Stylistic Inspiration and Influences - Context

While being a unique (and awesome, in our opinion!) garment in and of itself, we believe it worth noting that there were several sources of stylistic inspiration for the Enterprise-era uniform garments. 

Before examining those, however, we find it rather amusing how many zippers, pockets, and buttons the Enterprise uniforms had, in the context of Star Trek's costuming history. 

Prior to Enterprise, uniforms had always closed invisibly - usually via an invisible zipper with a hidden pull, but also with hook-and-eye closures, hook-and-loop tape ("Velcro"), or whatever means the current costume designer and/or department could come up with at the time. 

The uniforms also lacked buttons and, with the exception of some of the modern-era cadet uniforms and some of the TOS-era trousers, had no pockets. 

This was supposedly because Gene Roddenberry felt that in the future, we'd have more advanced means of securing our clothing and uniforms than zippers, so it lent more of a "future-y" quality to the uniforms if we looked at it and wondered how in the world the wearer got them on since no closure of any kind was visible. 

Enterprise, however, was set between our current (real) world and the TOS-era of Star Trek, which was reflected in many aspects of the show, including the set design, character backgrounds, etc. - and, of course, the costumes. 

This afforded the costume department the opportunity to finally be able to incorporate zippers, pockets, and buttons into the uniforms and costumes for the new prequel show! 

And boy, did they take that and run with it ...

TOS-era Hidden zipper, no buttons, sometimes inconspicuous pockets

The Motion Picture Hidden zippers, no pockets, no buttons

TWOK-era "Monster Maroons"
Hidden closure, hidden back zipper, no buttons,
sometimes inconspicuous pockets

Early TNG-era Hidden zipper, no pockets, no buttons

TNG-era Hidden zippers, no pockets, no buttons

Early DS9/VOY-era
Hidden zipper, no pockets, no buttons

DS9/NEM-era duty uniforms
Hidden zippers, no pockets, no buttons

DS9/NEM-era admiral uniforms
Hidden zippers, no pockets, no buttons

DS9/NEM-era formal uniforms
Hidden zippers, no pockets, no buttons

The only exception was the aforementioned cadet uniforms, which had expanding cargo pockets on the thighs, but even these had only flaps and lacked any other visible closure (such as zippers, buttons, etc.): 

TNG-era, VOY-era, and DS9/NEM-era cadet uniforms
Hidden zippers, no buttons

Then, when Enterprise came along, it's as if over three decades of pent-up "zipper repression," "button repression," and "pocket repression" finally erupted onto the new uniforms!

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