Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Costume Design by:

- Deborah Everton ( notable efforts: The Abyss (1989), Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), The Osiris Chronicles (1998), Dick (1999), Spy Kids (2001) )

- Robert Blackman ( notable efforts: The Running Man (1987), Star Trek: The Next Generation (Seasons 3 to 7), Deep Space Nine (1993 - 1999), Voyager (1995 - 2001), Enterprise (2001 - 2005), Pushing Daisies (2007 - 2009), Mockingbird Lane (2012) )

Note: Blackman was the designer for the new Starfleet uniforms, whilst Everton was assigned to the rest of the characters. However, Everton enlisted costume illustrator Gina DeDomenico to help realize her ideas for the costumes, and these designs do all feel indebted to Blackman's various costume designs for the then-ongoing television series Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

This more particularly 'gritty' film entry of the Star Trek saga did a way with the more colourful costume design sense of the main shows and previous films, with a new Starfleet uniform being designed by Bob Blackman to help set the tone - this new uniforms is the same general design as the rather simplistic one he had designed for Deep Space 9 and Voyager, but this time has ribbed grey panelling over the shoulders, with the gold/red/green ranking style being on the undershirt instead. This feels more militaristic than previous Starfleet uniform designs, setting the tone for this more gung-ho movie as well as the more military scifi tone of Deep Space 9, which reused these uniforms plenty.

This new Starfleet uniform design comes with a new style of officer uniform (again, designed by Blackman) that would be seen in the follow-up films Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis, as well as Deep Space 9 - this design is a buttonless officer's jacket with gold lining down the middle, and the same grey ribbed panelling on the shoulders, with gold-lined bands on the cuffs.

Lastly for the redesigned Starfleet uniforms (that would also see plenty of reuse in Deep Space Nine) is this vest with the same ribbed grey padding over the shoulders, worn by Picard in this film and Sisko in DS9 - once again, I feel this was probably Blackman's design work.

The actual plot of First Contact involves time travelling to the 21st century after it had been decimated by nuclear war, so most of the humans are just in tatty contemporary garb though the Enterprise's crew adopt the local fashion to fit in. Designed by DeDomenico and Everton, the latter bringing her rather more muted and utilitarian design sense, these are still definitely indebted to Bob Blackman's design sense, with more unusual fabric textures, short sharp cuts, high waists and asymmetrical patterns to be seen here. The most striking outfit among the 'contemporary' disguises that looks a bit futuristic is worn by LaForge, whose wears trousers with a large brown waist strip and a red vest with circular patterns around one sleeve.

The rest of the Enterprises crew wear a variety of jackets and vests that have little futuristic touches, such as Reginald Barclay's (Dwight Schultz) having straps over his vest, Troi having a patterned vest under a rather short waistcoat, and Data and Riker's jackets having epaulette-like strips on the shoulders. These costume display photos in particular came from the Star Trek: Auctions, Props and Wardrobe facebook page, which I hope they do not mind being reposted here. This also counts for the outfit worn by the less than hopeful inventor Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell), who wears a vest over his overalls, the vest covered in a patterned fabric that feels like Native American textile designs. Notice that his hat has metal studs around the sides as well.

Another notable 21st century outfit (though this isn't quite AS dreary enough as actual modern fashion, so who knows) is the brown shirt and green-lined vest worn by Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodard). I could mention the 1930s dress she wears in the holodeck sequence, but I won't partly as it's never seen in full, partly because I think it's kind of ugly, sorry.

Lastly for the futuristic outfits are the robes worn by the Vulcans that arrive making the 'first contact' of the film's title - these are also inspired by Blackman's design sense, with the curved segment of ridged material going over one side.

Solarbabies (1986)

Costume Design by Bob Ringwood

An oddball that was pretty much 'Mad Max for kids', with a couple more outright scifi touches such as laser guns and whatnot in the hope to make a smash like Star Wars I assume, which would also explain other odd touches in this film such as mystical entites and so on. Set in a fascist state, the Eco Protectorate that has arisen thanks to ecological collapse (I think...it's not the most thought-out plot), the story focused on the titular 'Solarbabies', orphans in one of the regime's many orphanages. The Solarbabies wear the film's most iconic fits (thanks to being on all the promotional photos), which consist of futuristic padded sports armor covered in blue, red and pink spraypaint in different patterns.

Their enemies the Scorpions wear more intimidating, gunmetal-coloured armor with masked helmets.

Of course, being a post-apocalypse film made in the aftermath of Mad Max 2, there are the inevitable wasteland weirdos who sport tatty attire inspired by biker culture, punk fashion and sport armor - the bounty hunter Malice (Alexei Sayle) wears a cowboy hat and leather jacket adorned with ratty furs on the shoulders, and many of the denizens of 'Tyretown' (totally unrelated to Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome's Bartertown, I'm sure!) are in typical ratty posta-apocalypse garb. Tyretown's guards are interesting in that they feel like a precedent for Ringwood's cut-up tire armor designs for Demolition Man a few years later, as they sport armor that is similarly made up of torn up rubber tyres!

One aspect of the film that has especially aged badly is a Native American tribe (that, of course is linked to magic mumbo-jumbo, because New Age nonsense) that is all played by white actors, though their outfits seem to be made up of cut-up patterned fabrics that have been arranged into either very revealing tops, such as the fit sported by Ivor (Terence Mann) or cloaks.

It's not the only ethnic group that white people are getting to cosplay as in the apocalypse, as the 'Eco Warriors' - the rebel group that the fascist villains have been trying to exterminate - sport attire that seems possibly inspired a bit by Bedouin garb as well, though with baggy sleeves, deep collars and patterned lining and large panels over the waist. The Eco Warrior costumes feel a bit similar in design to the Fremen outfits Ringwood had designed for David Lynch's Dune a few years earlier, which fits as that was also about white people cosplaying as Middle Eastern peoples. I do quite like the fits, though!

As said earlier, the film leans a bit more into the futuristic aspects than most post-apocalypse films, and as such, there are some slightly futuristic fashions such as this beige jacket worn by an orphanage teacher, that sadly is barely seen on-screen like so many of the outfits here. The orphanage's guards wear odd looking jumpsuits with lighter yellow mesh patches, worn with caps.

There is also this futuristic suit worn by the evil scientist Shandray (Sarah Douglas), that in some ways is a rehash of Ringwood's design for Lady Jessica's dress in Dune a few years earlier, especially with the ridged shoulders.

The uniforms of the 'E-Police' serving the nebulous fascist regime wear predominatly blue leather, with the commander Grock (Richard Jordan) wearing a blue leather uniform with ribbed panelling over the shoulders and cuffs. The soldiers under him wear motorcycle outfits that have been altered with extra panelling - you can see the greeblies stuck on what are obviously bought motorbike helmets!