why does star fleet have so many uniform changes

[chaos42]

the thing is that the ds9 uniform for the early part -as well as all of voyager were used at the same time as the tng post season 3 design -my take is that its an alternate uniform type that could be worn. I think it makes sense to have a uniform thats for when your doing the work on the bridge and one thats more for doing work in engineering. but then we have the grey shoulders that are more millitary -and they have the combat ones for the guys on that i can deal with its all the other random changes they keep making that bugs me lately

[Nealithi]

Selection pressure. Bear with me but when I joined the USAF we got a basic green jacket right before the jungle camo version was made standard. Our BDU's were jungle pattern as well. Why because the last place we fought was a jungle. So when we had a little tiff with some place called Iraq over its less than gentlemanly manner with a place called Kuwait. Suddenly everything needs to be desert camo. The navy uniform of my father? Not the uniform of my friend, nor the uniform of his father. And even means of addressing people change drastically.
When my father was in you were called by your last name. Rank and last name if you were about to be chewed out. Now? You address people by rank including petty officer. Things change as outside pressures make them change.
Parallel the uniforms with the shows. Archer had a jumpsuit that was somewhere between a flight suit and a submariner uniform. Function before form. And it worked based on when they were. Discovery looks like that uniform going a bit gaudier. Then they divide the tunic a pants in familiar colours. Showing us an evolution toward the TOS version. Now internally I don't know why they would want bright primary colours on people. Externally because someone realized they needed to not toward Kirk's era. Why the change from TOS to the Motion Picture? Subtle down the bright colours and make it a relaxed fit. In theory. They dropped them like a hot rock for probably the same reason the movies did. They were not actually more comfortable, lacked dignity, and were a pain to get in or out of without aid. They went to the more standard jacket arrangement of the later movies. Goes back to a bright look. Has a cut that holds dignity. And is still functional. Later you see them do things like lose the collared undershirt. Which is the slow move toward the TNG first season uniform. Which was another try at the basic jumpsuit. That failed. Oh the colours were good. But the fit was never right. So TNG season 2. And all this parallels how things go in real life. Try something, Great! no no wait, it isn't as good as we want. Try again.

TL:DR It is not unrealistic from an organizational point.

[chaos42]

i just think its a little senseless and the constant changing of uniform styles seems to have no reason in many of the cases -the tng to first contact style there is a progression keeping the same elements but other than that all the others are as far as i can tell random.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I kinda like it.

[chaos42]

if you like it i understand but what i want is more context to why they keep doing it, if the uniform style is dictated by something plus i don't get the ones in picard because the one riker wears at the end that looks like it fits with the grey shoulder style but the ones picard and im not sure how to spell it but raphey uniform look almost entirely out of place compared to the others and then we have all the other ones the discovery ones have some elements of the enterprise ones but barely. it does work if they say the original series ones are retconed as the ones that pikes crew are wearing in discovery ill take that, as its an issue of budge back then but other wise i don't see much reason, what is the reason id like to know because its nuts-its also something i don't get with the constant changing of the star fleet logo its always got the delta but the constant shifting of it gives me a headache

[Darth Wedgius]

For the Doylist perspective, I think the TOS uniforms were colorful because color TV was still kind of cool. When it went to ST:TMP, the ship was so gorgeous that the only way it would be allowed on-screen is if everyone wore doctor dentons to bring down the visual appeal. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it. Only Nichelle Nichols was able to make that outfit look good.

For ST2, I think they wanted a more militaristic look. Not in an aggressive, wouldn't the world map look better with a bit more of our flag color kind of way, but in a Horatio Hornblower kind of way. And the cast hated the TMP uniforms.

I don't know why the TNG uniforms were the way they were when they started out. I thought they were OK, but more appropriate to the Justice League. They changed them partway through the series because they were giving Stewart back pain, by being taut enough to keep the wrinkles out.

For DS9 and the TNG movies... I don't know. DS9 was a bit darker, and maybe they wanted the uniforms to reflect that in some way.

From a Watsonian perspective, I'll go with Nealthi's point that it's not unusual for real-world militaries to change uniforms, even for areas where camouflage isn't really that important, some organizations more than others.

[Beastro]

For the Doylist perspective, I think the TOS uniforms were colorful because color TV was still kind of cool.

I've wondered about that.

The first generation of colour TV shows were very gaudy, but I assumed it was due to the quality of film. A good example of that is the Wild Wild West.

[chaos42]

the only thing ive heard is the colors were to show off new color broadcasts, the irony is that kirk's shirt was suppost to be green but it came out yellow on the tv, its why his casual green and his dress uniform are also green, its something weird with the fabric or something with the camera from what ive heard no idea how accurate it is

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

The technicolor thing has always made sense to me.

[Artabax]

Watsonian: every Star Fleet admiral we ever see, is either a traitor or incompetent or both. They demand uncomfortable uniforms just for shits and giggles.

Doylean: they sell more uniforms, they sell more action figures.