Favorite William Ware Theiss costume design?

[JonnyQuest037]

With Halloween coming up soon, it seems like a good time as any to discuss Star Trek costuming.

Any favorite William Ware Thiess costume designs you'd like to share? And I don't just mean the skimpiest outfits on the women (lovely as those are), I mean the entire body of his work on Trek (heck, you can even include some 1st season TNG if you want). Which ones were the most creative, striking, or best fit the character's personality?

Come to think of it, does anyone here know why he was not brought back as a costume designer for any of the TOS movies? Was he retired by that point, busy on other projects, or just not interested?

Here's a link I found with a decent overview of some his TOS designs:

http://www.dame-mehri.com/theiss/btheiss.html

 

[DrTaylor]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

Honestly I'm amazed he got most of it past the censors.

 

[Botany Bay]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

Aside from his many famous efforts with the ladies (thankyou, Bill!), I love his design for Kirk's green wrap around shirt (I am assuming this was a Thiess design).

Apparently they neded something the Shat could remove easily without ruining his hairdo/wig. Genius.

 

[T'Girl]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

Kirk's green wrap around

Not to be confused with Kirk's green reach around.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

His original series uniforms, and also his updated uniforms for TNG.

 

[scotpens]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

One of Theiss’ best male costume designs was the outfit worn by Elisha Cook Jr. as attorney Samuel T. Cogley in “Court Martial.” The tweedy jacket with large patch pockets and leather-like panels in place of lapels looked both traditional and futuristic. I've always wanted a jacket like that.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

I love his design for Kirk's green wrap around shirt (I am assuming this was a Thiess design).

Agreed. I've wanted to get a copy of that uniform as a Halloween costume for years.

 

[Nathan_Heller]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

This was always my favorite. It never hurt that Leslie Parrish was such a lovely actress.

 

[AJBryant]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

For me, it was a toss-up between Leslie Parrish's pink thing in "Who Mourns for Adonis" and Droxine's boob-suit in "The Cloud Minders"

 

[GSchnitzer]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

For me, it was a toss-up between Leslie Parrish's pink thing in "Who Mourns for Adonis" and Droxine's boob-suit in "The Cloud Minders"

One of my favorite Bill Theiss designs is the design for the "Team 21" uniforms from Roddenberry's pilot Planet Earth. You can see that they are a harbinger of TNG uniforms. And look: there's that Kirk/command avacodo green color again.

(I apologize that the only version I can find of the above picture is one where James Cawley's head has been photoshopped over John Saxon's. With my luck, this will start some crazy photoshopping thread.)

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

One has to wonder what those Team 21 uniforms were like to wear. They look to be at least as short and snug in the crotch as the TNG uniforms - which were uncomfortable enough, when closely fitted for the main cast - but the materials available to Theiss in the mid-1970s would not have been nearly so elastic as the Spandex used on that Trek series. What were they made of?

 

[kkozoriz1]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

Algae based xenylon, I believe.

 

[GSchnitzer]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

One has to wonder what those Team 21 uniforms were like to wear. They look to be at least as short and snug in the crotch as the TNG uniforms - which were uncomfortable enough, when closely fitted for the main cast - but the materials available to Theiss in the mid-1970s would not have been nearly so elastic as the Spandex used on that Trek series. What were they made of?

I don't know. James has all of Bill's notebooks; Bill's old notes might say. I'm a prop guy, not a costume guy so much, so my guess isn't worth very much. If I had to fathom a guess, I'd say wool gabardine.

Edit: I found another shot from the same photo shoot--this one with John Saxon's head!

 

[Green Shirt]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

For me, it was a toss-up between Leslie Parrish's pink thing in "Who Mourns for Adonis" and Droxine's boob-suit in "The Cloud Minders"

One of my favorite Bill Theiss designs is the design for the "Team 21" uniforms from Roddenberry's pilot Planet Earth. You can see that they are a harbinger of TNG uniforms. And look: there's that Kirk/command avacodo green color again.

(I apologize that the only version I can find of the above picture is one where James Cawley's head has been photoshopped over John Saxon's. With my luck, this will start some crazy photoshopping thread.)

Nice to see he learned his lesson from the "green photographs as yellow" fiasco.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

Based on the way the sleeves wrinkle, among other things, it looks like a knit - hell, it looks like it could be the same material used for the Trek uniforms in the third season.

 

[Doug Otte]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

As is often the case, I don't have anything substantial to add to the conversation. However, if we're going to laud Theiss' work, can we at least spell his name correctly?

Curmudgeonly Nitpicker Doug

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

His original series uniforms, and also his updated uniforms for TNG.

Mine too.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

His original series uniforms, and also his updated uniforms for TNG.

This.

 

[Gary7]

Re: Favorite William Ware Thiess costume design?

I wonder what he was drinking/smoking/popping when he came up with these getups?


Overall, I liked most of what Theiss came up with aside from a few exceptions like the one above and the bizarre designs in "Journey to Babel". The Tellarites... looked like they were wearing patches of ventilation duct material. And the Andorians looked like they had pillaged a Renaissance Fair wardrobe.