Opinions on Starfleet Uniforms part 4

Opinions on Star Trek's Starfleet Uniforms

Part 4: Nu Trek: the 23rd (and 32nd) centuries

Discovery season 1-3

For Star Trek Discovery costume designer Gersha Phillips created uniforms that were a major departure from previous designs.  The blue main color was definitely a call back to Enterprise, while the department colors were now metallic accents (gold for command, silver for sciences, bronze for operations) which really are not as easily identifiable as the bright primary colors.  The boots also had matching metallic department colors which honestly just looks gaudy and tacky.  Also the uniforms feature a strange asymmetric collar for some reason.

Discovery USS Enterprise uniforms

For Discovery's second season (and several Short Treks) Captain Pike and the crew of the Enterprise appeared wearing a different uniform style than what was seen on USS Discovery.  The Enterprise crew uniforms were basically the same pattern and cut as the Discovery costumes but with solid black pants (and boots) and yellow/blue/red shirts-still with the asymmetric collars.  They're...ok.

Strange New Worlds

For Strange New Worlds Bernadette Croft designed uniforms for Pike and crew that skew much closer to the TOS costumes.  They still retain some delta printing on the side panels but it's understated.  The skirt uniforms are notably different from the TOS originals, with black panels on the sides and being worn with black leggings.   Overall these are good.  No real problems here.

Discovery seasons 3-5, Starfleet Academy

For the 32nd century Gersha Phillips designed very militaristic, very drab grey uniforms with ugly grey boots.  The uniform jackets feature strange and seemingly impractical asymmetrical bottom flaps.  The department color is shown by a large strip down the wearers left front.  The captains uniform featured additional epaulets.

Seeing that the grey was ugly and blended in with Discovery's sets, new uniforms were created for seasons 4-5 (also seen in Starfleet Academy) of the same basic design and pattern but with the jackets now in the department colors with the stripe down the front now a dark grey.  These were worn with black pants and boots.  A definite improvement.  On these uniforms the rank was shown on a gorget patch on the neck as well as on the badge.  Starfleet Academy featured a variation of this design with a  large number 7 shaped strip in black and silver across the front worn by Starfleet Academy instructors.

Epilogue: 33rd Century Uniform

The epilogue at the end of Discovery's series finale "Life, Itself" gave us a glimpse of the early 33rd century and a new Starfleet uniform.  This odd, somewhat generic scifi looking uniform with the department color against a mid-grey doesn't really say Star Trek.  On the plus side it does lose the asymmetrical bottom, though I personally think it would look better with black instead of the grey.  Also, the pants are quite-ahem-form-fitting...