TNG Jumpsuit Analysis – Season 3 Onward – Upper Body

Upper Front

With the possible exception of the mandarin collar, the most iconic element of the TNG jumpsuits perhaps remained the asymmetrical waist paneling, beneath the division-colored torso.

As you may recall from earlier in this analysis, the waist paneling underwent some changes over the first couple seasons; the diagonal paneling was higher at first and the apex was more pronounced, but then the diagonal paneling was lowered and the apex shifted outward – first by William Ware Theiss on some characters in season one, then again by Durinda Rice Wood in season two.

Once Robert Blackman took over as costume designer in season three, both jumpsuit front styles remained in use throughout the rest of the series.

Some of this was doubtless the result of older jumpsuits being “upgraded” and repurposed for use during the later seasons, but newer uniforms that were actually made during those later years also featured both paneling styles – and indeed continued to evolve as Blackman further experimented with the waist paneling proportions.

As best I could determine, Dr. Crusher’s jumpsuits were the “season one style” (or very close to it) throughout seasons three, four, and five.

For her season six jumpsuits, Blackman lowered the diagonal waistline and softened the asymmetrical contour.

Then for her season seven jumpsuits, Blackman raised the diagonal waistline again and shifted the “apex” back toward the center front.

Here’s a comparison between her season three, season six, and season seven jumpsuit fronts:

Tasha Yar and Crewman Tarses wore jumpsuits that had season-one-style front paneling.

Plenty of extras wore jumpsuits with season-one-style front paneling, although again, that’s to be expected since many of the extras’ uniforms may have been modified jumpsuits from the early seasons.

On the other hand, many characters also wore jumpsuits with Wood’s “season two front” style – most notably, Counselor Troi, right from her first (alternate imaginary future?) appearance in the season four episode, “Future Imperfect.”

Once she began regularly wearing the standard uniform partway through season six, her jumpsuits consistently had this “season two front” paneling.

This was also the style uniform she wore for her appearance in the apocryphal Enterprise finale.

Perhaps the second most notable character to wear jumpsuits with the “season two front” was Ensign Ro.

Lieutenant Aquiel, Lieutenant Commander Darren, Ensign Taitt, and Ensign Taurik all wore jumpsuits with the “season two front” paneling.

On Deep Space Nine, Jadzia Dax and Doctor Lense were jumpsuits with the “season two” asymmetrical fronts.

Many extras also wore jumpsuits with season-two-style front paneling, although I’ll again point out that at least some of them were probably modified jumpsuits from the early seasons.

So there we have it – the two female main characters consistently having two different style jumpsuit fronts, with supporting characters’ and extras’ uniforms being divided as well.

Assessing solely on the basis of quantity, it seems like the extras’ uniforms slightly favored the “season two fronts.”

I had difficulty determining the front styles of Commander Shelby’s and Lieutenant D’Sora’s jumpsuits.

Commander Shelby’s looked partway between the “season one” and “season two” styles – not as pronounced as most of the “season one”-style fronts, but not as understated as most of the “season two” fronts.

Lieutenant D’Sora’s sometimes looked closer to the “season one” style (see below, left) but other times looked more like the “season two” style (see below, right).

There were also a couple instances of (what I referred to as) the “season two weird front” on later-style jumpsuits:

And of course, with multiple front styles in use concurrently, it was common to see them on different uniforms simultaneously.

For example, compare Commander Shelby’s less-pronounced jumpsuit front to Dr. Crusher’s more prominent one:

And here compare the jumpsuit fronts of the two security guards to each side of Data:

Although the early TNG jumpsuit waist seams had a bit of curved “flair” to them – and at least some of the later ones did as well – the waist seams on the screen-used Ensign Sito jumpsuit and the screen-used male extra’s TNG jumpsuit were both straight, with no curve at all.

Upper Back

The upper back of the jumpsuit featured an asymmetrical waist, approximately mirrored and inverted from the front (i.e. upside-down and backwards).

On the front-zipping TNG jumpsuits, the upper back was one large panel, without a center back seam.

Like the early TNG jumpsuits (such as the screen-used Worf TNG jumpsuit I examined), some of the later jumpsuits’ asymmetrical back seams had a slight downward curve toward the lower apex.

However, on the screen-used male extra’s TNG jumpsuit I examined, this back seam was straight, without any discernible curve to it at all.

Sometimes, the tapered center back seam of the pant legs actually pulled the upper back body panel into an opposite curve.

On the back-zipping TNG jumpsuits, the upper back was comprised of two separate panels, divided by a tapered center back seam.

On Dr. Crusher’s season three jumpsuits, the lower apex was approximately centered between the center back seam and side back seam line.

For her season six jumpsuits, the lower back apex was shifted slightly toward the center back.

For season seven, the lower back apex on her jumpsuits was shifted even more toward the center back.

The lower apex on Counselor Troi’s jumpsuits appears to have been consistently centered (or close to centered) between the center back and side back panel seams.

Commander Shelby’s, Ensign Ro’s, and Lieutenant Commander Darren’s lower back apexes all leaned slightly toward the side panels.

Also note how “slight” the lower back right panel proportions were on Shelby’s and Ro’s uniforms.

By contrast, observe how “wide” these lower back right proportions were on Nurse Ogawa’s jumpsuits:

The tapered center back seam may have disrupted the asymmetrical seam line with the jumpsuit lying flat, but when properly draped around the wearer it produced a seam that flowed continuously across the back.

Here are the dimensions and lower back proportions of the screen-used Ensign Sito TNG jumpsuit I examined.

Side Panels

The entire TNG jumpsuit torso wasn’t division-colored; underneath each arm were black side panels.

These side panels extended up to the lower armscye (underarm), where the sleeves were joined to the body.

The black sides of the jumpsuit were actually comprised of two separate panels (side front and side back), closed with a side seam.

The side panels weren’t direct extensions of the pant legs; they were joined to the lower body via diagonal seams at the waist.

I believe these two side panels (front and back) to have ideally been proportionate widths, with the corresponding seam lines all intersecting.

Like so many other elements of the later TNG jumpsuits, these black side panels varied among the cast and evolved over the years.

Observe how on Dr. Crusher’s mid-series jumpsuits, the side front seams were fairly straight:

However, on her later jumpsuits, these side front seams were slightly curved toward the bust.

Other characters’ side front seams usually looked straight.

The jumpsuit side back seams appear to have consistently been slightly curved, though.

Here are some examples of Dr. Crusher’s uniforms:

And here some examples of other characters’ jumpsuits:

The black side panels on Dr. Crusher’s jumpsuits also widened for the last couple seasons.

Curiously, the side panels on her season seven jumpsuits didn’t look nearly as wide as Dr. Crusher’s – even though they’d both had new uniforms made for them that season.

Bust Darts

The women’s TNG jumpsuits had bust darts – but only on the division-colored front panels. The darts did not extend onto the black side panels.

The precise spacing and length of the bust darts varied depending on the wearer’s physique – which in the case of Dr. Crusher, actually changed over the years.

As you may recall, on the early TNG jumpsuits the bust darts were consistently angled to be parallel (or nearly parallel) to the diagonal waist seam lines.

For most of the mid-series (and updated earlier) jumpsuits, this continued to be the case.

Throughout seasons three, four, and five, the angling of Dr. Crusher’s bust darts wandered a bit, but they don’t seem to have strayed too far from this original aesthetic.