Certainly more than just a few red shirts, this book covers the onscreen incarnations of Trek from 1966 through to the most recent 2013 film, Star Trek Into Darkness. Not definitive, but being over 200 pages long shows a good representation of costumes from various uniforms, casual and formal attire, as well as some jewellery, all from an array of periods, ranks, and alien cultures that appeared on our screens over the past five decades.
The pages are generously illustrated with concept sketches, photos of some full-length garments on mannequins and, of course, plenty of beautiful large photographs of the outfits in situ on the show, which all make this book so wonderful to leaf through. Accompanying the beautiful imagery, are quotes from the actors about the experience of wearing the costumes, and stories from the designers behind the garments, their inspirations, and we learn about some of the trials and tribble-ations encountered during the creative process of bringing the fashions to life.
Understandably, there’s a weighting towards the 1960’s series, and its subsequent six movies with the original cast, which arguably has the most interesting aesthetic and iconic outfits –without them, perhaps there wouldn’t have been as many years of Trek as there has been!
The middle third of the book focuses on the Captain Jean-Luc Picard fronted Star Trek: The Next Generation series, and its four movies. The rest of the book is split between the other television series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, and with the two movies so far from the current reboot which began in 2009. The smallest exploration is on the Enterprise series, which is a shame, but with it being a shorter series than most of the other materialisations, and being widely thought of as the least popular of Trek shows, perhaps it is fair.
A fascinating celebration with an abundance of imagery for Trekkies, general sci-fi fans, cosplayers or even fashion designers who want inspiration to… make it sew!
STAR TREK COSTUMES: FIVE DECADES OF FASHION FROM THE FINAL FRONTIER / AUTHOR: PAULA M BLOCK & TERRY J ERDMANN / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
