Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The Enterprise Uniforms

Toiling in the 24th century since Star Trek: The Next Generation's third season, costume designer Robert Blackman was constrained by a handful of aesthetic choices inherited from Gene Roddenberry's very specific vision of the future. Namely, Blackman was barred by the producers from including buttons, zippers, or other visible closures in his Federation apparel. However, when he was assigned to create the uniforms for the Star Trek prequel series, Blackman was finally free from those restrictions.

Speaking to StarTrek.com, Blackman described his joy at finally being able to include zippers, pockets, and buttons in his costume designs for Enterprise:

I said, “We’re going to see closures.” I had spent, at that point, 12 years trying to make everything look like you didn’t know how they got into it, that they were just wearing it. So I said, “There’s going to be zippers. There’s going to be pockets. There will be things for equipment.”

Making good on that promise, Blackman designed the NASA-like jumpsuits of 22nd century Starfleet with a whopping 13 zippers. According to the designer, some of the zippers on the uniforms (such as those located just below the knee) weren't even functional, they were fake pockets included purely for aesthetics:

Those fake pockets could never hold anything... They were a zipper to no pocket, but it was just one of things that I wanted to put in.