I have a completely different opinion. I think one would welcome new uniforms after wearing the same thing for a long time. New things in ones life is what helps stave off the blahs.
In modern Trek, every ship or base seems to have their own uniforms. Maybe its Captain's choice, maybe it's mission-specific. But I did notice it at the time and knew it was money saving but and also emphasised their distance from Starfleet.
I think this is pretty much the real reason. Off-screen considerations made it a production design decision to make it easier to differentiate DS9 and VOY, which were running at the same time.
Generations was a huge mess in these regards, though.
iIm Dying !!!!!!!
No less so than some of the styles humanity has conjured up over the centuries prior to the 24th in Startrekland. Look at our real life 1970s for example... bellbottoms, gaudy color combinations and now imagine how somebody wearing all the puffy frilly gear in the late-1570s might look upon that four centuries-later fashions... But it gets better: The 80s had shoulder pads and far more gaudily colored combinations... amazing that the 1990s didn't combine bellbottoms WITH shoulder pads and have color schemes so gaudy that a 30-megaton bomb going "boom" would be less distracting...
This is probably the only possible in-universe explanation. Sure, you just stick old clothes in the replicator to make new ones, but I suppose it takes some extra energy from somewhere for the replicator to do that task.
The real-life reason of course is probably the studio being too cheap. Or, "we thought the audience would be confused."
If Starfleet had authorized the crew to wear the new uniforms, it would have implied that they viewed her as the still-legitimate commanding officer. Much more palatable for the cameras to arrest her in the old uniform, if that's the direction they'd decide to take. 
"Dammit, Tuvok, did Big Starfleet forget to send us those new uniform specs again?? Was the data stream all hogged up by Tom's 8K The Vampire Diaries downloads?!"
"A... logical theory, Captain."
"Dammit, Tuvok, did Big Starfleet forget to send us those new uniform specs again?? Was the data stream all hogged up by Tom's 8K The Vampire Diaries downloads?!"
"A... logical theory, Captain."
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You jest, but DS9's bland look, along with the lack of an HD upgrade, is a key reason I've never felt super tempted to finally give the show a real try. I don't hold the series' bland look against it, per se, and I respect the artistic inclination to go in a very different direction from the bright and cheery TNG, but there's a lot of other, better-written and more critically acclaimed shows I'm inclined to check out first.
And I think we can all agree the very last thing Voyager needed was to look grayer and blander.
LOL!
True, VOY has its too-bland moments (but some good ones too!).
DS9 is definitely interesting and the switch to the gray quilted uniforms loses so much detail, where even all the AI upscaling so far can't eke out detail that is mired by too much smoothing or mpeg artifacting. That aside, so many alien species get to wear some really nicely tailored stuff that would truly shine under true remastering (direct from the film elements).
Indeed, VOY too would improve. I remember when TNG/1 came out, the set is still beige but all the colors that popped, and sharpness, made it look refreshing and revitalized and even engaging. I can't imagine VOY being any more drab than the original SD, VT edit, even if you ramped up the color/saturation level as there's more going on with detail than can be tinkered at.
I gotta give credit to the YouTube channel "Target Audience" for finding a neat way to explain the differences in uniforms and how the process felt gradual across the series, even if the movie still fudged it unevenly and as a last-second change of mind as the intended ones weren't working out...
They probably didn't think that way because such considerations didn't stop them from using the uniforms on DS9, where the liveliness of the visuals took a severe hit once the FC uniforms came in. It's just such a nineties thing, the rejection of all color, which began with the more utilitarian look of the sets on VGR (compared to TNG), then the FC uniforms, then the overall production design on ENT.
That's one thing I do enjoy about the modern ST shows: they don't worry about whether their design choices, e.g. uniforms, will come out looking corny. They keep it colorful, and they've actually managed to update the old designs in ways that make them somewhat believable despite the 60s origins of the design.
Hasn't it been amply documented that Voyager was under far greater network pressure to be episodic and avoid long-form story arcs than DS9?
I really liked the FC uniforms, but VOY's are a close second. The sets were quite grey though so it was probably best they didn't switch just for the visual break they gave. The Ent-E's bridge was more tan and brown so it kind of let the new grey uniforms pop a bit. I am sure there is a logical reason visually for the things they do. Maybe someone with some knowledge of visual production can explain it.
Sorry, what?If Starfleet had authorized the crew to wear the new uniforms, it would have implied that they viewed her as the still-legitimate commanding officer. Much more palatable for the cameras to arrest her in the old uniform, if that's the direction they'd decide to take.
"Dammit, Tuvok, did Big Starfleet forget to send us those new uniform specs again?? Was the data stream all hogged up by Tom's 8K The Vampire Diaries downloads?!"
"A... logical theory, Captain."
I just think Janeway used her captain's prerogative and said no. There were still TNG uniforms in Season 6 of DS9 so I don't think it's that weird.
Also, let's not forget that in Voyager, they suddenly adopted the slimmer phasers and tricorders in the show's second season, while there was no contact with home at all. There was no in-story reason for it, everyone just started carrying the new props. If resource allocation was an issue at that time (they really stopped worrying about that in the third season onwards), then I guess someone found a box of newer Type-Ii hand units under the rack of compression rifles and distributed them. To be fair, in assorted flashback episodes people had the older hand phasers on Voyager, so it was noticed by the prop masters at least.
Mark
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Adding to that, I wish that there would be a clear, published, behind-scenes reason that they switched the colors for command and support when TNG started. A number of people, on a few websites, say that it is because it was felt that Patrick Stewart looked better in red than "yellow", but it seems that there is never an official source cited. Beyond that, given the way uniform colors worked in TOS, and given the large number of uniforms in the support color needed for extras for security guards and engineers, I don's see why Stewart, and even Frakes, could be in red if they looked better in that color, and yet still have the background engineers and security guards in red like on TOS.
(In the case above, Data could still be in gold because of his position at ops, but then it would be because he was working in the command area of the bridge, instead of it being because it has an operations officer. Tasha might be in red in this case, but, in TOS the phaser crews wore gold, so that might not change either.)
Another interesting question is this: Did Avery Brooks and Kate Mulgrew get tested in any other color uniform but red? And a follow up: If either of them had been deemed to look better in gold, would they have had the captain wear gold, even though that color has already been established to be the color for support by that point?
Avery could rock the gold. 
I could see the symbolism of their uniform being a reason to not update it too, like this was the uniform that brought them together and got through so many helpless times so keeping it helps keep that spirit alive.
Also Starfleet doesn't know if or when they're getting home so maybe they just felt fuck it we're not uploading them new specs every time we change it on a whim. They want new threads they come and get it themselves.
Also Starfleet doesn't know if or when they're getting home so maybe they just felt fuck it we're not uploading them new specs every time we change it on a whim. They want new threads they come and get it themselves.
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