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Star Trek: The Next Generation season three introduced the collared uniforms. But while re-watching the series, it looks to me like there were two versions of the collared uniforms. When season 3 started, the uniforms had seams in the chest (to make them more form-fitting?). These two IMDB images from "Evolution" show them well:

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Images via IMDB here and here.

But by episode 6 ("Booby Trap") the seams on the chest seem to have disappeared from Picard's uniform...

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Image via IMDB here.

But were still present on other cast members:

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Images via IMDB here, here and here.

But by episode 10 (at least) the seams had also disappeared from other cast members:

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Image via IMDB here.

The story of undersized, tight uniforms to reduce wrinkles and Patrick Stewart's back pain contributing to a redesign is pretty well documented. But I've never read anything about another, partial redesign part-way through season three.

Question: Is there a story behind this additional uniform change in season three? For example why were the seams used to begin with? And what lead a second redesign to remove them?

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    Do you think new uniforms just come out of replicators? I hope you get a good answer. Nothing in early TNG compares to the incompetence of stealing uniforms from the DS9 cast in Generations. Which did not fit well obviously and did nothing for the plot. I think Geordi was wearing O'Brien's uniform.
    – lucasbachmann
    Commented Mar 28, 2021 at 2:58

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The seams were obviously to tailor the costumes. You'll note in the picture of LeVar Burton shown below that he has two horizontal seams on the chest, and other characters from other episodes show them as well. The only reason for those seams would be to adjust the tailoring to be as fitting as possible for the specific performer.

enter image description here

What I suspect happened is they made a number of costumes to be adjustable, but replaced them with the looser sweatshirt-style top that was never intended to be as close fitting. It wouldn't surprise me if they saw Stewart's costume was more comfortable and everyone else wanted in on that.

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  • "You'll note in the picture of LeVar Burton that he has two horizontal seams on the chest" - could you clarify where you see that, please? I see only two vertical seams on all linked photos of Geordi, whereas Dr. Crusher appears to have a diagonally-running seam in the group photo.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Commented Mar 28, 2021 at 20:21
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    Picture added to show what I indicated.
    – Keith Morrison
    Commented Mar 28, 2021 at 23:09

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