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In Star Trek TOS you very frequently get glimpses of the female crew's panties under their short skirt uniforms. I've noticed they are always a matching color.

This makes me wonder - were the matching panties in fact an official part of Starfleet uniform?

enter image description here blue panties

Also, was there any point in Star Trek TOS where a female crew member wore anything except a mini-skirt and matching panties? If not, how long was the period during which the Federation required this of its female crew (it would've been after Star Trek Enterprise and before Star Trek TNG, I think)?

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    @amarillo OK I added a better photo. While I can see why you'd think it's a skort because they are conservative ("granny") panties, like what cheerleaders wear, the difference is that if it were a skort there would be square shorts with a wrap-around skirt sewed partly over them. But you can see in the pics those are definitely form fitting panties.
    – Hack-R
    Apr 3, 2016 at 1:30
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    @amarillo They come up with some interesting ways of explaining oddities in Star Trek TOS, for instance the virus that caused Klingons of that era to look like pale-skinned humans. I was thinking that in some book, animated series, or series I didn't watch (i.e. Voyager and DS9) they make have made up a way of explaining this period and added details about it. It's in pretty stark contrast to the rest of Star Trek and all other military uniforms.
    – Hack-R
    Apr 3, 2016 at 1:51
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    Now I know why this SE site is called "Science Fiction & Fantasy" ... Apr 3, 2016 at 21:03
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    How is this post not dirtier than it is?
    – Möoz
    May 18, 2016 at 22:54
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    All my life I had assumed that they weren't panties, that they were somehow part of rhe skirt, like an old-style swimsuit. This question blows my mind. I had no idea TOS was so PG-13. If my parents had known at the time, they would never have let me watch it - and that was the ONLY tv show we were allowed to watch for a year or two.
    – MikeC
    Jul 16, 2019 at 3:37

1 Answer 1

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Yes

The Franz Joseph uniform patterns from the Star Trek Technical Manual show that matching panties are a part of the normal female duty uniform. full tech manual

uniform

EDIT Some of the confusion about the fabrication method (from the comments below) is addressed here enter image description here Uhura's uniform and panties:

Uhura Uhura panties

These uniforms were in use until the mid 2270's when the style changed to those in STTMP.

Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" wore a slightly different style of uniform that was worn with pants.

Dr Dehner

Number 1 and Yeoman Colt wore a similar style in "The Cage":

number1

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    @Hack-R because you don't need to have a layout pattern at hand if the computer is fabricating the uniform, you only need it if you're making it manually.
    – Kaine
    Apr 3, 2016 at 3:25
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    @JDługosz - But they didn't have replicators as such during TOS when these uniforms were standard. Those were first seen in TNG. ENT had the protein resequencer, but it only made basic food items, couldn't be used for clothing. (Yes, I know they had miniskirts in the first season of TNG, but they were a very different design, and were quietly phased out.) Apr 3, 2016 at 15:08
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    @Kaine That makes sense. I guess the hand crafted instructions were for emergency backup, or if you needed to re-program the computers, or most likely from a pre-production prototype. I kind of wonder if the red and blue miniskirts / panties were every mixed and matched as a joke on the Enterprise.
    – Hack-R
    Apr 3, 2016 at 17:57
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    @Jules when they were stranded in early 20th century Earth, they seemed more interested in being able to access the Tricorder and revewing records of the Guardian of Forever's viewing of history; if he was really trying to look up proper uniform patterns to take to a local taylor, that was not clear in the final edit.
    – JDługosz
    Apr 3, 2016 at 20:17
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    The problem is that, while they're called "panties" they're actually more like modern "bloomers" or "briefs". Essentially, tights with no legs. They're commonly worn as parts of cheerleading uniforms. Whether there's an actual pair of panties worn under them is up to personal preference but they're designed to be outerwear...
    – Catija
    May 18, 2016 at 22:47

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