24th Century Civilian Clothes

Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by LobsterAfternoon, Feb 14, 2013.

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  1. LobsterAfternoon

    LobsterAfternoon Commander Red Shirt

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    Why is it that every piece of civilian clothing seen in 24th century trek is horrible? Everyone wears horrible vests or horrible pajamas.
     
  2. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    Yes, they always look awful.

    Of course, the Trek characters would probably think our 21st century clothes look horrible! :lol:
     
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  3. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I strongly agree with the OP.

    In TOS, civilians and Federation civil authorities wore suits that were awkward but not atrocious. But starting with the movies, the civies got sensationally bad.

    In TMP, McCoy beams up in a sleazy, "Hey baby, I have a hot tub" track suit with a plunging neckline. His giant gold medallion is just icing on the '70s schlock, and worst of all you can see more of the doctor's private practice than you want to.

    http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tmp2/tmphd0671.jpg

    In ST-III and IV, Kirk wears a lady's red pantsuit with a delicate lavender blouse that makes me want to puke. The backstory in IV says that they spent months on Vulcan before heading for Earth. So, having made such a horrible fashion mistake in III, why couldn't they get better clothes for IV? Vulcan is not a desert island.

    http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tsfshd/tsfshd0620.jpg

    In III, Chekov's civilian look starts out with a big, white collar that was so bad, when a studio executive saw it in the dailies he ordered it yanked. So it just disappears in the film.

    http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tsfshd/tsfshd0597.jpg
     
  4. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I just remembered, in an interview about ST-V, Laurence Luckinbill said that for his Sybok costume, they originally gave him a filmy robe and expected him to wear it with nothing underneath, to avoid lines showing through. He complained ("You've got to give me something to wear").

    The movies needed better costume design talent than they got, plain and simple.
     
  5. yousirname

    yousirname Commander Red Shirt

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    Fashion It So is a pretty funny blog that reviews TNG episodes from a fashion perspective. More entertaining than it probably sounds.
     
  6. Finn

    Finn Bad Batch of TrekBBS Admiral

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    I wonder what people from 400 years ago would think of how we dress

    :vulcan:
     
  7. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    It's horrible because they're clothes we wouldn't wear in our time and society. Federation fashion even became reminiscent of the 1960s during the mid 23rd-Century.
     
  8. Finn

    Finn Bad Batch of TrekBBS Admiral

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    right
     
  9. The Mirrorball Man

    The Mirrorball Man Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It's not just that they're ugly. These clothes and the people who wear them have no sense of style, they've got no design sense. It's as if fashion had ceased to exist. Compare TNG with a movie like The Fifth Element, where, whether we think the result looks nice or not, some effort was made to think about the future of fashion.
     
  10. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    The "One World" aspect of TREK is really a tyranny, and the horrible civilian clothes are a subtle pressure to urge people to enlist, Herbert.
     
  11. SchwEnt

    SchwEnt Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    We all have our bad fashion times. We had the 1970s. Maybe the 2270s or 2380s were a similar era.

    Maybe our heroes just lack any fashion sense and have no good judgment in their off-duty hours.

    I'm no fashion expert, but what I find noticeable is the lack of general style in the future.

    Today you might see a group of fellows in casual garb and it's similar... variations of jeans and tee-shirt, for example. Or another group wearing suits. Different colors and variations, but same general outfit.

    It seems every time ST folks are in civvies, each one is in a wildly different style (one a leisure suit, another with flowing robes, another with pajamas, and so on).

    In other words, we don't see O'Brien and Geordi both wearing the same kind of civvies the way two friends today would be seen both wearing tee-shirts and jeans together.

    Whatever we see one fellow wearing, it can never be similar to what the next guy has on, the way people dress similarly to each other today.

    Or something like this.
     
  12. sbk1234

    sbk1234 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    In all fairness, McCoy's civilian outfit in TWOK was pretty cool.
     
  13. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Civilian clothes in the 24th century really are terrible. I guess the reason people join Starfleet is to get something decent to wear. 23rd century isn't much better, although most civilians we see throughout TOS are workers so the jumpsuits can be excused as practical clothing for their job. I don't mind McCoy's "space disco" look in TMP or any of the civilian outfits we see the characters wear in TSFS/TVH. Sure they may have a distinctive 70s/80s look to them, but that is the era they were made in.
     
  14. scotpens

    scotpens Professional Geek Premium Member

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    Elisha Cook Jr.'s outfit in "Court Martial" looked pretty cool.

    [​IMG]
    Of course, just because everyone in the future is wearing similar fashions doesn't mean they can't look ridiculous.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2013
  15. CaptainMurdock

    CaptainMurdock Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    In terms of Civilian clothes, people of the 22nd Century got it right and in the centuries to come it went downhill.
     
  16. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    What's regarded fashionable is always a relative thing. What one society considers cool, another may consider horrible, even obscene, due to different standards.
     
  17. SchwEnt

    SchwEnt Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    ^^^ Wacky photos but at least consistent.

    ST can't get that part straight. It always seems to be a case of anything goes, each more unusual than the next, all at the same time.

    I'm okay with ST civvies in speedos or pajamas or robes or five-piece suits with capes or anything else. But shouldn't it be somewhat standard, some sense of general style?

    Current day, sure, every type of attire is possible. But generally on any given street people wear similar styles (be it robes or pants or skants or jeans or dresses).

    Is this not the case with any ST future fashion?
     
  18. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    That's just cos they used current-day clothing with barely any alterations. Ditto the rebooted Star Trek.

    Into Darkness, however, seems to be getting a trifle more eccentric. Check out Sunglasses Cap Guy on the centre-left. Perhaps a 23rd century chav in London?
    [​IMG]
     
  19. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    Fashion sense, as previously stated, is relative. Looking back, we've all worn what we would now consider weird and distasteful clothing, so we should expect future fashions to be just as odd.

    While out-of-universe the costuming may not have been well-done, from an in-universe perspective, the clothes sell a society with a different fashion sense. And that fashion sense evolved, too. The civilian duds of the 2360s looked different from the civvies of the 2370s, and both looked different from the clothes of the 2270s.
     
  20. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    Terrible, maybe.

    Boring green/gray shit, probably not.
     
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