Stylistic Inspiration and Influences - Modern-era Starfleet Uniforms

Although Enterprise was a prequel show, another major stylistic influence of its uniforms was the uniforms of modern-era Star Trek. 

Such influences were generally subtle but also arguably undeniable; although on opposite ends of the Star Trek (prime?) canon timeline, it made sense to have some consistency in the Starfleet uniforms over the centuries. 

ENT, 4x2 "Storm Front (part 2)"

For instance, the ENT jumpsuit collars were slightly rounded in the front, rather than rectangular with corners, similar in style to the mandarin collars of the TNG-era uniforms:

There was also the undershirt, which had (de?)evolved from the gray VOY undershirt to the DS9/NEM division shirt, then the black ENT undershirt:

Also worth noting is that the respective Starfleet undershirts were all cotton lycra. 

There was also the wearing style of leaving the front closure "unzipped" for about 4-10" beneath the bottom of the neckline at the center front, forming a V-shaped front opening which revealed the undershirt.

Since the beginning of the modern-era of Star Trek with TNG's launch, Starfleet uniforms had all had a yoke of some kind or another that extended onto the sleeves via shoulder points.

Although the Enterprise-era Starfleet uniforms didn't have literal yokes like previous (er, future) Starfleet uniforms did/would have, the shoulder division stripes did form the outline of a yoke that resembled that of the modern-Trek uniforms.

ENT, 1x5 "Unexpected"

4x12 "Babel One"

The front alignment of the various pockets and straps on the Enterprise-era Starfleet jumpsuit was also very reminiscent (er, foreshadowing?) of the DS9/NEM-era formal uniform, in particular.

The sleeve structure of the Enterprise-era Starfleet jumpsuits was unusual, but notably similar in construction style to that of several TNG-era uniforms (more on this later):

TNG, 1x1 "Encounter at Farpoint"

5x2 "Darmok"

TNG, 5x19 "The First Duty"

DS9, 5x13 "For the Uniform"

Again, we'll examine the ENT jumpsuit sleeve construction in more detail later; for now we're merely pointing out that it was remarkably similar in aesthetic and construction to some of the unusual TNG-era uniform sleeves.

Also of note is that the Enterprise uniforms denoted the wearer's rank with pips rather than the rank braid worn on the sleeves of the TOS uniforms - an odd choice considering, chronologically, Starfleet would adopt pips, discard the pips in favor of rank braid, then discard the rank braid in favor of pips again.

It's a timey-wimey thing. 

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