Star Trek's Man Dress - Complete Story

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This is the complete saga of Star Trek The Next Generation’s man-dress, or skant uniform variant. It goes into the context and history behind this brief but memorable costume. The story of the Skant is also the story of William Ware Theiss, with his work beginning on Star Trek The Original Series and continuing on in-spirit on Strange New Worlds.

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00:00 Introduction
01:00 Skant Summary
02:32 Covering your Final Frontier… Space Dock… Decker Unit… Avoiding an Encounter at Far Point
04:15 Video sponsor promotion
05:30 William Ware Theiss and the Beginning
09:12 Creation of TNG’s Skant
10:00 Uniform colors
11:14 The Skant’s Legacy
13:07 Overall Thoughts
13:58: Rocks
14:30 End Credits

[EnigmaticPenguin]

We were robbed of seeing Worf defend his honour to the other Klingons in Heart of Glory while wearing one.

[spacepiratecaptainrush]

imagine the absolute power move of opening hailing frequencies and there's the captain front and centre in his Skant, sitting in the centre chair with with knees apart, relaxed, confident.

[Hyreia]

Admittedly that one buff guy walking towards the screen with it on? He absolutely killed it. The way he rocks it (with the boots?) he makes it feel like a kilt-version of the uniform.

[brynpookc]

I wore miniskirts in the 70s and you had to move very carefully, you never bent over and there’s a special way to reach/stretch up that keeps the skirt in place. Edit: It’s correct that the mini was a female statement of independence at the time and highly criticized by men.

[TheWanderingFire]

The skant as a uniform variant actually makes sense when you realize the ambient temperature of Starfleet vessels with human/alien crews is set at 24°C (75.2°F) to accommodate various lifeforms. That's a little too warm for many people, so an opportunity to bare your legs would be welcomed by anyone who found it too much.

[wylloughbye]

I LOVE my skant. Made it from Alex Beard's pattern about 2 years ago. They are really comfortable, and not nearly as revealing as you think. One of the fascinating things with wearing them, is that the skirt flap naturally falls to keep your warp core from showing when sitting.

[concernedcitizen]

While Picard never wore a skant, he and others sometimes wore the best dress uniform in any series, which looked a lot like a longer dress with pants underneath.

[alexbruce]

I didn't properly appreciate it at the time, but Pulaski's skant-plus-pants combo may actually be my favourite TNG uniform. The SNW version is very nice.

[armandoestebanquito]

That we have never seen O`Brien wearing a skant on screen is one of the great tragedies of humanity...

(I love your channel, it's a joy every time there's a new episode!)

[aDifferentJT]

I love the irony of the TMP costume designer criticising TOS costumes for looking too pyjama-y.

[Thewanderers]

I feel like the skant with leggings looks more like a believable uniform than the jumpsuits ever did.

[kadmii]

just imagining Sisko undoing his skant while confessing to playing a role in the murder of a Romulan senator

[shinyagumon]

I like the Skant on Troi, would've been better then the weird catsuit.

Also love the uniform concept with sideboob for men and women.

[sleepinglionarchives]

This discussion reminded me of a conversation I once had with my boss. I was working as a teacher and talking with the principal about our dress code. I was commenting that men had to wear suits, ties and all, in the warm months while female staff were free to wear sleeveless tops and skirts. His response was, "Well, you can wear a skirt, " because shorts were not in the staff dress code. I did not wear a skirt

[lyrajaded]

We did see Picard in a dress uniform! Just like the skant, I love how nonchalantly accepted it is. Picard’s only complaint is that he hates the collar because it’s uncomfortable

[Funct]

The effort that goes into the little details for these videos is so, so appreciated.

[JudasBooth]

Appreciate the video mentioning that the TOS minidress was actually Grace Lee Whitney's idea; it gives credit where it's due (Grace came from a stage and dance background and was comfortable in such garb, similar to Nichelle Nichols, who also admitted to liking the outfit), it rightly addresses the issues Grace faced because of it (though she was already a substance addict before TOS, it certainly didn't help), and it helps to alleviate a certain negative view among some commentators (looking at you, TrekCulture) that it was Gene Roddenberry's idea to have women run around in short dresses, which tends to paint him as some kind of lecherous chauvinist. Far from it; Gene may have been a shameless womanizer in his personal life, but professionally he held women in high regard, especially in a time when precious few in Hollywood did.

[Hexagonal_Goblin]

15 minutes worth of skantposting is everything I could ever want

[jakmrnd]

In my own head canon I always took the Command and Operations switching colors to be a hold over from the Monster Maroon uniforms from the movies. That during the time between the movies and TNG the red uniforms became a symbol of Starfleet and the Federation across the galaxy. So when Starfleet decide to change the uniforms and go back to a more simpler design the red became the color for Command because it would be those officers who would be making first contact with new races and representing the Federation in other diplomatic, exploratory, and defensive matters.

[Lazzars]

There's something about the pallet swap of Picard and Data's uniforms that I find really uncomfortable