May 23 2009
A Star Trek 2009 Movie Uniform Costume Guide
With the new Star Trek movie being a box office success, I’m sure plenty of fans are going to be wanting the Starfleet uniforms from the film. When I wrote my original Star Trek Uniform Costume Guide, the movie wasn’t out yet, so I hadn’t included the new uniforms in it. Now that the film is out, I felt I should go ahead and try to lend a helping hand to those looking for some Star Trek XI costume resources.
First of all, to my knowledge, no official patterns for the new Starfleet movie uniforms have been released or announced. However, I would imagine that Paramount will realize that fans will be wanting these, and (perhaps) eventually produce them. After all, there are official patterns for older uniforms.
If patterns come out, the hardest part will probably be selecting a fabric that will be 100% screen accurate, because there is a delta pattern in it (see the picture below). Using a full red, blue or gold fabric simply will not give the exact same look as the fabric used in the 2009 movie.
There might be some hope though, as one fan pointed out on a forum: “some of the bigger fabric stores stock stretch sports/athletic material similar to the new uniforms. They have an embedded diamond pattern, in some I’ve seen, which is similar. From a short distance, probably identical look. Sportswear companies like Umbro use that patterned stretch material, too.”
While there are no patterns out there, there is an official line of Star Trek XI 2009 movie Halloween costumes for sale. That being said, these are made by Rubies, which is sort of known for not having the best quality items. These are Halloween costumes after all, and will not look and feel like the real thing should. They probably won’t last you very long either. Paramount may decide to release official “replica” uniforms, made of higher grade materials, but none have come out so far (they did this for the Star Trek: First Contact dress uniforms years ago).
However, if you’re not willing or able to create your own from scratch, the Rubies costumes are probably the best option you have. The official line offers the men’s Star Trek XI movie tunics in the three department colors for $38.99. It also offers an Uhura style Star Trek XI uniform for the ladies for $54.99 (pictured above). There is also a deluxe Star Trek XI Nero costume for $68.99. Now, these items keep coming in and out of stock, so you’ll have to diligently watch for their availability and snatch them up with a shipment comes in. Expect this to get worse as Halloween gets closer. You may get lucky and find them at your local Halloween costume store as well.
Update: Entertainment Weekly has uncovered the designer that made Uhura’s “pod” shaped earrings in Star Trek XI. The designer is Alexis Bittar, and the red Uhura earrings are on sale via Kiki Online for $85.00.
In addition to pre-made Starfleet uniforms, you can also buy an official Star Trek XI movie phaser toy replica at Entertainment Earth for $16.99. It is made by Playmates. This item also goes in and out of stock too, sorry. You may be able to get this at a Toys R Us instead.
As for the really sleek looking red and black Academy uniforms seen in the movie (pictured right), that is something you may never see a pattern for, and probably will not see an official Halloween costume for either. Luckily these Starfleet Academy movie uniforms have a similar silhouette to military dress uniforms, which means you may be able to modify an existing pattern (and there’s no delta pattern in the fabric). Just be sure you don’t forget the gold Star Trek insignia pin. You may be able to find one at a Star Trek convention, or on eBay/Etsy. Note that a pin goes on the breast for the black uniform, and a smaller one goes on the collar for the red uniform.
It looks like you can easily get away with standard black boots for any of these new movie costumes, but ladies will need to make sure theirs cover the calf if they are looking for screen accuracy in their costume.
I hope that was helpful to those of you looking for more information on the 2009 Star Trek movie uniforms. You can expect to see more information and resources coming out once the movie becomes available on DVD. Then costumers can examine the uniforms in the film frame by frame, and begin constructing their own patterns.
If you have any advice or insight, please post a comment.
@Admiral T’Moya
Unfortunately no, not at this time. I haven’t had a chance to examine a Rubies costume in person so see if the farbic is perfectly screen accurate in it’s pattern. I imagine that it isn’t the same fabric, as the on-screen stuff is clearly a much heavier/more structured fabric than what would be profitable for cheap Halloween costumes. However, If you purchased the Rubies Halloween costume, and lined it with a fabric underneath to give it some heft, it might work for you.
@Admiral T’Moya
Unfortunately, the fabric was custom made by the costume designer. See this article:
http://trekmovie.com/2009/02/26/st09-costume-designer-talks-star-trek-then-and-now/
@online halloween costume
I have seen a few in person (men’s versions only), and they aren’t too bad looking. I was pretty impressed, considering they are Halloween costumes and not replicas.
There are the “Grand Heritage” version of those Star Trek ‘09 costumes on the way, and from what I can see they seem to “do the job”. The seams on the shoulders are spot on and there are two pieces to the costume, the black shirt and the color uniform (unlike the cheaper ones featuring a fake black undershirt). The only problem I can see is the rank on the sleeves that seem a bit off from what is seen on screen… But i’ts nothing that cannot be arranged I guess.
Considering the uniqueness of the fabric I will order those…
hi! i found this on google, and am very sad that they dont have any other colors for the uhura costume. I know that she’s the only major female character in the movie, but I really wanted to be an updated version of Christine Chapel. So, i have ordered an extra-large McCoy shirt, and am making it into a dress myself with the fabric. I think its time for us crafty people to unite and write our own costume guides!
I just got the rubies large Spock shirt in the mail. The pattern is quite “spot on”, even the color seems right. The shoulder seems do not match, see top pic, and the undershirt is attached. I am going to carefully remove the “dickie” and wear a black mock-turtleneck with the collar pinned down inside. I ordered the large because it “Fits 42-44 Jacket Size”, but the shirt is more suited for a 46″ or 48″ chest. The sleeves are quite long and the rank sleeve insignia is gilt band a bit too far separated, and not the plain gray, closely spaced, as in the movie and on the package the costume came in. This is going to require some pinning.
I have been on a search for movie accurate pants and boots, but no luck. I am going to settle for some motorcycle boots, if I can find some to 12 inches high, and with a buckle on the top outboard. Black (navy blue!) “crackerjack” pants are being used for the pants, even though they are way wrong. They are from another costume, so I am recycling. The pants get tucked into the boots. Happy Hallowe’en!
I have the Grand Heritage (GH) Command shirt. I bought a Medium. I had a good friend of mine make some major alterations to the shirt to make it match better the movie versions. We went a bit too far in making the shirt more snug, and will be starting over next week with a fresh Grand Heritage shirt (art is about trial and error! :-)) The shirt out of the package has a number of short comings, but if you are in a pinch, it will do. I also spent some time examining the real 2009 movie costumes at the Star Trek Exhibit in Hollywood. Here are the differences of the movie shirt with the raw Rubies GH shirt:
The neck opening is way too big on the Rubies. In the movie costumes, it fits a lot tighter around the neck. My friend had to rebuild the neck on the GH Rubies to make it smaller. The real color is much darker, the real fabric slightly shimmers (possibly a very wide or large weave lycra, but it is definitely thicker than the thin Lycra Rubies shirt), the piping of the neck is an inner seam that is puffed outwards - the Rubies is an outer seam and not puffy at all; the armpit ribbing fabric of the movie shirt is completely different than the body - it is almost like a satin-shiny metallic gold fabric, and the rank bands at the wrists is completely different (looks to be a heat applied matte silver decal material), not the woven fabric strips of the current Rubies shirt. The Starfleet pin that comes with the shirt is terrible and huge. It arrived with multiple chips on the surface right out of the package.
The Command yellow of the movie shirt is a dark mustard color, the blue Sciences is dark blue, almost a dark denim blue color, and the red is a very deep red wine color, almost burgundy. By comparison, the yellow of the GH is too bright. The Rubies fabric is also considerably shinier than the movie fabric, which is gorgeous in person - it kind of shimmers with tiny flecks of light under the spot lights. I’m aware the color of the shirts appears brighter in publicity photos and stills than what I have described here, but keep in mind there is often a color difference between what was filmed on set, and how colors eventually look on the movie screen or publicity photos.
The black undershirt that comes with the GH is good, but lacks a proper mock-turtle neck like in the movie. Go buy a mock turtle neck somewhere and use that instead. However the movie shirts’ neck is not a separate collar sewn to the body of the torso like you find at regular retail. There is no seam. It is contiguous material from the upper chest.
The pants of the movie shirt are a custom pattern, and the pleated ribbing in the knee area is not parallel - it is sewn with a slight angle slanting inwards towards a person’s inner knees - into the adjoining fabric panel below.
Both the black undershirt and pants are not pure black. They are a dark charcoal color.
The mens’ boots or shoes were the same make as the Uhura boots that are shown. You can tell because they have the same small octopus-like sucker pattern on them on the soles, visible from the sides. Hopefully someone will discover what company made them. I don’t think they were custom. They may have been customized, but they look like commercially available footwear.