Misc. Observations, part 4

When Voyager launched, Tuvok's undershirt had an almost distractingly obvious hero collar that was thankfully toned down not long after.

VOY, 1x1 "Caretaker"

VOY, 1x4 "Parallax"

He occasionally "relapsed" into the older hero collar, but at least that wasn't his norm for the entire series - and they even managed to get his actual rank correct in the second season, too! (He was supposed to be a lieutenant through early season 4, at which point he was promoted to lieutenant commander, but the entire first season he wore lieutenant commander pips. Tom Paris' rank was incorrect the first season, as well.) 

Speaking of Tuvok, sometimes his hero collar looked to be of a slightly different construction from others of the era - note the two lines clearly visible at the top of his collar in Voyager's first season episode "Eye of the Needle":

VOY, 1x7 "Eye of the Needle"

This may have been because the collar/collar facing seam line was lower than usual (usual being about ⅟16"or ⅛" - remember Bashir's from Deep Space Nine's "The Quickening"). If this is the case, Tuvok's looked to be perhaps ¼". 

Alternatively, it could have been because his larger than usual collar/collar facing seam allowance was graded; the standard hero collar seam allowance at the time seemed to be about ⅜", but his was often more like ½" or even ⅝". Were one of the seam allowances clipped to half that (say, about ¼"), the bulk would be more evenly distributed along the top of the collar, thus reducing the size of the bulge but also, in this case, perhaps resulting in two slight lines along the upper collar instead of only one. 

Either is possible; rolling the seam line inward more would make it even less likely for it to be visible on screen, but then again, grading seam allowances in the manner described above is a common tailoring technique to make pressed garments' seam allowances less unsightly.


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