Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The Next Generation Uniforms

This one's kind of a bummer, but no discussion of Star Trek: The Next Generation's uniforms is complete without talking about the "skant", named by first season costume designer William Ware Theiss because it was intended to be a gender neutral hybrid of a skirt and pants.

According to Theiss:

Having the actresses and actors both in skirts was to diffuse any sexist accusations that might have been associated with designs from the old show. It's also fashionably probably that four hundred years from now, men would wear skants.

The concept of the skant is fully aligned with the aforementioned equality of the sexes in Gene Roddenberry's 24th century, but unfortunately problematic in the real world of 1980s television production. While it may not be a big deal to see a man in a skirt now, in the 80s it was both revolutionary and not readily accepted: "There was usually a problem on set, because some wisecracks were always made."

Because many actors just weren't comfortable wearing the costume, the skant was slowly phased out and no male member of the main cast ever wore the uniform.

The 80s and 90s weren't ready for the skant, but costume designer Gersha Phillips recently resurrected the distinct look for the recent Enterprise-centric Short Treks "The Trouble with Edward" and "Ask Not", so there may hope yet for a future of proudly bare legs.