I have an amazing opportunity I could really use your help with.
A couple people with incredible screen-used costume collections have invited me to come and study some of their costumes.
It’s a pretty major undertaking – but more on that in a minute.
“MONSTER MAROONS”
Probably my number one request over the years has been for “monster maroon” patterns, which of course I would love to do.
One of these collectors owns seven (!) screen-used “monster maroons,” which is an incredible opportunity in and of itself.
I’ve done a lot of preliminary research into these uniforms, but the opportunity to thoroughly document and pattern directly from just these original costumes would probably make the whole trip worthwhile.
DS9/VOY UNIFORMS
My second most popular request over the years has probably been for women’s DS9/Voyager uniform patterns, and for them to be available as digital downloads.
One of these collectors owns screen-used uniforms from the entire Voyager main cast – Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, B’Elanna, Tom, Harry, and the EMH, plus one of Sisko’s from DS9.
The other collector owns Captain Picard and Geordi uniforms from Generations. (These are neat because they have those purple undershirts we only briefly saw that production year.)
Needless to say, this lineup (in addition to two women’s uniforms I’ve already studied, thanks to another collector) will be plenty for me to make new men’s and women’s DS9/VOY patterns happen.
TNG TWO-PIECE WOOL UNIFORMS
Another very popular request over the years has been for the TNG two-piece wool uniforms.
I’ve already studied two of them (a Commander Riker and Lieutenant Barclay uniform) and will be posting all about them soon, along with a comprehensive costume analysis.
But on this trip there will be up to four more to study, including Captain Picard’s, Data’s, Geordi’s, and a “Yesterday’s Enterprise” variant!
I’d like to be able to spend at least a little bit of time with those, but I’m particularly looking forward to studying and patterning off the corresponding trousers.
For some reason genuine TNG trousers are surprisingly hard to find; most of the ones floating around are from the abandoned Generations uniforms.
But, one of the owners has two “hero” pairs of these, one Commander Riker’s and one Data’s.
I’d love to be able to do proper TNG trousers patterns to go with my upcoming jacket patterns.
TNG-era FORMAL UNIFORMS
Another common request I’ve gotten has been for the TNG-era formal uniforms.
These changed a lot over the years and I’ve been holding out for some screen-used uniforms to pattern from … and between these two collectors, they own six (!) of them, from the longer spandex ones seen in early TNG, to the shorter wool ones from later TNG, DS9, and Voyager.
That is just a fantastic selection to be able to reverse-engineer and pattern from.
OTHER COSTUMES
Anyway, they own a bunch of other awesome costumes, such as:
- Captain Kirk’s “Class A” uniform from The Motion Picture
- Captain Kirk’s “commando” uniform from Star Trek 5
- Counselor Troi’s lavender jumpsuit
- Captain Kirk’s Generations uniform, with the vest (that’s another one I’ve gotten asked about a lot)
- Two DS9/NEM uniforms – the EMH’s from First Contact, and a Jadzia Dax two-piece variant
- Data’s formal uniform from Nemesis
- Travis Mayweather’s uniform from Enterprise
What a treasure trove, right?!
And those are just the ones I’m hoping to get to this trip.
They have even more awesome costumes that I’d love to study but probably won’t get to this time.
EXPENSES
I’m looking at a two-day drive both ways, plus an overnight hotel.
… but the real expense is six weeks in a hotel once I’m there.
You might be asking, “Six weeks?!?” and that’s a fair question.
It usually takes me a day or two to properly document, measure, and photograph a costume.
It also usually takes me a couple days to accurately pattern from a costume.
Realistically, a day or two per costume is the absolute bare minimum I can spend and still do them any kind of justice.
With 30+ costumes on the list, even frantic 1-2 day “whirlwind studies” of each adds up!
GOALS
This is a very condensed, high-intensity research trip, and it will take some time to unpack everything after I’m home; we’re probably talking about thousands of photos, hours of video, and of course compiling and grading all the patterns.
I plan to post all of the costume research, reference photos, examination videos, fabric sources, dye recipes, etc. here on my blog for everyone interested.
HELP ME MAKE IT SEW!
Any financial support for this “trek” is greatly appreciated!
Those of you who contribute, feel free to comment mentioning the uniform(s) you’re most interested in and any specific question(s) you have about them. I’ll do my best to answer them for you.
Thank you for helping me do what I do.
I’m looking forward to bringing you many more patterns, fabrics, and costuming resources.
