Skirts or jumpsuits?

[Mithras]

I've recently got off a flight to Nepal, and in the evenings, hot, sweaty and noisy though they are, I'm spending my time sketching out the details of a Type M liner in District 268. Everything from routes, crew rosters, crew responsibilities etc.

Now I'm on to uniform. I like the idea of my 3 stewards being very capable, but well turned out flight stewardesses, in skirts, uniforms, trim hat etc. Great for meeting and greeting, great for certain activities inflight, but not practical for a week with laundry and cooking to do.

The only alternative is to use jumpsuits a la Alien, or nice but useful uniforms like the next generation jacket/trousers or something.

Are skirts and posh flight uniforms doable do you think? How about cruise liners? I've never been on a cruise, and they last longer than a week....

 

[Mithras]

Hmmm, perhaps both might work ...

For posh dress, the following activities would be appropriate: meeting and greeting, roomservice, front of house waitressing, entertainments. There might be a number 2 dress for laundry, cooking, cleaning up work, probably involving trousers, no jacket and a work apron. A number 3 dress might be the 'flight suit' fatigues as seen in Alien, servicable utilities when groundside loading and offloading cargos, or when there are no passengers around such as maintenance or off duty.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

How about a sari?

 

[rancke]

Now I'm on to uniform. I like the idea of my 3 stewards being very capable, but well turned out flight stewardesses, in skirts, uniforms, trim hat etc. Great for meeting and greeting, great for certain activities inflight, but not practical for a week with laundry and cooking to do.

No eye-candy for the female passengers?


Hans

 

[Mithras]

The first officer and one of the engineers will be female, as well as the three stewards.

 

[Mithras]

How about a sari?

Thats no joke! I've seen women in the fields hoeing the ground, orstraining under vast baskets of animal fodder dressed in really clean, attractive, well turned out saris .... !

 

[djwetton]

If you equate your crew to the crew of a modern day navy, then the decision becomes a no-brainer - we have multiple uniforms for all occasions!

I have (and manage to fit in my locker) the following when I'm onboard:

3 sets of work clothes (heavy wear for daily working)
2 sets of evening clothes (as the name suggests)
1 pair of overalls (for REALLY dirty work)
1 suit (for parades and formal functions)
a few sets of 'civvies' (for blending in with the other sailors in a bar all wearing the same style gear...)
Additional deployment specific kit (woolies for the Arctic, uniform shorts for the tropics)
Foul weather gear.

All this is squeezed into a locker the size of a couple of large suitcases.

So, after all of the above, I guess my short answer is: Give your crew what you want! Only in Star Trek do ship's crew wear the same kit for all the different jobs they do or all the environments they do it in...

Dave W

 

[jawillroy]

I'm thinking more in terms of Foundation - style "nimbus of radioactive light" dresses.

Oh, wait, Traveller, right.

Jumpsuits. Grubby sweat and grease stained jumpsuits.

Where, on an OTU deck plan, do you see a laundry room? Have you seen one? I have not.

"In space, noone can smell your two-week old drawers... except you, once we stick y'all in your vacc suit and into the airlock for the rest of the trip."

 

[far-trader]

...Where, on an OTU deck plan, do you see a laundry room? Have you seen one? I have not.

Ah, your first trip on a small merchant sir? May I direct you to the fresher which serves as a fully automated laundromat. Just toss in your dirty laundry, select the desired cleaning cycle, distract yourself for a few minutes, return to wrinkle free dry clean laundry.

Every stateroom has a fresher, and the common space has a common fresher for the Steward's laundry chores for the High Passengers. No need for a dedicated or noted laundry room. At least not on small ships. The large megaton liners have them and the staff to support them.

 

[dean]

Jumpsuits with a fake skirty flare around the waist.

 

[jawillroy]

Jumpsuits with a figure enhancing skirty flare around the waist.

/fixed

 

[far-trader]

First a confession, when I saw the thread earlier for some reason a totally different idea poppped into my mind for "Jumpsuit" and I was wondering what TL and how many parsecs

How about a sari?

Thats no joke! I've seen women in the fields hoeing the ground, or straining under vast baskets of animal fodder dressed in really clean, attractive, well turned out saris .... !

Before seeing Andrew's suggestion, from your comment about where you are, the first thought that hit me was a nice unisex kurta or kurti over slacks. It could be simple or adorned. Might lend a bit more exotic (to our western tastes anyway) look to uniforms than the usual jumpsuit or skirt.

Which come to think a second might be not much different than dean's suggested jumpsuit with skirt flare

 

[dean]

/fixed

Not every figure is enhanced by a skirt.
So I am told.

 

[BlackBat242]

In A. Bertram Chandler's John Grimes novels, the female officers of the Federation Survey Service wear nice evening dresses for formal occasions... and the male officers wear kilts.

However, since in the Grimes universe no one has developed artificial gravity, working uniform for both sexes includes some form of trousers.

 

[Mithras]

Before seeing Andrew's suggestion, from your comment about where you are, the first thought that hit me was a nice unisex kurta or kurti over slacks. It could be simple or adorned. Might lend a bit more exotic (to our western tastes anyway) look to uniforms than the usual jumpsuit or skirt.

You are right. Without wishing to delve into my predilictions, the Eastern airlines seem to sport a very nifty line in flight attendant's uniforms. Royal Brunei is my winner

 

[fiat_knox]

Might I recommend my article on clothing in Traveller in Signs & Portents 69? Link to the magazine here (pdf)

Bear in mind that microgravity tends to make even skirts weighted at the hem float like jellyfish, so unless you're confident that your grav plates won't cut out at inopportune moments giving everyone a show like Marilyn Monroe, I'd recommend that the women get to wear unisex jumpsuits, the same as the men.

I know it's boring, but it's the most practical form of shipboard clothing you can make.

Now, for planetside wear, that's different. Assuming your stewards are as athletically-built as the men, tight knee-length skirts and severe-looking suit jackets. Emphasise the bust without overt cleavage. Bare legs: stockings not necessary. Light on the makeup, hair cut short or tied up in a bun.

When looking for a Patron or someone to whom to sell a really lucrative spec cargo, appearance is everything.

 

[Mithras]

Dave W: I think you're right, I've done a bit of web-research, looks like flight attendants have 3 sets of clothing, or at least 3 combinations for the different parts of their job. Looks like the way to go.....

 

[jawillroy]

Not every figure is enhanced by a skirt.
So I am told.

No, you're right.

But if I were captain? Everyone on my ship wearing a skirt...

I know, I'm bad.

 

[gammamutant]

well most military have dress uniform and work uniforms. No reason crew couldn't. different uniforms depending on if they are dealing with passengers

 

[samuelvss]

Skorts, burkas, and monokinis...

Multiple uniforms are a given, I believe. As to the skirts, skorts (shorts that look like skirts until gravity goes awry...or just goes, can be an option for those so inclined. Like everything on a small starship, the uniforms should be multipurpose: even the stewards dress should be impervious caustics, resistant to abrasion, relatively comfortable in large temperature ranges, and of course tenable in zero-g.

That said, I think the variation on free traders might be considerable; there is not one OTU culture, but rather a palette of cultures to which canon on the OTU just begins to speak in detail, but (in my mind) alludes to great variation, especially across the major races and different homeworld cultures.

If I serve in the IN, but come from a world where everyone goes topless, weather permitting, and I then later become the owner onboard of a free trader, then my IN acculturation may sway my preferences in crew, but my motherland may also hold sway. In a market with a lot of competition for high passages it might be an asset.

Then again, in a free trader run by a fundamentalist, burkhas might be in vogue.

What would a female k'kcree steward wear to try to boost her tip?o:

The practicalities are inescapable, but the possibilities are endless!