‘Strange New Worlds’ Delivers the Hot Civilian Fashion Star Trek Deserves

Paramount+’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is back! And its second season opener reminded me why it’s becoming one of my favorite Star Trek series of all time.

The show does a great job of presenting an optimistic view of people in the future while also presenting people that are relatable to us in the present. They’re not showing us an ideal of humanity. They’re showing us what’s possible for humanity. There’s a subtle difference.

SNW’s characters are always trying to do the right thing, but the show is really leaning into their willingness to do the “wrong thing” for the right reasons. Morality isn’t black and white, and sometimes rules themselves are unjust and deserve to be broken.

And sometimes, as demonstrated by new fave Commander Pelia (Carol Kane), sometimes you do the right thing just ’cause you’re bored. Better than doing the wrong thing ’cause you’re bored.

So yes, I love that SNW gets into all that. I love badass La’an drinking blood wine and winning a drinking contest. I love that the medical professionals on the Enterprise are taking war drugs, kicking the sh*t out of Klingons, and throwing themselves out of an airlock. I love watching Spock wrestle with his feelings for Chapel as he makes a very intense call as acting captain.

But what I loved most about the season two premiere of SNW enough to constantly comment on it as I watched? The civilian fashions.

The future deserves good clothing design, too

Star Trek, as a franchise, isn’t really known for its Federation civilian clothing design. Mostly, we’re looking at Starfleet uniforms, or Starfleet-issued activewear:

When we see on-duty characters out of uniform, it’s usually period clothing on a holodeck, or an away team in period-appropriate human civilian clothes while time traveling (or visiting a planet where their culture is stolen entirely from 1920s Chicago).

And when we finally do get our characters out among civilians, everyone’s wearing some kind of long, angular sweater over tights. Or a silky shirt with lots of drape:

Or whatever the hell the kids were wearing in DS9 times:

Now, you can say, “Look, Teresa. Those older Trek shows aired in the 1960s, ’80s, and ’90s. Their depiction of future-clothing resonated with viewers at the time.”

To which I will say, I was there in the ’80s and ’90s, Sir and/or Madam, and I promise you that we did not think this stuff looked good even then.

I will not rewrite history simply to avoid criticizing my beloved franchise!

Strange New Worlds is setting a new Trek clothing standard

I’m not the only one who’s noticed that SNW is stepping up Trek’s clothing game:

Though I disagree that costuming was “great” for Starfleet (see my examples above), their loungewear and activewear have been pretty laughable, and the uniforms are fine, but same-y and kinda boring, which is the nature of uniforms.

I also disagree about alien costuming. There seems to be a thoughtlessness in older Trek with regard to differentiating between cultures and species. There are small nods to culture like Bajoran earrings, or Worf’s Klingon metal sash, or whatever those things are that Ferengi wear on the back of their heads (to cover neck seams in prosthetic makeup).

But alien costumes are always some variation of flowy robes, colorful asymmetrical layers, or if you’re Romulan, clothes made out of thick, grey quilts. Not much thought seems to go into how a particular species would show creativity through their clothing. What one species wears looks like it could have come from any other planet.

But shows like Discovery and Picard have stepped away from that, and Strange New Worlds is giving us future-clothing that looks like it would exist in the future, but that I’d also happily wear now.

The feminine details

While Discovery and Picard have definitely hopped on the sleek leather outfit train, SNW incorporates color into the festivities—not surprising from the crew that “shocked” the Discovery with their very colorful Starfleet uniforms. But the colors are muted, providing the right accents and the right amount of personality without being Jake Sisko Extra.

The women’s clothes are feminine without being “girly.” I love the shades of red, green, and blue on La’an, Chapel, and Uhura’s outfits, and while Chapel and La’an have cloak-like garments over pants, Uhura looks slick as hell in a short skirt and thigh-highs.

Even as a young’un, Uhura knew how to rock a short skirt.

It’s the little design differences between outfits that give me more information about how clothing designers on a mining planet like Cajitar IV (or wherever they get their clothes) approach their creative process.

Everyone (except M’Benga) is wearing hoods, for example. Judging by the grey sky and the fact that there’s moss everywhere, it seems like this is a very wet planet, and precipitation is likely. Hoods always being available makes sense. What’s great, though, is that they’re not all just wearing cloaks with hoods.

Uhura’s hood is incorporated into her blue pullover vest. La’an has layers on, and each coat has its own hood. Chapel seems to be wearing a cowl-type hood over her shoulders, and M’Benga doesn’t have a hood at all, because no culture’s clothing only provides one option for everyone.

Everyone has long sleeves, because of the planet’s climate or its primary industry. But while Uhura and Chapel are wearing tight, long-sleeved shirts that seem to insulate, La’an and their male colleagues are all wearing coats.

The masculine details

Speaking of the men, men’s fashion is usually more “boring” than women’s fashion (whether in sci-fi or IRL). So, I appreciate the stylish details in Spock and M’Benga’s attire.

Check out the reptilian details on M’Benga’s coat. Picard would never, and yet it’s not ostentatious. It’s subtly playing with texture to elevate a long, black coat into something badass. And while the rest of this outfit is just a black shirt and black pants, they’re regular pants. I can’t even begin to express how happy that makes me. There’s no spandex anywhere! They’re regular, comfortable-looking black pants with a zippered fly and a regular-ol’ black t-shirt tucked into it.

Because why mess with a classic?

Spock’s jacket helped me recognize how design is functional in all these clothes, too. It’s got those rigid epaulettes on the shoulders, and Spock’s bag is hanging across one. Though they’re largely considered decorative now, epaulettes (and shoulder straps with buttons on jackets) are designed to keep a bag from sliding off one’s shoulder.

The texture on M’Benga’s coat seems to be able to serve the same purpose. The strap on his bag hits that texture along his shoulder, and it would provide friction against a strap when carrying shoulder bag.

What’s interesting is that the women all have bags and gear strapped to their torsos. Do the women of Cajitar IV generally not wear shoulder bags? Why would that be? Does it have to do with who tends to do most of the mining? Most of the traveling?

I also noticed the ribbing along the arms on Spock’s and La’an’s jackets. That would make the sleeves more flexible to move. Maybe it provides more insulation? Or maybe folks on Cajitar IV just like the look?

These clothes won’t answer all our questions, but their design feels thoughtful and lived-in. There’s a reason behind the design choices beyond, “Hey, this looks alien!”

It’s also interesting what each person’s choice of attire says about their character. Uhura is the youngest, so of course her outfit is cute, stylish, and she could just as easily go to the club in it after this mission. La’an is moving around secretly trying to get information, so long coats and multiple hoods make sense. Spock is, well, Spock, so it makes sense that his outfit is the most utilitarian of all of them while adhering to the culture they’re infiltrating.

And as a doctor and nurse with experience with wartime field medicine, it makes sense that M’Benga and Chapel would choose clothing that blends in and reflects their style, but is also light and minimal to allow freedom of movement while also providing protection from the elements. And as we see in the episode, they’re great fighting outfits.

So I guess what I’m saying is that Strange New Worlds’ costume designer, Bernadette Croft, deserves an Emmy nomination or something? Yeah, I think that’s what I’m saying.

(featured image: Paramount+)