Fonda from the movie Klute and made my entire costume from scratch, however it actually didn’t take me that long.

This year I’ve decided to spend a little more time on my ensemble, and not make practically the entire thing in a day. After a bit of thinking, I settled on a costume that I’d been dying to make for a few years–Rachael the replicant from this scene in Blade Runner.

For those of you that didn’t see Blade Runner in the ’80s, add it to your Netflix list. It’s one of the all-time best sci-fi movies ever made and stars Harrison Ford pre-earring. Basically, blade runners are men hired to kill replicants (or robots) because they’ve been outlawed due to a violent uprising. Rachael is a replicant. Ford is a blade runner. Oh the drama!

I draped the jacket bodice a couple of nights ago and it’s turning out nicely. Currently it has 1-inch-thick shoulder pads, but I actually think that might not be enough. Egads!

I think the hardest part of the whole getup is actually going to be figuring out the mechanics of that hairdo, complete with victory rolls. If anyone has any good tips, let me know. I found a few YouTube videos and I think they might be my best resource so far. For now I’ll be hacking away at the fabrics I found below and working on my best replicant impressions.

Nik
Nicole Smith is an author, editor, designer, and instructor who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Check out her latest book, Skirt-A-Day Sewing, out now at your local bookstore, or online.
4 Comments
  1. I love this movie! I saw it when I was a kid and thought it was so cool.

    Maybe you can get the hair done with rollers?

  2. Seeing as i don’t smoke…I may have a problem there. Maybe I can get my friend to smoke and just blow it in my general direction so I look hazy all evening.

  3. …one of the all-time hottest female movie characters. (Sara, you didn’t read that.)

    One time I told this girl she looked just like the non-Daryl Hannah replicant from Blade Runner and she thought it was a putdown!

  4. Wait, are you going to smoke like a pack an hour?

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