Star Trek: 10 Starfleet Rules You Never Knew Existed

10. The Starfleet Uniform Code

Starfleet's uniform code was not as strict as you may think. Enforcement was largely up to the discretion of the captain, and some officers, like Deanna Troi, were allowed to wear casual clothing on duty. Though she was forced to wear a standard uniform when Captain Jellico temporarily took command.

There were also a number of allowances made for cultural accessories, including Ro Laren's earring, Worf's baldric, Nog's Ferengi headdress, and Scotty's kilt and sporran, which he wore as part of his dress uniform. Ensign Mesk was even allowed to carry a very dangerous Orion multi-key because of a religious exemption. However, Ro was initially prevented from wearing her earring, so it's possible that these allowances were also up to the captain's discretion.

Certain species also needed different uniform styles because of their unique physiology, such as Arex from The Animated Series, the beluga whales from Lower Decks, and Saru from Discovery.

Different uniform styles would also often be used at the same time in Starfleet. While the grey-shouldered uniforms from the Next Generation films were still being used, California-class ships and others used the style from Lower Decks. During this same time period, Starbase 80 used their own variant that we saw in Trusted Sources, and some styles were used only on specific missions, like the ones from the DS9 episode Shadows And Symbols, which were optimised for hot and sandy environments.