Unfortunately, the top of the action pleats were a different matter.
Just as the placement of the action pleats was a very confusing issue on the VOY jumpsuits (see our VOY jumpsuit analysis/tutorial for more on that - way, way more), so it was on the DS9/NEM jumpsuits.
While we determined that the VOY jumpsuit action pleats were originally intended to meet the yoke at the armscyes (thus forming a well-coordinated 3-way intersection) and that became inconsistent a few years in, never seeming to really conform to any particular standard afterward, it's a bit harder to make a judgment call with the DS9/NEM jumpsuits.
Frankly, they were all over the place, with no apparent rhyme or reason.
We can comfortably say that, unlike the VOY jumpsuits, the top of the action pleats seldom met the bottom of the yoke at the armscyes - seldom, but still sometimes:
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However, far more often than not, the tops of the action pleats met the yoke away from the armscyes - which would be fine, were there any particular rhyme or reason to the uniforms, or a particular standard which was clearly (or even apparently) intended to be adhered to ...
A survey of the jumpsuits in Nemesis merely reveals inconsistency amongst the uniforms:
As you can see, Data's action pleats appeared to meet the yoke between ½" and ¾" from the armscyes, Worf's looked to be a bit closer to the armscye, and Geordi had two mismatched uniforms (one of which looked to be 1" to 1 ½" away, the other of which appeared to be about ⅜" to ½" away). We didn't get a good look at Riker's.
If we widen the scope of research to include evidence from Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and the previous two TNG films, we see many more jumpsuits with action meets meeting the yoke away from the armscyes, but still with no apparent rhyme or reason. We'll present our findings in chronological production order.
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| DS9, 5x11 "The Darkness and the Light" |
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| Insurrection |
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| Insurrection |
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| Nemesis |
As you hopefully noticed, the placement of the action pleats varied considerably.
To summarize our findings:
* O'Brien's and Nog's seemed to consistently met the yoke at the armscyes.
* Bashir's and Broccoli's seemed to consistently meet the yoke about ¼", perhaps ⅜" from the armscyes.
* Worf's also seemed to consistently meet the yoke about ¼" to ⅜" from the armscyes, both in Deep Space Nine and Nemesis.
* Data's seemed to consistently meet the yoke about ⅜" from the armscyes, both in Insurrection and Nemesis.
* Geordi's seemed to meet the yoke approximately 1" to 1 ½" away from the armscyes in Insurrection, and in Nemesis, he had (at least) two jumpsuits; one's action pleats met the yoke about 1" to 1 ½" from the armscyes (like his Insurrection uniform did), and the other appeared to meet the yoke about ⅜" to ½" away from the armscyes.
* Extras' jumpsuits varied (at least) as much as the main characters' did.
A couple other misc. notes:
* We had trouble getting a good look at Riker's and Kira's, and we would have preferred to get a wider sampling of extras/background performers (for all the good it probably would have done).
* "Female hero jumpsuits" were excluded, as they did not have action pleats (and thus exempted Jadzia, Ezri, Troi, and Crusher).
So, to summarize our summary, the action pleats on screen-used jumpsuits met the yoke anywhere from right at the armscyes to up to 1 ½" away, and most seemed to hover in the ⅜" to ½" range for whatever reason.
Was there, indeed, a construction standard for the action pleats, then? And was it in any way related to the VOY jumpsuits' standard (or lack thereof)?
However, considering the combined evidence of the DS9/NEM jumpsuits and the VOY jumpsuits for a more holistic view of the era (see our VOY jumpsuit analysis/tutorial for more information), we believe that the DS9/NEM jumpsuit action pleats should meet the yoke at the armscyes, and our pattern was drafted in this manner.
Our reasoning is that the VOY jumpsuits' action pleats were almost certainly originally intended to meet the yoke at the armscyes, and although after the first couple years many uniforms diverged from this standard for whatever reason, the standard was still seen on many uniforms throughout the duration of their use, implying to us that that was still an ideal construction standard, but not an essential one.
As noted previously, the DS9/NEM jumpsuit inherited the majority of its characteristics from the VOY jumpsuit, so although the previous standard (action pleats meeting the yoke at the armscyes) was not seen as much, and the variation actually increased both in width and in prevalence, there were uniforms that seemed to adhere to the previous standard, and the rest didn't seem to follow any particular pattern.
It wouldn't do to just say, "Eh, just put them wherever; nobody cares," so we've gone the extra mile and standardized them on our pattern!
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