Star Trek’s utopian idealism may be eternal, but Starfleet’s fashion sense is in seemingly constant flux. Virtually every iteration of the franchise has featured a new uniform for its Starfleet heroes. Sometimes they come off more like superhero costumes, sometimes they seem like strict military wear, and many other times they’re somewhere in between. From Captain Kirk’s gold tunic to the sleek blue body suits of Star Trek: Discovery, there’s no shortage of iconic Starfleet uniforms.
There’s rarely an in-universe reason given for the constant costume changes in Star Trek, though the real world reason has always been to keep the franchise looking fresh and sleek, and often to echo real world fashion sense, as well as trends in sci-fi costuming. Gene Roddenberry’s original vision for Star Trek has gradually evolved as the series has grown and developed — it’s only natural that the look of the franchise, including the iconic Starfleet uniforms, would change as well.
