“Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” showrunner Alex Kurtzman has been vocal about his love for high-end fashion designer Alexander McQueen, and the name was one of the names that came up in a conversation with the show’s costume designer Avery Prowse when he was brainstorming ideas for the series’ wedding episode.
The series is set in the 32nd century after the events of “Star Trek: Discovery,” where Starfleet reopens the titular educational institution outside San Francisco after the Federation has been absent from Earth for more than 120 years.
In the series’ seventh episode, “Kozane,” the Kioians perform a “traditional wedding ceremony” and kidnap Dalem (George Hawkins), forcing him to marry his childhood friend and new queen, Kayla (Jaylin Thora Brooks).
Plewes settled on the idea that the bride and groom should wear similar colors. Although Kioan are humanoid, they are also a semi-aquatic species that exists both on land and in water.
“My starting point for the show is always to start with the texture and palette of the alien,” Plewes says. “Kioan has a scaly texture, so this is fish-inspired and what an epic and outrageous thing you can make!”
Kyla’s dress had a scaly texture and “looked alive.” Using a chroming technique that gives the fabric a metallic appearance, Prouse used thousands of feathers (something McQueen often used in his couture designs) and different tones of the same color. “After I put it on the dress, I cut it by hand so it was a smaller size,” she says.
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Besides McQueen, her inspiration came from a very personal space: her parents. They were both artists. Her mother “always painted in layers,” she says.
Plewes embedded layering into Kyla’s skirt using two different fabrics to add texture and create a multi-toned look. She applied the technique to Damen’s jackets, which were made from layers of panels of different fabrics.
“When the light hits it, it gives it another dimension. For it to look cinematic, you need a place where the light is always hitting the texture on the camera,” she says. “I had this moment when I was putting that episode together at the 11th hour. This episode is really a love letter to the artist’s family. I realized that I was doing the same thing that my parents were doing, only using cloth instead of oil paint.”
Along with his guests, Plewes primarily selected ready-made items and then made changes. Initially, she couldn’t find anything to her liking in Quinn (Alexa Yaffe). At that time, she came across a Topman jacket, which became a kind of experimental work.
Her textile artist, Bonnie McCabe, was testing a new tool that creates fluffy textures when heated. Plewes found some old rhinestone clover fabric and glued it onto the jacket. She then applied the chrome plating technique she used on the wings to completely transform the ready-to-wear jacket into something alien-like and futuristic.
Production designer Matthew Davis was tasked with building a new planet and introducing this world to the audience. Chionia was a waterless planet and was confined to its moon. “Because it’s in fixed orbit, it always receives magic hour sunlight,” Davis says. “Perfect for weddings and gorgeous photo shoots.”
He created the environment using a combination of virtual production and practical design using a 60-foot LED volumetric stage. In keeping with the aquatic theme, Davis used architectural terminology related to Chionian anatomy. So everything in that world looked like a fishbone. For the ceremony, the wedding tower was made of silk. “We pushed air into it, so it ripples like the gills of a fish,” says Davis.
Using a virtual production wall made it easier to work with reflective materials in costumes and production design. Davis says LED walls can easily pick up ambient lighting and surrounding hues, giving them a natural and more integrated feel.
He also utilized it elsewhere on the USS Athena, illuminating the newly designed bridge with a ring of chrome lighting.
