Perhaps the most obvious changes Robert Blackman made to the TNG uniforms were to the neckline and yoke areas – specifically, the addition of the mandarin-style collar and the removal of the division-colored yoke trim.
Dr. Crusher’s TNG jumpsuits were the first to feature these changes, since initially she was the only main character to continue wearing the jumpsuit-style uniform.
(At that point the male characters had switched to two-piece wool uniforms, Tasha Yar was long gone, Counselor Troi was still wearing her more casual uniforms, extras continued to wear early TNG jumpsuits, and Ensign Ro wouldn’t be introduced for another couple years.)
Division-colored Piping
The upper edges of the collar were accented with ⅛” division-colored piping, echoing the neckline trim on the earlier jumpsuits.
The collar piping wasn’t plain or solid; nor was it simply the jumbo spandex body fabric wrapped around cord.
Thanks to the amazing quality of the series in remastered HD, we can see that twisted/braided piping was used.
Here are some detail auction photos, in which the braided/ridged texture of the collar piping is also clearly visible.
Here’s the collar piping on the male extra’s TNG jumpsuit I studied, pictured with a seam gauge for reference:
Piping Changes
The collar piping underwent a couple interesting changes over the years.
For most of seasons three through five, the teal collar piping was darker and barely registered on camera at all.
The piping was definitely there, even though it was usually only visible under particularly bright light or the camera happened to catch it just “right.”
Early in season four, Blackman appears to have begun experimenting with lightening the teal collar piping so it was more visible on-camera; at least one of Dr. Crusher’s jumpsuits had noticeably lighter collar piping for a stretch of early season four episodes.
He appears to have abandoned the experiment for a while, although toward the end of season five, he decisively lightened the teal collar piping once and for all.
From then onward, there was no missing it!
It was as Ann as the nose on Plain’s face.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of Dr. Crusher’s early (season 4) and later (seasons 6-7) collar piping:
Unfortunately, with the division colors continually evolving (and fabric/trim sources possibly changing) over the years, the collar piping wasn’t always an ideal color match to the jumpsuit body spandex.
A subtle color mismatch could also sometimes be seen on the gold jumpsuits, particularly during the later seasons.
Partway into the seventh season, newer uniforms had gold collar piping that was noticeably lighter and greener.
Here’s a photo of the collar piping on the screen-used Ensign Sito TNG jumpsuit I studied:
(This same lighter gold collar piping could be seen on TNG jackets from around that same timeframe; the gold wool shifted toward the green for the final season, which may have been what prompted the collar piping color change.)
And to be fair, I would point out that these relatively minor color discrepancies would’ve probably never been visible while experiencing the show as originally intended (e.g. in VHS-level broadcast resolution viewed on an 80s/90s-era television).
Even in remastered HD, one has to specifically watch for these details, and they’re still relatively minor.
But they did happen and they are visible, so I mention them here as items of potential interest. 🙂
Another interesting development with the collar piping was that on some later gold uniforms, the piping subtly (but noticeably) widened slightly beyond the standard ⅛”, almost to 3/16”.
This was particularly noticeable (and measurable) on the Ensign Sito jumpsuit I studied.
It looks like a couple gold jumpsuits from seasons four and five may have had slightly wider collar piping as well, but it’s difficult to say for certain.
Collar Height, Grain, and Shaping
Both the screen-used Ensign Sito TNG jumpsuit and male extra’s TNG jumpsuit I examined had collars that were consistently 1 ½” tall.
Also note how in the previous two examples, the collar spandex was cut on the same grain as the jumpsuit yoke.
As best I can tell that was standard practice, and it’s been the case with nearly every TNG jumpsuit I’ve ever seen.
Curiously though, this particular jumpsuit collar was cut perpendicular to the grain direction of the yoke:
Whether this was a simple error or an intentional experiment, who can say?
Either way, as best I can tell, it’s an outlier.
Broadly speaking, for general (and cosplay) purposes, I believe it safe to regard 1 ½” as an “ideal” (or at least “standard”) collar height; many of the jumpsuit collars we saw appeared to be in that approximate range.
I would also personally regard the following examples as “ideal” collar shaping.
However, as with practically every aspect of these uniforms, the collar height and shape varied considerably over the years – not just among the cast, but even on the same characters.
Most of Dr. Crusher’s jumpsuits from seasons three, four, and five had collars with tastefully-rounded curves at the center front:
About two-thirds of the way into season five, however, her jumpsuit collar shaping changed; observe how the front curve was softened, producing a wider opening at the center front.
Throughout season six and most of early season seven, her jumpsuit collars continued to have this softer front curve.
She was given new uniforms at the beginning of season seven, again featuring a different collar shape.
These collars were noticeably taller (I estimate upwards of 2 ½”), and more steeply curved at the front.
This collar style first appeared in the season premiere but wasn’t seen again until almost a dozen episodes later.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison between her fifth, sixth, and seventh season collars:
Once she started wearing the standard duty uniform partway through season six, Counselor Troi’s jumpsuit collars were slightly shorter, and less rounded at the front – akin to Dr. Crusher’s collar style at the time.
Her collars throughout the seventh season had even less curve along the front.
To what degree this was the result of a personalized aesthetic for Marina Sirtis (e.g. it was decided the shorter collars looked better on her), and/or part of an overall design experiment by Blackman & co., I obviously can’t say.
The ultimate takeaway is that Dr. Crusher’s collar shapes changed several times, and Counselor Troi’s collars were both shorter than average and had less curve along the front.
Among the supporting cast, there were several collars which appeared to be considerably taller than 1 ½” – some at least 2”, and some upwards of 2 ½”.
Ensign Ro’s collars looked a bit taller than usual, too – perhaps 2 ¼”.
As an opposing example, Ensign Leffler’s jumpsuit collar looked shorter – particularly in contrast to her taller neck.
The collar curve varied, as well as the height; these jumpsuit collars all had strong front curves:
On the other hand, these jumpsuits had collars with hardly any front curve at all.
What to make of all this variety?
Some of it was doubtless due to personalized fitting – particularly for main characters like Dr. Crusher and Counselor Troi.
But even still, the overall collar shape seems to have at least partially depended on whatever mood he was in that year; here’s a comparison between both of their collars from season seven:
And here’s a comparison between two supporting characters’ collars, both back-zipping jumpsuits from early season five:
This is a great example of why for these uniforms, I primarily focus on season four to establish “standards”; personal leanings aside, the uniforms were the most consistent at that point in the show.
(This is my preference for the corresponding men’s TNG jackets as well.)
Everything we saw in the show (and which you’ll see throughout the remainder of this analysis) is both canonical and of potential interest, but personally I think these uniforms simply looked their overall best during the fourth season.
Tapered + Wearing Ease
The jumpsuit collars weren’t simply cut rectangular with one end rounded; they were slightly tapered to help them “hug” the wearer’s neck for a more flattering fit.
The ideal collar fit seems to have been a somewhat snug (but hopefully comfortable) one.
Naturally, the collar had a bit of wearing ease.
Curiously, both Ensign Ro’s and Ensign Leffler’s jumpsuits had unusually wide necklines, and Ro’s collar was noticeably looser than most of the other characters’.
Front-zipping vs. Back-zipping
We’ll discuss the front-zipping and back-zipping jumpsuit closures shortly, but for now we’ll just examine their relation to the collar.
Most TNG jumpsuits zipped up the front – probably because so many were early jumpsuits (from the first couple seasons) that were modified later on by Blackman’s wardrobe team.
But while they were more aesthetically consistent with Blackman’s reimagined TNG uniforms, unfortunately the mandarin collars didn’t look as good on those as they did on the back-zipping ones.
Specifically, there was often a small “gap” between the two front edges of the collar.
Sometimes it was particularly distracting.
I mention this not as a criticism to the costume department’s excellent work in the face of a difficult task; the front closure system simply didn’t lend itself well to the accented mandarin collars.
In any event, for the front-zipping jumpsuits, the collar wrapped all the way around the back of the neck; there was no center back seam.
The neckline/collar seam allowances were pressed upward into the collar, except at the very front, where they were clipped to the stitching and pressed downward.
The neckline/collar seam allowances were pressed upward into the collar, except at the very front, where they were clipped to the stitching and pressed downward.
On this TNG jumpsuit, there also appears to have been a small piece of black felt under the front collar area to protect the wearer’s neck from the zipper and hook-and-eye closures.
A similar protective flap of black felt was seen on the back of the TNG jacket collars, but as of the writing of this analysis, this is the only instance in which I’ve seen this particular element on a jumpsuit.
Personally, I think the mandarin collars looked so much better on the back-zipping TNG jumpsuits, because the continuous front yoke allowed the two edges of the collar to be perfectly flush.
Sometimes – particularly on Dr. Crusher’s jumpsuits – the edges of the collar piping were actually hand-sewn together along the lowermost ¼” or so, presumably to anchor them flush and prevent them from pulling apart.
On the interior, the collar piping extended downward below the neckline a bit, and the lower edges were protected by a small square of fabric stitched over them.
Observe also the determined hand-sewing of a costumer who wasn’t taking any chances!
Despite everyone’s best efforts, this small protective fabric enclosure sometimes flipped upward and poked outward from underneath the collar.
This has also sometimes happened when putting the screen-used jumpsuits on mannequins.
Like on the front-zipping jumpsuits, the neckline/collar seam allowances were clipped at the center front to accommodate the piping but pressed upward (into the collar) around the remainder of the neckline, and the collar lining was hand-sewn to the allowances along the lower edges.
Collar Interfacing
On both of the later screen-used TNG jumpsuits I studied, the collars were interfaced with what felt like a mediumweight fusible interfacing.
This was probably done to both stabilize them during construction (specifically while sewing the piping and attaching the collar to the jumpsuit neckline), as well as to bolster them up so they wouldn’t be limp or flop around.
(There didn’t seem to be any canvas or sew-in interfacing inside; the collars were definitely stiffened and the jumbo spandex wouldn’t stretch, but the collars were also still somewhat “squishy.”)