Get A Look At The ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Costume Display In San Diego

TrekMovie was at The San Diego Comic-Con Museum for the screening of Star Trek: Picard, where CBS All Access generously provided costumes and props from the show for a temporary two-day exhibit. Free tickets to the screening went like hotcakes within minutes of being announced, but the exhibit was open to all, also at no charge.

The San Diego Science Fiction Coalition had a table with Star Trek memorabilia and collectibles on display, and plenty of cosplayers on hand to pose for pictures with the guests in front of their galaxy backdrop.

The author poses with other members of the San Diego Sci-Fi Coalition

Star Trek memorabilia display

There were ten costumes on display (eleven if you count Number One’s collar) and a few props, some of which are being shown in public for the first time. Along with the costumes, there were photos of the actors wearing them, as well as some concept art by Greg Hopwood. Accompanying each piece was a placard describing the character and some notes on designer Christine Bieselin Clark’s costumes.

The wall of costumes

Jean-Luc Picard

Picard’s (Patrick Stewart) costume that he wears at the vineyard is one we have seen before: A red turtleneck sweater with interesting texture, brown pants, and a long overcoat on which the Picard family crest pin is attached. He carries a cane and has overly complicated high boots, which are the main difference from the accompanying concept art.

The concept art for Picard’s vineyard look

In addition to the Vineyard costume, the outfit that Picard wears on La Sirena (Rios’ ship) was on display. Hints of previous Picard uniforms shine through the all black and gray uniform’s design. The shoulder yokes, similar to those of the Nemesis jacket, are made of embossed leather. The bulk of the jacket is a dark gray herringbone tweed fabric. Practicality prevails in the pocketed pants made of gray fabric with a tiny grid pattern, with slits in front of the ankles. The suede boots have an interesting strap across the instep that cosplayers will have a tough time duplicating.

The concept art for this piece is very close to the finished product; the main difference is the size of the leather yoke.

Dahj

Dahj’s (Isa Briones) costume looks fantastic up close. It’s an emerald green hooded cloak with leather accents worn over a black tunic and leggings with strappy combat type boots. This is the cloak she wears when she seeks out Jean-Luc Picard at his vineyard.

Seven of Nine

The Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) costume is a more casual look that we’ve been used to seeing on her. She wears tight pants with zippered pockets, brown leather tall boots, and a gold mesh sweater. Around the waist are leather and metal belts, worn crisscrossed. Topping it all off is a detailed brown leather jacket with a custom Romulan-looking zipper pull.

Hugh

Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) wears a very textured shirt and pair of pants with random straps at the knees. Clark worked with textile artist Ivory Stanton on a multi-stepped process of texture and paint to achieve the look.  The harness that he wears, which recalls textures and materials of Hugh’s Borg past, were made using laser-etched urethanes. Hugh’s lace-up boots are also highly textured in the same style, and he wears a hexagonal badge.

The concept art for Hugh differs in the detailing on the neck and some straps on the thigh, but otherwise is very close.

Elnor

The Romulan Elnor (Evan Evagora) wears a warrior’s costume. Clark used a combination of silk shantung and tussah for the indigo blue jacket and trousers. The fabric was custom dyed by master dyer Tyra Youland; evidently that particular color is reserved only for Elnor and his people. Leather is used to accent the sleeves. The Romulan inscription on his belt was translated by linguist Trent Pehrson. Unfortunately, the signage at the exhibit did not provide an English translation. Elnor’s tall boots are also indigo, with straps winding around and up the lower legs.

The costume nearly duplicates the concept art here, and the result is beautiful.

Raffi Musiker

Raffi Musiker’s (Michelle Hurd) costume is a jumpsuit that she wears when she joins the crew of La Sirena. Over the sleek jumpsuit is a large vest with huge pockets and a large waistband. There are seams at the shoulder to provide stylistic detail and a mandarin collar on the jumpsuit underneath. The boots are fairly simple leather workboots, worn with the pant legs over them.

Chris Rios

Cristóbal “Chris” Rios (Santiago Cabrera) wears a rather casual, yet militaristic outfit of slim-fitting pocketed pants, a black henley top, and a sort of patchworked, yet monochrome vest. Surprisingly, the vest does not seem to have pockets, which would make it infinitely more functional. The textured pattern on the vest is the same as on the Picard costume. These elements of design are seen throughout his ship.

 

The concept art for Rios is similar to the final costume, but the vertical zippers on the front of the pants did not make it into the final version, and the vest in the concept art has cleaner lines and buttons instead of a zipper.

La Sirena insignia

Rios can be seen wearing the insignia of his private ship named La Sirena (which translates to the siren or mermaid). The insignia appears to be an abstract mermaid. Picard, Musiker, and Jurati can be seen wearing the same small insignia on their outfits once they join up with Rios.

Agnes Jurati

Two costumes for Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) were on display. One is the lab coat that she wears at the Daystrom Institute. It is wrinkled and well-worn around the edges. Notable is the lack of a back seam; the two sides are kept together by a thick metal ring. Beneath the lab coat are a simple pair of periwinkle pants and a feminine shell, and she wears matching flats on her feet. Cosplayers should be sure to finish this look with the ID badge worn around her neck on a silver chain.

Jurati’s La Sirena costume is in the same dark tones of her shipmates. She wears slim-fitting pants, a plain black shirt, and a zip-front jacket. She was smart enough to replicate pockets on her space travel clothing.

 

Props

Props that were on display included cases of Chateau Picard wine, Number One’s leather collar and delta-shaped dog tag. Also displayed were a Romulan knife, Romulan dual barreled disrupter, and Romulan Black Ops Helmet.

 

Everyone in attendance for the screening Thursday was given a poster and a gift card for CBS All Access in order to continue watching the series at home. The hospitality shown by the Comic-Con Museum and CBS All Access was appreciated by all.

The poster handed out to attendees


New episodes of Star Trek: Picard are released on CBS All Access in the USA Thursdays at 12:01 AM PT/3:01 AM ET. In Canada it airs Thursdays on CTV Sci-Fi Channel at 6PM PT /9PM ET and then is made available to stream on Crave. For the rest of the world it streams Fridays on Amazon Prime Video. Episodes are released weekly.

Keep up with all the Star Trek: Picard news at TrekMovie.

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The Romulan knife is the same one as the knife used by Shinzon to give a blood sample in Star Trek Nemesis. It is the so-called “double shadow knife” created by Gil Hibben.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Reman_blade_weapons

Thanks Jörg.

I couldn’t place it as Romulan at all.

My spouse and I have only seen Nemesis once, but we’re feeling that we’re going to have to give it a rewatch with our kids.

Gil Hibben designed many pieces of assault cutlery for Star Trek (he’s known as The Official Armorer of the Klingon Empire). He is also the creator of the Bowie-style knives Sylvester Stallone and others used in the Rambo and Expendables movies.

Lookin’ good!

Gotta say, I didn’t like the designs initially, when I saw them in trailers and the first episode. But seeing them this way, makes me really appreciate the costume design of the show. Nice job!

Though I’d also like to see an oficial picture of the the new uniforms, even though they probably won’t be a big part of the show.

As much as I like this show, I believe Picard’s garment too much looks like nowadays elderly people’s clothings. And that does not make sense. I think, contemporarily, older people tend to wear those color palettes because it’s based on the fashion of their own youth. Boys in the 1950s and 1960s would have worn similar styles. It’s not a matter of age but of nurture and habits.

Nobody says: okay, I’m old now…I should start wearing greyish, brownish suits instead of more colorful stuff. No, it’s what they had always worn! In 50 years from now, old people will still wear colorful T-shirts…

That’s why Picard’s fashion choices don’t make sense from my POV.

La Sirena? :-) Sounds like a ship right out of The Expanse :-) Can I call her Siri?

Who’s to say that old man Picard’s clothes weren’t fashionable back in the early 24th Century? Maybe Dahj was thinking “Gah, that red turtleneck is SO 2320s!”

The red turtleneck is indeed the only part of the vineyard outfit that looks reasonably futuristic and doesn’t try to mimic contemporary elderly fashion.

I can accept the modern-day look of the casual clothes because so much of current fashion is just recycled from the past. As we start into the decade of the 20s, people are talking about bringing back styles from the Roarin’ 20s of last century. And hipsters are recycling shirts, pants, glasses, etc from past generations. And students imitating 80s hair and 70s bellbottoms…

The costumes are as bland, colorless, and dull as the theme music. Good thing they have talented actors to distract us from all the drabness.

Man, the theme music is SUPERB! It’s just so wonderful with it’s semi-celtic intro growing into a beautiful symphonic tune. Easily the best theme tune since Voyager and one of the best TV themes on air…

It’s Star Trek Inner Light meets Outlander meets Waking Ned Devine…

I couldn’t be a tad happier about it! A matter of taste, I guess…

The theme music is growing on me.

I found the main melody running through my head as I was falling asleep. It’s definitely more of an ear-worm than I expected.

Like many, I found that the theme music didn’t stand out on first listen.

But I have to admit, our family watch party was focused on seeing what happens next.

It’s an absolute grower! It didn’t stick with me the first time round either. Just like the TUC score back in the day. Now Eidelman’s score is one of my Trek favourites.

And Russo managed to include the NextGen tune towards the end in a far, far more natural, appropriate way than it was done with the Enterprise fanfare on DSC…

The DSC tune is okay, but it is broken. It’s half-baked cover tune of the Pirates of the Caribbean track Hoist the Colors from the third movie.

But this time, Russo has really created a masterpiece. I hope there will be a longer symphonic suite at some point, just as with the Inner Light theme.

The more I think about it, both The Inner Light theme as well as the Skye Boat Song from Outlander resonate with it beautifully, almost as if they were different parts, different movements, of the same symphony.

Well, maybe The Inner Light is the upward movement of The Skyeboat Song and Picard is the downward movement of the Skyeboat Song… Gosh, if that was done on purpose… just wow! Not an expert, just listening and feeling it…

Hahahahahahahahahah that’s hilarious, Garth! (Unless you’re serious.)

I’m always serious. :-) It’s really cool, that connection between Inner Light and Picard. Both resemble some vital cues from The Skyeboat Song. Not to the last note, but it’s there. The Skyeboat Song is the missing link inbetween The Inner Light and the Picard theme. It#s just beautiful. Positively geeking out over this :-)

Um…okay. Glad you enjoy it! (though you are definitely projecting things onto it that aren’t there…The Skye Boat Song?! No similarity unless you’re referencing some obscure recording). :)

(I’m semi-teasing you, not really being this dismissive. I’ll listen again and see if I can hear the layers you’re hearing. :) )

It’s not a hidden layer on some obscure recording. It’s the central cues I’m talking about. The upward movement could have been the basis for McCarthy’s Inner Light theme and the downward movement could have been the inspiration for Russo’s Picard theme. If not on purpose, it would be a wonderful coincidence :-)

I just rewatched the credits and listened through twice. I also listened to The Corries’ version of The Skye Boat Song. (my personal favorite) I just do not hear anything remotely similar (other than the use of stringed instruments) between them.

Not saying it’s not there–you’re hearing something–but I cannot catch even a hint of what you’re hearing.

I’m listening to an instrumental version on YouTube…named “Outlander “The Skie Boat Song” (Instrumental Version) [From “Outlander TV Series”]”

0:01 – 0:06 upward movement (The Inner Light) / 0:07 – 0:11 downward movement (Picard theme)

0:40 – 0:48 upward movement (The Inner Light) / 0:49 – 0:53 downward movement (Picard theme)

It should be the same melody in any version though :-)

I listened, but I’m just not hearing any real correlation between them. I think you might have a much more discerning ear than I do. (I’m not being sarcastic.) :)

It’s not that deeply hidden. It’s the central motif, the chorus line. The Picard theme has some extra notes to it at the start but it’s basically the same melody for about 4 seconds.

Okay, I’m giving up :-) It was nice trying to convince you. Maybe someone else can hear it though…

I definitely think it’s there–you’re too specific and certain about it. I’m just not catching the similarity, which is my problem.

I’ll keep listening–I’ll do my homework, Professor Lorca! :)

Agreed on the theme music. Both Picard and Discovery are utterly unremarkable until the end when Russo samples more iconic and inspiring themes. I’ve got no problem with his music in the episode, but they should have got a more talented composer such as Giacchino to do the theme.

A friend argued with me about the DSC theme until I made him listen to it while watching a car commercial. (Cadillac, IIRC). After he stopped laughing, he admitted that it’s just the same.

Picard is just as bland, but folks are loving it for…some reason. But it’s another car commercial tune, at best.

But at least it’s not “Faith of the Heart”! :)

“Picard is just as bland, but folks are loving it for…some reason.”

Because people have taste and you don’t? No, just kidding. It’s a matter of taste and thus not everyone’s cup of tea, decaf or not.

I like “Faith of the Heart”, just not as the opening theme of a Star Trek show. The song should have been the End Credits and the Closing Theme should have been the opener. I really like the closing theme of ENT. For me, it’s the actual theme of that show.

I agree about the closing theme on Enterprise. Good track, works better as the theme. And yeah, Faith of the Heart is a great Rod Stewart tune, but not as a Trek theme and not the versions they used. Ugh.

Faith of the Heart has actually grown on me as Enterprise’s opening theme. Its different from any of the other Treks, and it actually fits the themes of the show.

“A friend argued with me about the DSC theme until I made him listen to it while watching a car commercial. (Cadillac, IIRC). After he stopped laughing, he admitted that it’s just the same.”

Hm, I’ve randomly listened to hundreds of pop songs against movie trailers and it’s really funny how much they actually fit with the rythm, cutting and content, sometimes even down to the lyrics for the exact scenes on display. It’s crazy how generic both music-making and movie trailers are. But point being? Everything’s made out of a few repetitive base elements, down to your DNA, your atoms and basically the whole universe. It’s cool anyway…

You can repeat your experiment with every main theme, every song and every trailer and TV spot ever made. To some degree, they’ll always fit. It’s not a proof of missing depth at all. It’s just quantum psychosis. Skip the red pill, take the blue one and enjoy the ride while it lasts…

“You can repeat your experiment with every main theme, every song and every trailer and TV spot ever made.”

Nope! The TOS theme, TNG/TMP theme, etc. don’t work over a Cadillac commercial like the DSC tune does. And it’s not just the blandness but the SPECIFIC kind of blandness. The DSC theme has a feel of movement and motion, but not actual theme (until the TOS ripoff), no strong motifs, just…generic.

Defending the Picard theme is one thing, but if you’re defending the DSC theme, you’re just wrong. :)

The problem with the DSC theme is that I tend to blend it with Hoist the Colors from POTC 3. I saw that movie 10 times on the big screen back then in 2007 and this song/theme sticked with me so deep that I couldn’t help but recognize it in the DSC theme. You know, identifying similitude in tunes is sort of a recurring theme with me :-)

You *chose* to see POTC 3 more than once?! Well, that brings your judgment into serious question. :)

I liked the first three POTC movies. It was the fourth and fifth ones that sucked.

I love, love, love the first POTC film–darn near perfect entertianment. But I loathed 2 and 3, and never saw the later ones.

Someone pointed out that the central motif in the Picard theme is actually a note for note copy of the tune Picard’s son plays in the inner light (3/4ths way through).. just thought you seemed like the type of person that might appreciate knowing this! Adds an awesome nuance to the theme.

I wonder if the La Sirena insignia badge is also a com badge. I’m also looking forward to the La Sirena ship design.

It makes sense that the costumes are all darkly colored since they are going on a stealthy mission.

I really like the designs and the detailing.

We may love colourful Trek, but there is a longstanding and we’ll documented pattern in fashion of somber and muted colours during resource-constrained times. It’s been happening for more than a century, and could carry on.

So, I am seeing the dark browns, charcoals, beige and greys, as a visual sign that the Federation is in a resource-constrained period, not the endless surplus of the TOS and TNG eras. This makes sense after the Dominion War. As well, the reporter stressed the resource constraint in her questioning of Picard.

In a resource constrained economic period, Picard’s clinging to a muted version of his familiar command red in his sweater worn at home would be an outlier/off-trend.

Last thought, while the collars on the TNG-era uniforms didn’t stand out as much for me as for some who’ve commented on other threads, I was surprised at some of the execution issues on Picard’s costumes. Rippling fabric tension by the zippers and buttons was not what I expected to see. In fact the execution of the other costumes seemed better.

“We may love colourful Trek, but there is a longstanding and we’ll documented pattern in fashion of somber and muted colours during resource-constrained times.”

Doesn’t make sense to me. Yes, colorful clothing used to be VERY expensive in the making back in the day before people were able to artificially create colorants. Even today, colors aren’t an issue, even in poorer regions, anymore. But they still have replicators in the years 2399, don’t they? So it is only a matter of fashion what to wear.

Whatever, I’m okay with those choices, it’s just that they don’t seem entirely logical in-world. The designers want to speak to the viewers of 2020, symbolizing aging with the same elderly looks as today’s 80+ generation predominantly wears. It’s a creative choice I cannot fully appreciate but then, it’s the way it is… No big issue of any sort…

Garth Lorca, we seem to be talking about a psychological phenomenon that happens in resource-constrained periods, not an actual limitation.

By the 1960s, colour and cost of manufacturing fabrics were pretty unrelated, but the pattern carries on. During the recession and oil crisis of the 70s, ‘earth colours’ came into vogue.

I have been to many developing countries, and one thing that strikes me is that the color of clothing is often much more bold than in developed countries. So I’m not buying this theory.

“the Federation is in a resource-constrained period”

Only in a figurative sense, no? Economically it should be as free energy and post scarcity as ever, just look at the abundance in the pilot Eart locations. I have a hard time believing the Mars disaster 20 years back would cripple a 160 planet alliance in any meaningful way.

VS, they seem to be picking up on some of the societal threads in the post-Relaunch books.

After the Dominion War, Federation society was not one of infinite surplus. In fact, there were likely issues in terms of resource sharing to help rebuild Cardassia.

It doesn’t seem that the Borg threat has reached the final resolution of the Destiny novel trilogy, but mention of a Galactic treaty prohibiting synthetic lifeforms suggests that there are diplomatic relations with the Gamma and Delta Quadrant societies, not just Alpha and Beta.

I think I’ve made my view clear before already but I find they are overdoing the “contemporary metaphor” thing now. This is not how metaphor worked in Trek previously, its way too literal. And as a post-scarcity society, probably Kardashev II, there’s just so much connection you should be able to credibly build to our contemporary problems. That’s a specific Trek problem (especially 24th century) that Star Wars etc. dont have because they never build their world from the premise of an Utopian post-money society. I just want them to acknowledge and adhere to the premise in a consistent way. But now, they want to have it both ways again. As Discovery showed, they absolute love pushing technology to near magic/fantasy realm, but at the same time they want to put in those direct parallels to our time that then just end up as crudely thought out apples and oranges comparisons. Like, are we seriously going to compare a “refugee crisis” the 160 planet free energy alliance faces with those that overwhelmed nation states with their very limited, zero-sum capitalist economies and flawed legal systems? I’m very sceptical and would prefer they keep this in the ‘hopeful what if future scenario’ realm (its clearly an alternate history/universe, not ours) and put in more abstract, nuanced metaphors.

“I have a hard time believing the Mars disaster 20 years back would cripple a 160 planet alliance in any meaningful way.”

Especially the “Mars is still burning” stuff is beyond belief! What happened to those super-ice cubes Spock could throw into a Vulcano? Do they only exist in the KT?

A Volcano and a burning stratosphere are not the same thing.

“We may love colourful Trek, but there is a longstanding and we’ll documented pattern in fashion of somber and muted colours during resource-constrained times. It’s been happening for more than a century, and could carry on.”

Really? Documented where?

Like others, I disagree and think you’re offbase. A post-scarcity society with replicators won’t have problems with colorful clothes vs drab clothing.

It’s fine to like the costumes, but you’re projecting justifications that aren’t there in the show or designs. Fun to speculate, but…no.

Ok, while I know that it doesn’t correlate with the costs of production, colourful clothes in economic boom/surplus vs dark/drab in scarcity is a thing.

Here’s some evidence:

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/fashion/15COLOR.html

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/col.22287

https://www.fashionunited.uk/news/business/is-threat-of-a-recession-driving-designers-to-go-more-minimalist/2019041042640/amp

But there’s no evidence of scarcity in Picard, so none of that applies, hmm?

PaulB, you may have missed the interviewer’s question to Picard asking why the Federation would put resources into saving Romulan lives.

If there is a surplus economy with no scarcity, why would this even come up?

Because they don’t want to give resources to a perceived enemy. (Which was clear in the interview–you may have missed it) Not lack of resources, just a refusal to share them with a hostile foreign power.

No scarcity required. Your speculation here is simply unfounded.

It is not a scarcity of physical resourcea, but a scarcity of emotional resources. Bad things have happened and society is withdrawing.
But yeah, they are overdoing the “contemporary metaphor” thing.
This might be appropriate for the 22nd century but not the 24th / almost 25th century, (Picard is set in 2399, the next to the last year of the 24th century).

Hugh’s costume is what I’d expect nearly 400 years in the future. Not just a different aesthetic and fashion style, but totally different fabrics and production processes that look unfamiliar to us. Zippers and buttons… not so much.

Previous Trek at least tried to look futuristic, a lot of the costume design here really looks like Banana Republic in 2019, 2020?

Also RIP Kobe

I agree. They at least tried. They tried to make something different to clothing we currently wear. That’s why we didn’t see buttons on clothing (and when used were hidden) and zippers were hardly visible. I call it magic closure! Leisure clothing were always these strange loose fitting garments with overlapping fabric. Exotic and strange, something we wouldn’t wear. Ha! Clothing with lapels were mostly avoided, and most clothing went collarless or had stand up collars. I think even shoe laces were avoided. Now in Picard we get dress shirts with a collar, sew on buttons, and a tie that isn’t much different from what we wear now. Don’t get me wrong, some pieces look great and resemble TNG era clothing. It’s just that it isn’t consistent anymore, and as a whole doesn’t give this unique look of a future that is different from ours. Sure, some people may hate TNG clothing and call it silly and unpractical, and call Picard style clothing more grounded in “reality”. I just always thought it was fun to see something different.

That’s not two opposed mermaid tails. The upper one is a long-haired female bust, facing right. Nice design, anyway.

What’s up with future humans making their clothes out of coarse burlap, though? Sure, you don’t have to worry about elements in the controlled climate, but still it’s not the most practical fabric out there. Are the designers trying to get as far from spandex as possible, or what?

I love the costume design. Much more practical and realistic than TNG era clothing. I found the civilian clothing aesthetic/design on TNG to be downright embarrassing. Thankfully they dropped it (for the most part) in DS9 and VOY.

Wait, I thought they didn’t use buttons on clothing in the 24th century? As far as I can remember, TNG went far to avoid buttons on clothing, and even zippers were hardly visible. I guess there was some kind of retro revival somewhere in the 24th century. Ties and 20th-21st century buttoned shirts with collars? For a moment I thought Picard had travelled back in time.

Buttons were a 13th century innovation. I suspect that they might make it through a few more centuries.

After all, buckles are an ancient technology, but they appeared on late 23rd century Starfleet uniforms.

It’s not that the 24th century can’t use buttons on clothing. It’s just that the 80s and 90s Trek TV series costume designers tried to avoid visible buttons to achieve a certain 24th century aesthetic. Although not smitten by every costume design, I loved that about previous Trek. Robert Blackman and co went out of their way to avoid our 20th century clothing aesthetic. Some may not even have noticed the lack of buttons and visible zippers. Yes, buckles were also used on TNG, but without prongs. And no shoe laces, I think. Anyways, it was just a thing that I noticed as a longtime Star Trek fan. It’s also why Picard wearing a button-up shirt with collar (exactly like we wear today) felt so out of place in the new series.