Analysis, part 9 - Sleeve Stripes

The DS9/NEM admiral jacket also had unique sleeve stripes.

DS9, 6x5 "Favor the Bold"

Unlike the duty jumpsuits and "captain jackets," which had sleeve cuffs consisting of two sleeve bands and a division sleeve stripe made from the same cotton lycra as the division shirts, the admiral jackets had no sleeve bands and a larger 2" berry wool gabardine sleeve stripe embellished with ⅛" metallic gold braided piping on the upper and lower edges, onto which a bar of admiral rank pips was worn.

DS9, 6x26 "Tears of the Prophets"

Oddly, the admiral jackets' berry wool gabardine sleeve stripes did NOT exactly match the berry cotton lycra of the division short worn underneath the jacket.

DS9, 7x21 "When It Rains"

DS9, 6x5 "Favor the Bold"

It's a bit difficult to see on screen, but the difference is quite noticeable both in person and in some behind the scenes and/or auction photos. 

Why did the costume department use wool gabardine for the admiral jacket sleeve stripes instead of cotton lycra like the jumpsuits and "captain jackets" did? Perhaps because it was more dimensionally stable? 

Why didn't the division-color wool gabardine they used not match the division-color cotton lycra? 

We can only speculate. 

I (Alex), personally, believe that the DS9/NEM admiral jacket sleeve stripes were made from either leftover TNG/early DS9-era wool gabardine or from the wool gabardine that was currently being used on Voyager, but I have no real evidence to support this theory, so take it for whatever it's worth. 

The facts available are: 

1 - The TNG command berry, the early DS9/VOY command berry, and DS9/NEM command berry were close-ish but did not match. 

2 - The DS9/NEM division shirt and admiral jacket sleeve stripe were close-ish but did not match. 

3 - The DS9/NEM admiral jacket sleeve stripe was berry wool gabardine. 

Postulates: 

1 - The DS9/NEM division shirt was arguably the color standard for the era. 

2 - After the DS9/NEM uniform upgrade, Paramount/CBS/whoever-owned-Star-Trek likely had little use for all the leftover TNG-era command berry wool gabardine lying around (or the outdated TNG-era uniforms themselves, for that matter). 

3 - After the DS9/NEM uniform upgrade, Paramound/CBS/whoever-owned-Star-Trek likely had a surplus of command berry wool gabardine used for the early DS9/VOY-style jumpsuit yokes, since only one show was using it at that point instead of two. 

4 - It makes little sense to custom-dye both fabrics for the same costume but intentionally mismatch them. 

In short, we know the command berry changed colors quite a bit over the years, and after the DS9/NEM uniform "upgrade," the leftover fabric from previous uniforms was probably not very useful anymore; nor were the uniforms themselves (for shooting purposes). Voyager had moved on to a different color and they seldom needed TNG-era fabric or uniforms, officer or admiral, for anything. 

Of course, this is only speculation with merely circumstantial evidence. 

We have no evidence, only a theory which happens to fit the facts.

The only way to prove such a theory would be to compare screen-used swatches (ideally from "hero" uniforms), or, ideally screen-used uniforms themselves (again, preferably "hero" uniforms) and determine color matches, but even then, that wouldn't conclusively prove that such fabric/uniform recycling was widespread common practice. 

Should my theory be incorrect (as it may well be), there are other possibilities: 

* The DS9/NEM admiral jacket sleeve stripes were made from leftover early Deep Space Nine (seasons 1-2) jumpsuit yokes; we know that the jumpsuits were constructed differently during the first two seasons then ditched in favor of nicer ones at the beginning of season 3 and for Voyager, so those early jumpsuits were pretty much useless for shooting purposes. 

* The admiral sleeve stripes were custom-dyed with the same formula as the command berry division shirt, but the fabrics (wool gabardine and cotton lycra, respectively) took the dye differently. We've seen how wool elastique/cavalry twill and wool gabardine respond differently to the same dye on the DS9/NEM yokes. We also know that preparing the exact same dye formula in different types of dye for different fabrics (fiber-reactive dyes for cotton, and acid dyes for wool) can produce surprisingly different results. 

* The command berry wool gabardine used for the DS9/NEM admiral jacket sleeve stripes came from another source entirely - one that had nothing to do with the TNG, early DS9, VOY, and/or the DS9/NEM formal jacket command berry wool gabardines. This unknown source could have been an "off-the-shelf" bolt from anywhere, experimental scraps/leftovers from a different era that never made it on screen, etc. 

* The admiral jacket sleeve cuffs were intentionally dyed to mismatch the division shirt. Again, that seems like a weird thing to do, but without evidence to the contrary, it's possible! 

Regardless, it is worth noting that if you wish to build a screen-accurate admiral jacket, your command berry wool gabardine sleeve stripe should not match your command berry cotton lycra division shirt, counter-intuitive as that may be! 

Of course, if you're only aiming to make an "imitation" admiral jacket that looks plenty convincing to the untrained eye, disregarding the screen-used standard to match the two division colors (jacket sleeve stripe + division shirt) is probably a preferable approach. 

The choice is yours!


PREVIOUS: Analysis, part 8 - Belt and Belt Loops

NEXT: Analysis, part 10 - Jacket Length