Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier

by Paula M. Block, Terry J. Erdmann

This deluxe book showcases the unique costumes featured in the Star Trek franchise, from Mr. Spock’s staid Starfleet uniform to Uhura’s alluring mirror universe outfit. The book features a dazzling wardrobe gallery that explores beautiful and innovative fashions from the various film and television versions of Star Trek, including many different iterations of the iconic Starfleet uniform, exquisitely designed alien garb, and much, much more. Every costume is examined in intimate detail, tracing the design process from preproduction sketches to the final stunning outfit. Exclusive interviews with costume designers and experts put the images into context. This unique visual treat will delight Star Trek fans and fashionistas alike.

TM & © 2014 CBS Studios Inc. © 2014 Paramount Pictures Corp. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Genres: Star Trek, Nonfiction, Art, Fashion, History, Reference, Media Tie In

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 29, 2015

Reviews

[Kara Babcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an indulgence: its price is US$60, which means in Canada it’s closer to $80 (although Chapters was selling it online at a considerable discount, so I didn’t pay even close to that). But it’s totally worth it. This book is as gorgeous as you would expect. It’s a coffee-table book, oversized and weighty, its pages thick and glossy and covered with colour photos of costumes, stills, and concept art. I mean, it is hard to mess up a tie-in book like this, but Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier is definitely worth $60–$80 of your hard-earned money, if you have the money and you are a Trek fan. (If you’re the latter but lack the former, I hear people will buy you things if you have birthdays. If you’re a robot, then you are out of luck.)

Although I read and enjoyed many tie-in novels when I was younger, these days I tend to eschew them—without the actors bringing life to the characters, the stories feel flatter to me. Non-fiction companions are a different story. Like many fans, I just love hearing behind-the-scenes anecdotes and getting a peek at how the shows and movies were made. Unlike sausages and law, seeing the secrets in the process—and the slip-ups or improvisations—do not ruin the magic one bit. If anything, hearing these stories make me feel closer to a franchise that has been around longer than I’ve been alive. For example, most fans will have heard about the “Theiss Titillation Theory” and the network’s crusade against nipples or belly buttons in the 1960s; or about the infamously uncomfortable, back-straining uniforms of the first two seasons of TNG. But I didn’t know that Worf’s baldric changed between the first and second season because the original, which might or might not be the same as one used in TOS, was wearing out. I didn’t know about the painstaking care that went into designing the civilian costumes for the TOS cast to wear in Star Trek III.

Indeed, it is impossible to walk away from this book without even more respect and no small amount of awe for the costume designers and other personnel associated with the costuming process. These people are wizards. Think about it for a moment: they get asked to imagine entire alien societies every week and produce clothing that looks distinctive and interesting using the same old boring fabrics available on Earth. And they have to do it cheaply. Sometimes for costumes that might only get a few minutes of screen time—or none, if the scene gets cut. The creativity and innovative spirit of these people have contributed to so much of Star Trek’s success over the past fifty years. As someone who grew up loving and influenced by Trek, I owe them a huge debt. And I’m grateful that Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann were able to bring this book to my table.

The book proceeds chronologically through the series, as these types of retrospectives invariably do. It spends much more time on TOS, the movies, and TNG than the other series, which are just lumped under “the spin-offs”. On one hand, I totally understand: this is a large book as it is, expensive to print, heavy to handle, so there are trade-offs. Decisions must be made about what can go in and what has to be left out. On the other hand, there is just so much that isn’t talked about here. We hear about the various uniform redesigns, but aside from one or two (sometimes strange) choices of alien garments from each series, there are so many episodic costumes that have been left out. I have so many questions! You never explained to me why the Ullians wear Swiss cheese outfits that make my eyes hurt when I look at them? (They do talk about Lwaxana’s outfits, at least.)

There is not much else for me to say. This is a gorgeous, excellent addition to any fan’s collection. (Even the cover of the hardback beneath the dust jacket is fantastic.) I highly recommend it!

[Scott Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this is a great book and I'm glad it exists it is far from perfect. First, it barely scratches the surface of 50 years of Star Trek costumes. I have spent a lot of time studying the costumes of Star Trek and I am privileged to have several original costumes in my personal collection. This book does not really express or display the incredible level of detail and craftsmanship that went into these works of art. It also really only shows a handful of highlights. You could publish a series of these books that goes into much more depth about each episode or at least each series.

Second, I was very distracted by many small textual errors and typos. There were even errors in large page headings. I'm not sure how these could have slipped through the editorial process but they're a bit embarrassing.

[Shelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier is a huge-ass, large-format, super glossy coffee table book, filled with photos and designs from the first twelve films and six series of the Star Trek franchise, and the stories – good, bad, and ugly – behind the uniforms and some of the most iconic guest star attire (mostly the women’s, naturally!).

It’s a real walk down memory lane for any Star Trek fan, but my personal favorite was the section on the original series. We make fun of the attire from Star Trek’s first iteration nowadays, but this book reveals how much thought and work was actually put into these outfits. Consider all the body-baring, skin-tight outfits the bouffanted gals wore back then. The costumers actually carefully studied the history of fashion, and tried to speculate how it would evolve forward, while simultaneously wrestling with network censors. And consider that all of those form-fitting and barely-concealing dresses had to be constructed without the benefit of Lycra/spandex, because it hadn’t been invented yet. How did those clothes even stay on?

A fun testament to the triumphs and errors of Star Trek sartorial history, Star Trek Costumes is easy to leaf through and enjoy the photos in chronological order, pausing to read the blurbs about the ones that interest you the most.

3.5 Star… Treks!

[Ann Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book. Reading about the history of these costumes was very enlightening. It made me love the Star Trek series that much more.

[Samantha Ravenway · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really interesting! I love Star Trek, especially the Original Series and DS9. This book essentially gave a lot of background info on how some of the outfits on each series and movie was designed and the reasoning behind. It was fun and intriguing. My only complaint is that there was very little discussion of a lot of the alien costumes and more of a focus on the female character costumes. I was expecting more than what was provided in the book, but I still loved reading it either way.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's some really good stuff here, but a lot of the book is poorly organized, often doesn't go into sufficient depth, and doesn't pair its text well with its photographs. The full page photos are also too often of a resolution too low to really justify their size and have muddled details as a result. (Maybe that's more a problem with the printing than the images themselves, though.)

As an example of its weird organization, after spending pages talking about the development of the original TNG costumes and then their redesigns, little space is devoted to the First Contact uniforms in the chapter on that film and no image of them is provided at all. Instead, they're relegated to a single small photo in the Nemesis chapter and a full page photo of O'Brien in the chapter on DS9 (with only an accompanying caption). More space was devoted to Robert Blackman's failed uniform redesign for Generations or, worse, the wedding dress used by Famke Jannsen in one scene of the TNG episode "the Perfect Mate"! Or, for another example, discussion is made of the terrible Romulan uniforms of TNG, but no example is provided, and only the "less bad" version from Nemesis is shown—the redesigns from DS9 are never mentioned or shown.

Other odd choices: "Dax [sic] and Jadzia's Wedding" is given four full pages; a full-page is wasted on a photo of William Shatner and Catherine Hicks (who played the wale specialist character) in off-the-shelf medical scrubs from Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home; Riker's costume from "Angel One" is extensively discussed and no photo of Frakes wearing it is provided (space on that page is instead occupied by an image of Kirk and Spock in togas from "Plato's Stepchildren"); the Borg from TNG are talked about in good detail but shown in-costume in only one, medium-sized photo and there are no detail photos whatsoever (nor is anything shown or mentioned of the Locutus or Hugh costumes); a full page picture shows the Borg Queen costume with yellow and red-orange on it with no explanation as to what's going on there (it never appeared that way in the film); and so forth.

Don't get me wrong, it's not all bad. For instance, there's some great stuff from Durinda Rice Wood on how she'd always wanted to re-do the TNG uniforms but never got a chance to before she left the show at the end of the second season and was jealous that Robert Blackman had that chance in the third season. But it just seems like there's a ton of wasted potential with this book. Maybe doing a single coffee table book on five TV series and 12 movies' worth of costumes was just too much for them. You're going to have to cut some places, but it seems like there were a lot of weird choices made in both what they decided to showcase and how they organized it.

Definitely worth checking out from a library for any Trek fan but it's debatable whether it's worth the hefty $60 price tag.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you strip away all the heavy topics of Star Trek, you’re left with some fun action and adventure, and great storytelling, along with some fantastic — and some not so fantastic — costumes.

Here's my full review of Star Trek: Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier, a full-color hardcover coffe table book: http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2015/10/13...

[Leila Anani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an utter delight covering all the most iconic costumes from the Star Trek universe (TOS, movies - including reboots, TNG, Ds9, Voyager and Enterprise). It has stacks of photos, design sketches and close up of detail to make this indispensable to cosplayers. The accompanying text is also really insightful, giving anecdotes and reasons behind the look of certain costumes. There are 4 pages dedicated to Worf and Jadzia's wedding attire from You are Cordially invited which made this Trekkie very happy indeed.

My only niggle is that this only scratches the surface of all the amazing costumes Star Trek has to offer. You could have a book this size for each of the series and it probably still wouldn't cover everything! If you're interested in Star Trek or SF fashion, despite it's limitations, this book is a must have.

[Dawn Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Coffee table book, hard back, tons of large full color pics. I've always liked the Star Trek clothes since the original series. The girls costumes were usually skimpy but they were stylish, beautiful, interesting. And then the costumes of the succeeding series were cool too, at times almost architectural. Loved the cut of the clothes, the material, the colors.

A must for a Star Trek fan as well as a fan of art and fashion. Buy it. It'll be a pleasure to look through now and then even after you've read it.

[John Peel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful book covers the artistic designs and costume challenges of all the TV versions of the show from the original series up until "Star Trek: Enterprise" and all of the movies up to "Star Trek Into Darkness". It's profusely illustrated with photos and many of the original sketches, and features interviews with the costume designers, actors, producers and directors involved in these various incarnations. It's a wonderful book, extremely readable and incredibly informative.

[Sebastian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sheer breadth of costumes that have been made for a franchise spanning five series and more than a dozen movies means of course that this book can only give you a glimpse into the costumes of Star Trek. And while they crammed many pictures into this book and didn't waste any space, it's more of a voyage througe the ages of Star Trek and the visions and approaches the different costume designers took.

[Angela Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable (and enlightening!) read for any fan of the series - original and onward. For a glimpse into the creative vision, reasoning, and deeper symbolism behind many of the Star Trek universe's most iconic costumes, this is the reader's chance to explore. All told, a great source of inspiration to re-visit the episodes, films and characters who brought the designs to life!

[LyndenTree63 · Rating 3 out of 5]

And then we redesigned the uniforms. . . Again. And again. And again.

The detailed garment pictures are a costumer’s dream tho. But not quite detailed enough for cosplay, ‘cause you don’t always get side or back pictures.

[Meg Mirza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous! I loved this detailed coffee table book taking us through Star Trek history. As a former professional costumer, the interviews and behind the scenes anecdotes paired with beautiful full-color photos made this book a treat.

[Kristina Moses · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was really interesting and included details about the costumes and the stories hehind them for all of the Star Trek shows and movies. There we're plenty of pictures to illustrate the costumes.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting costumes, questionable writing.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really disappointed in this one. The pictures are tiny and in bad quality. Some of the descriptions of how they created the costumes were awkward and/or sexist.

[Ryan Leong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining coffee table book. Not the end all/be all resource but for any avid fan it's enough to increase your appreciation of the Star Trek franchise

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and fascinating look at the world of film and TV fashion design.

[Kirsten Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

For dedicated Trek fans and/or those who sew and make costumes. If your favourite par of the cannon is Voyager, you will be disappointed in the short shrift it gets.

[Debbie Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, I learned things about the costumes that I never noticed in the shows, such as the hoofed boots of the Klingons.

[ISMOTU · Rating 4 out of 5]

A neat glimpse behind the curtain of the fifty years of Star Trek costumes. Some interesting anecdotes and it's fun to learn about the origins of the fashions that boldly go where no one has gone before.

[H.S. Rivney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful compilation of 50 years of not just the uniforms of Star Trek from The Original Series in the 60s, but costumes of guest stars, the aliens, the uniforms of the movies, and all the series including The Next Gen, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. Some of the tricks of the costumes are included, such as how they constructed and fit them to the actors. Sketches, fabric decisions,
This is a huge coffee table book by Star Trek authors Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann. I have adopted this as my "autograph book", and it's perfect for almost every celeb in Star Trek to sign their own page (and I'm on my way to filling it up)!
If you are a Trek fan this is a must have for your bookshelf. As an author myself I can only imagine the amount of work that went into this book and the love shows!

[Erika Mulvenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very cool look at some of the most iconic Star Trek costumes from across the entire spectrum of the ST family! I especially liked some of the little tidbits about the costumes themselves, like how Worf's original sash came from TOS, and how his second sash was created.

[M Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful survey of the costumes of the Star Trek franchise. By no means encyclopedic but every major era is represented and there are informative interviews with/articles on all the primary designers. Beautiful pictures -- a great coffee table book.