I don't mean to disbelieve you, but that's hardly a Navy uniform."

This design of Starfleet uniforms was used from around the mid 2250s to the early 2270s, The general tailoring of the "tunic and pants" uniform design worn by Starfleet service people was maintained throughout that period, but with changes in collar, rank insignia, and revised colors for Starfleet divisions and departments. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver")

In the 2250s, a previous uniform design was also being used concurrently with this one at least until 2257. (DIS: "The Vulcan Hello"; "Brother")

Uniforms of the era were made of an organic, algae-derived fabric, xenylon. (TAS: "The Terratin Incident") Captain James Kirk once pointed out to an illusory inhabitant of the Melkot simulation of Tombstone, Arizona that Starfleet uniforms did not look like the illusion's clothing. (TOS: "Spectre of the Gun") In addition, they had built-in temperature controls to accommodate for cold weather environments. For example, upon beaming down to the surface of Sigma Draconis VI, Captain James T. Kirk instructed his landing party to set their "suit temperatures to 72(° Fahrenheit)." (TOS: "Spock's Brain")

These uniforms were drastically replaced in the 2270s, with a change of many uniform variants sometime after 2270. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)

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Standard duty uniform

Type A

This uniform lasted from before 2254, to provisionally at least 2268. (DIS: "The Vulcan Hello")

This uniform was used by the crews of the USS Enterprise, the Antares and officers visiting Deep Space K-7. (TOS: "The Cage", "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "Charlie X", "The Trouble with Tribbles") Beginning in 2265, the uniform began to be replaced by a modified design. (TOS: "Friday's Child", "Dagger of the Mind")

The standard duty uniform consisted of dark gray or dark blue trousers and a division color top, following the below color code. The previous Earth Starfleet-style of wearing a patch based on assignment continued, but the patch was moved to the chest. Rank was displayed by sleeve stripes. (TOS: "The Cage") The top's collar was initially designed with a mock turtleneck appearance but many of them came straight up on the neck later on. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before")

The original command "greenish-gold" uniforms were actually lime-green off camera, away from the stage lights. [1] Also, some have described the "khaki-beige" operations uniforms as "gold", leading to confusion over the fact they they were two distinct colors. The remastered episodes restore the original colors and clear distinction between the uniforms.





Female variant

Front view of female operations duty uniform variant, 2254 Rear view of female sciences duty uniform variant, 2265

Women's uniform style had a cowl neck collar and closed with a zipper down the back. They also wore black trousers similar to the male uniform. (TOS: "The Cage", "Where No Man Has Gone Before")



Seamed variant

A variant worn by certain personnel included a closing seam radiating from the side of the neck. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before")





Type B

"What is that? Is that a uniform of some kind?"

"This little thing? Just something I slipped on."

This style is a simplified evolution of an earlier uniform introduced in 2257. (DIS: "Brother") It was initially put into use on some starships by 2265, but other starship crews or individual service members continued to wear the older style until 2268. (TOS: "Charlie X", "Dagger of the Mind", "Friday's Child", "The Trouble with Tribbles"; TAS: "The Counter-Clock Incident")

As with earlier Starfleet uniforms, the divisions were distinguished by color, and were generally described as gold (or green) for command division, red for operations division/special services, and blue for the sciences division. (TOS: "Dagger of the Mind"; DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations")

Into the 24th century, scholars of Starfleet history will note the division colors of this era. Miles O'Brien and Benjamin Sisko told Julian Bashir of the different practices when, in posing as "contemporary" Starfleet officers during an unplanned visit to 2268, the doctor, admitting he was no historian, initially did not understand why the captain wore a "gold" uniform and the engineer a red one, as the uniforms of his career conformed to a different standard. (DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations")

While dialog corresponds with what visually appeared on screen, the gold command uniforms color were actually a shade of green. (The World of Star Trek, p. 95)

The standard duty uniform consisted of a tunic and pants worn with standard issue black leather boots.

Optional undershirt Standard issue boots

The duty uniform top was a long-sleeve, division-colored tunic, with a closing seam from the collar to the left shoulder. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver", "Charlie X") Furthermore, tunics typically bore rank insignia, displayed as sleeve stripes, and an assignment patch on the left breast was worn by all personnel. The tunics had either a black collar with a V-shaped bottom, or were collarless, allowing for the wearer to instead wear a black undershirts. Though generally worn under the short-sleeved tunic and jumpsuit uniform tops, they were not strictly required for everyday wear. (TOS: "The Naked Time", et al.) The black boots rose above the calf and zippered along the inside. (TOS: "Charlie X", "Obsession", "Wink of an Eye"; DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations")

Black pants were worn that ended in length midway down the shank of the boot and terminated in a one-inch-wide flare, similar to the style worn by sailors on old Earth.

According to actor James Doohan, "Personally, I didn't like the flare legs on the trousers. I didn't like the way they stuck out, I thought that they came on kind of fey. But after a while, it worked out, I got used to it. I think though, that it might have been just as good if they had just had a band of red down the trousers, you know, red for engineering, blue for scientific, green for command, and so on." (The World of Star Trek, p. 95) Personally, I didn't like the flare legs on the trousers. I didn't like the way they stuck out, I thought that they came on kind of fey. But after a while, it worked out, I got used to it. I think though, that it might have been just as good if they had just had a band of red down the trousers, you know, red for engineering, blue for scientific, green for command, and so on.





Female variant

An example of differences between male and female duty uniforms Another example of differences between male and female duty uniforms

"In the old days, operations officers wore red, command officers wore gold..."

"And women wore less."

Female crew members could choose between a standard uniform tunic with pants, or a one-piece uniform that continued down into a miniskirt over matching high cut shorts, worn with black hose and boots. Female uniform tunics also had a large open collar, the seam closed right at the assignment patch. There were two variations of the female tunic: one with a black collar and another version which had the collar colored the same as rest of the tunic. (TOS: "The Man Trap", "Charlie X", "The Naked Time", "What Are Little Girls Made Of?")

Some later variants of the skirt uniform seem to have been two-piece uniforms. (Star Trek: The Animated Series)



Wraparound tunic

"These people had some strange ideas about uniforms."

Captains had a choice of more casual clothing to wear when on duty. James Kirk favored two variations of a green wrap-around tunic, the first with rank stripes spread across the left and right shoulder, and the second with sleeve rank stripes like the standard uniform. Unlike the standard uniforms, the assignment patch was used as a fastener near the waist. Charles Evans wore a beige version of this uniform with a cream colored undershirt. Evans' uniform didn't have any rank insignia. (TOS: "The Enemy Within", "Charlie X", "The Doomsday Machine"; ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")





Outpost variant

The uniforms worn by outpost personnel, as opposed to starship and starbase personnel, varied in form of having a shinier fabric, with a dull beige color worn over a standard black undershirt, and lacked rank insignia on the sleeves. (TOS: "Balance of Terror", "Arena")



Cadet's uniform

Type A Type B

Starfleet cadets wore a uniform that consisted of a tunic top made out of a reflective gray material with a black V-shaped collar, and black trousers. A Starfleet assignment patch insignia, a ten pointed star, was worn on the left breast. These uniforms were worn from the minimum timeframe of 2252 to 2268. (TOS: "Shore Leave", "The Trouble with Tribbles", "Wolf in the Fold")

The script for "Shore Leave" stated that Finnegan was "Dressed in Cadet's Uniform. Quite different from anything we've ever seen on the Enterprise." Enterprise

In the mid-2260s, an alternate version of the cadet uniform existed. It consisted of a two-tone long sleeve top, with the shoulders and outer half of the sleeves indicating department - command gold, engineering red, or sciences/medical blue - and black trousers and boots. A badge, similar to those used a decade earlier, to indicate what year of the Academy the cadet was worn on the left breast. (DIS: "Through the Valley of Shadows")

Medical attire

Lab coat

A lab coat could be worn by the chief medical officer for consultations with patients. The short-sleeve coat was worn over the standard uniform. It appeared in pale blue with the ship's decal on the upper breast. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before")



Short-sleeved tunic

A short-sleeved "smock" tunic was often worn by medical personnel. It appears to have been made from a fabric similar to that of the jumpsuits and gave the user more free use of their hands than the standard long-sleeved tunic. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver", "The Naked Time", "Mudd's Women", "The Changeling", "Journey to Babel")

As scripted for "The Corbomite Maneuver", this uniform variant was instead to have been "a white smock".





Dress uniform

Starfleet dress uniforms of this period were typically worn for diplomatic or court functions.

Doctor Leonard McCoy was not especially fond of the entire hoopla that went along with meeting dignitaries, including the "dress uniforms, spit and polish," describing his dress uniform stating that "I feel like my neck's in a sling." Later, during the arrival of the Vulcan delegation, he asked Spock to review how to do a Vulcan salute; upon his attempt to replicate it, he said "That hurts worse than the uniform." (TOS: "Journey to Babel")

Fully dress uniform consisted of a tunic with a Nehru collar worn with standard pants and boots in the male version; a miniskirt with a back collar similar to the standard female uniform but with a longer skirt and gold piping along the collar for the female version. Variations on each uniform's style depended upon rank:

Lieutenant dress uniforms bore an assignment patch, with a thin gold piping around the collar (and running down the front of the high-collar version) and their rank stripes;

Lieutenant commanders wore the tunic with similar piping, but decorations were worn in lieu of the assignment patch and rank stripes for lieutenant commanders and above;

Commanders and executive officers had a much thicker braid around the collar;

Captains had additional piping down their shoulder seams;

Commodores and above had an additional gold piping running the length of their sleeve.

An operations division commodore in a dress uniform A sciences division commander and an operations division lieutenant in dress uniforms Dress uniform with kilt and sporran

Add an image to this gallery

A kilt and sporran was also optional dress uniform attire. (TOS: "The Savage Curtain")

Dress jacket

There was a dress jacket, edged with gold trim, with matching epaulets, worn over the standard issue uniform top and pants. (TOS: "The Cage")

The only indication as to the intent of this uniform, as stated in the script of "The Cage", was that the man in question was "a uniformed space officer (not from the Enterprise)." Enterprise





Outerwear

Heavy jacket

Excursion jacket in 2254 Utility harness worn underneath jacket in 2254

A heavy jacket, in blue-gray, was standard issue during the 2250s for landing parties. A utility harness was worn underneath, and is where the individual's laser and communicator were held. (TOS: "The Cage", "The Menagerie, Part I", "The Menagerie, Part II")

With regards to this attire, the script simply stated that the landing party prepared, "Heavy " These jackets were adorn with either white stripes, blue stripes or no stripes around each of the cuffs. The white stripe was on jackets worn by all officers and the CPO, the blue stripe was worn by technicians (as indicated in the script), and no stripes were worn by the yeoman. Heavy boots and jackets have been added to regular uniforms, and all are putting on Laser belts and holsters.

Heavy jacket Jacket shoulder epaulets

This type of heavy excursion jacket remained in use on an individual basis during the mid-2260s.

It consisted of a black mock turtleneck with a ribbed collar, a Federation blue jacket with a split cowl collar with and running slightly diagonally from the left-of-center of the collar of the jacket to the centerline of the jacket at the waist. It was paired with black pants and black boots. An insignia, similar to those used on the admiralty uniforms of the 2230s-2250s, was worn on the left breast. It also featured five brass or gold decorative studs on each shoulder. (DIS: "Through the Valley of Shadows")



Athletic wear

Athletics unitard Various forms of sportswear

Athletic wear was available for use during sporting or other leisure activities. Several varieties were issued, all colored red. One set included red leggings, black socks, a tunic and a belt. The belt was colored, possibly indicating a certain ranking within a sport. Another option was a red unitard. The assignment patch was placed on the left breast of the tunic, and on the left side of the leggings or unitard. (TOS: "Charlie X")



Utility jumpsuit

A command division jumpsuit in 2265 Command jumpsuit in 2266

In the mid-2250s, work coveralls, with assignment patch embroidered on the breast, were issued in all division related colors. Instead of the brighter colors of the duty uniform, they were in muted colors of olive (Command), khaki (Operations) and blue-gray (Sciences). (TOS: "The Cage")

An operations division jumpsuit in 2254 Operations jumpsuit in 2267

Later, everyday work jumpsuits were usually worn with no assignment or rank patches visible (even if the jumpsuit was worn by a senior officer). Duty jumpsuits came in a division color. Some versions had embroidered writing and insignia on the left breast. The jumpsuit had medium length sleeves and was worn open in the front, sealing at the waistline. A standard black undershirt was worn underneath, in contrast with jumpsuit uniforms of the previous style with division-colored undershirts. The jumpsuits came in red (operations division), green/brown (command division), and blue (sciences division). (TOS: "The Naked Time", "The Enemy Within", "Mudd's Women", "Balance of Terror", "Dagger of the Mind")

A science division jumpsuit in 2254 Sciences jumpsuit in 2266

When Technician Fisher beamed aboard with an unknown magnetic ore on his jumpsuit in 2266, he was instructed by Montgomery Scott to "decontaminate that uniform." Later, while explaining a subsequent transporter malfunction, Scott made note the said substance on Fisher's "suit". (TOS: "The Enemy Within")

Later that year, when the stowaway Simon Van Gelder was discovered aboard the USS Enterprise, wearing such a jumpsuit, it was simply stated that he was "someone in engineering uniform." ("Dagger of the Mind")



Environmental suit

A pressurized environmental unit was issued for use in inhospitable environments. It provided full life support to its wearer in the vacuum of space. (TOS: "The Tholian Web")



Galley vest

Worker's in the ship's galley, such as the galley chef, wore a tan colored vest over their uniform. (TOS: "Charlie X")



Hazard vest

The vest alone ...or worn with full regalia.

A hazard vest, seen in beige, was in issue for excursions or technical personnel, such as during maintenance work on the shipboard atmospheric system. Sometimes the hazard vest was worn in conjunction with protective gloves and head cover, and could be worn over the uniform tunic or the uniform undershirt alone. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver", "The Man Trap", "Dagger of the Mind")





Protective suits

At least three types of protective suits were available for the wearers' protection. They were relatively flexible in design, and provided complete coverage and suitable for hazardous environments. (TOS: "The Man Trap", "The Naked Time")

Accessories

Equipment belt

Equipment belts were worn with the standard duty uniforms, often by security personnel to carry laser pistols or phaser pistols. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before"; TOS: "Miri", "The Galileo Seven", "Arena", "The Savage Curtain"; DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations")

The elaborate brown belt was only seen in early episodes. During most of the series, phasers were simply attached to the pants by using Velcro (as can be seen here).





Life support belt

Hat

Officers had an optional service cap that could be worn along with their uniform. (TOS: "The Cage")

The captain's uniform hat was never worn, but was only seen on a console in the captain's quarters. It was originally created as Robert April's officer cap mentioned in an earlier version of the script of "The Cage." See also: Mid-22nd century Starfleet head gear





Embellishments

Assignment patches

Assignment patches were worn on many of the uniform styles, and were individual depending on a service person's posting. Departmental insignia of the wearer's position was in the center of many of these patches. (TOS: "Charlie X", "The Omega Glory", "The Tholian Web"; DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations"; ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly", "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")

Type A

Circa 2254 Circa 2265

Assignment patches were worn on many of the uniform styles, and were individual depending on a serviceperson's posting. A departmental insignia of the person's position was located in the center of many of these patches

During this period, it was not uncommon to see department insignia which did not correspond to a specific departmental color uniform, as was standardized by 2266. In particular the following division color/insignia combinations have been seen: command/operations, operations/sciences, sciences/operations and sciences/command. In addition, security personnel circa 2254 wore blue uniforms with a unique insignia resembling a squared-off letter "C". However, by 2265 this insignia was dropped in favor of the current operations insignia.

In 2018, costume replica company Anovos released a replica version of the above-mentioned "C" insignia patch as part of their first "Official Patch Collection", listing it as a "Cadet" insignia rather than for security. [3]

Type B

Examples of rank insignia

Type A

This chart represents the rank insignia seen on screen throughout these uniforms' appearances. No admiral rank, enlisted crewman rank, nor petty officer rank were seen.

Type B

This chart represents the rank insignia seen on screen throughout these uniforms' appearances. Ensign and enlisted ranks apparently had no insignia. No rear admiral, full admiral, or fleet admiral were seen. The rear admiral insignia could be inferred from the Star Trek: The Motion Picture uniform style, which showed Kirk's rear admiral insignia of that era, where very similar stripes were used. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Epaulet

In 2254, dress uniforms of high-ranking Starfleet personnel contained a certain epaulet, likely indicative of rank. (TOS: "The Cage")

It is unknown if this indicates admiralty, but the officer in question was wearing one stripe.





Appendices

Appearances

Type A

Type B

Background information

In the original pitch for the series, Gene Roddenberry generalized their design, stating "Crew uniforms are 'naval' in general appearance, attractively simplified and utilitarian. Again, surprise variations are possible here too."

The Starfleet uniforms worn during Star Trek: The Original Series were designed by William Ware Theiss, who returned to design the Star Trek: The Next Generation uniforms (which were further adapted into future versions on Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and in the TNG-era films by Robert Blackman).

The "Type A" uniform was in use only for the two Star Trek pilots, with the tunics appearing in several later episodes (see above) and the matched pants having been worn by extras in several early first season episodes, with the new updated tunics.

Although the "Type B" command division uniform tunics looked gold on most color TV sets, the costumes were actually lime green. [5] This issue was made light of in an in-joke from the first draft script of DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations", in which Department of Temporal Investigations agents Dulmur and Lucsly – just prior to leaving space station Deep Space 9 – asked Benjamin Sisko one final question: what color had Kirk's uniform been. Sisko, having seen Kirk in both a duty uniform and wraparound tunic, simply answered, "Green." The greenish hue of the command tunics can be seen more clearly in the third season, when the fabric used for the tunics was changed from satin velour to a double-knit fabric that reflected the set lighting differently. The dress uniforms, made of a silk material, were always clearly green by comparison, and some darker green jumpsuits and wraparound tunics that were more clearly seen seemed to confirm that all the "gold-to-green" variations were part of the same color scheme. The so-called "beige" Type A uniforms which originated with "The Cage" were ironically a much more yellow color, but likewise appeared beige or pinkish under the lights.

The Type B first appeared in "The Corbomite Maneuver". Chronologically, the Type B uniforms first appeared in late 2265 in the Christmas party flashback scenes in "Dagger of the Mind" and the recording of Doctor Leonard McCoy's visit to Capella IV in "Friday's Child".

With a few exceptions, all women in the Type B uniforms wore the skirt variant. One uniform seen on extras in TOS Season 1 was a woman's gold command uniform with pants. It was created for a scene in "Charlie X" where a pretty crewwoman was transformed into an old hag, who might not have looked appropriate in a skirt uniform. It also made an appearance in "The Man Trap". In regards to the collars on female uniforms, blue-collared uniforms were seen in TOS and TAS on Nurse Chapel, and red-collared uniforms were seen in TAS. Female gold command uniforms were rare on both series and were never seen with colored collars.

This uniform style was last seen in TAS: "The Counter-Clock Incident", although it was later recreated for DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations" and ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly".



Apocrypha

In the IDW comic series Crew, engineering officers were depicted as wearing a Type A red uniform, with a red collar, alongside the beige uniforms as depicted in "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before". In particular, these uniforms were depicted as only being worn in engineering, rather than elsewhere on the Enterprise, suggesting that since the engineering section of the Enterprise was never depicted during this era of TOS, such uniforms could have actually existed side-by-side with the beige Operations uniforms, thereby continuing the red division color established in Enterprise.

In the Marvel Comics series Star Trek: Early Voyages, an alternate Type A female duty uniform was depicted as a short dress with a high-necked collar, similar to the variant worn by Nurse Chapel during the late 2260s.

The alternate reality uniforms introduced in Star Trek were based on the Type B design, though the timeframe of that film, and its sequels, has them in use when the previous uniform design and the Type A was being used. Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness, Issue 2 depicts the alternate reality version of this uniform was already in use by 2239, suggesting that in the alternate reality the previous uniform and Type A were never adopted at all, unless they were used briefly after 2233.

