In the Entertainment Weekly piece, Burton explained:
“We hated our space suits. There were no pockets in them. As much as they call it a stretch fabric, spandex in that configuration doesn’t give all that much. It hid nothing.”
Burton is far from the only “Next Gen” cast member to comment on the comfort of the Starfleet uniforms, as Patrick Stewart, who plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard, wrote about how uncomfortable and ridiculous the uniforms were in his memoir, “Make It So.” He said that the costumes, designed by the original series’ costumer William Ware Theiss, were intentionally cut “one size too small so that they never wrinkled and kept our bodies on constant display.” Series creator Gene Roddenberry was notorious for what Stewart calls “cheesecake,” which is to say that he loved to put his stars on a kind of salacious display. “Star Trek” has always been pretty horny, and the costumes reflected that. But while the Starfleet uniforms were likely very uncomfortable and certainly revealing, they were nothing compared to some of the other outfits in the series — especially those worn by the women.