Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The Next Generation Uniforms

What's that famous Gene Roddenberry quote? "In the 24th century, there will be no hunger, there will be no greed, and all the children will know how to read... and also there will be no zippers." Something like that?

Along with William Ware Theiss' edict that there would be no wrinkles in Starfleet's clothes, Gene Roddenberry also allegedly declared that zippers and buttons were a thing of the past. As such, every Starfleet uniform in the Roddenberry and Rick Berman eras of Star Trek was designed to hide closures, to the point where Hollywood magic was used when a script called for an officer to remove her uniform jacket.

As seen in season five's "Ensign Ro", even Starfleet uniforms that appear to be single-piece jumpsuits, are in fact made in two pieces, with invisible breaks in waist and an invisible closure running up the front. In real life, this was achieved simply by intercutting footage of Michelle Forbes in her regular jumpsuit with footage of her removing a specifically designed jacket, but the implications for clothes in the Star Trek Universe are interesting and profound and too complex to cover here.

Put simply: 24th century zipper technology is so advanced, it's akin to magic.