Star Trek: DS9/NEM and VOY Pants Analysis/Tutorial: Analysis, part 1

First, and perhaps most noticeably, the DS9/NEM and VOY duty trousers were rather high-waisted, at least by current fashion trends - i.e. "grandpa pants" during a time in which "sagging" is generally considered cool amongst youth and even "normal" pants rest around the hips rather than the natural waist.

Blackman seems to have always loved using high-waisted pants in Star Trek, for both genders; as far back as TNG's fifth season, one can see that Ensign Ro's pants were rather high-waisted:

TNG, 5x3 "Ensign Ro"

Even when aesthetically unnecessary, he still liked to dress the actors in extremely high-waisted trousers, as evidenced by this behind-the-scenes photo of René Auberjonois (Odo) during the filming of Deep Space Nine's pilot:

And, of course, Kira Nerys' "pants" were, like Ensign Ro's, quite high-waisted as well:

DS9, 1x15 "Progress"

DS9, 7x4 "Take Me Out to the Holosuite"

Blackman also loved using high-waisted pants on his Ferengi costumes, which gave the outfits something of a comical, flamboyant quality:

DS9, 3x23 "Family Business"

DS9, 4x25 "Body Parts"

DS9, 7x4 "Take Me Out to the Holosuite"

Interestingly, whereas he used unusually high-waisted pants to provide comic flair for the Ferengi, he (re-)introduced them into the Starfleet uniform ensemble to give them something of a military look, disciplined and somewhat formal.

Anyway, up to that point, in the modern (i.e. post-TOS) franchise, the Starfleet uniforms we'd seen had all been jumpsuits or 2-pieces with jackets that covered the top of the trousers.

Along came First Contact, during which we saw the Starfleet duty trousers in their entirety, we believe, for the first time, on Captain Picard (his "casual uniform" during the later years of TNG notwithstanding):

First Contact

We saw the Sisko's almost immediately after First Contact's theatrical release, when Deep Space Nine upgraded to the new DS9/NEM style uniforms, and we saw that his were a bit taller than Captain Picard's:

DS9, 5x10 "Rapture"

The Sisko's trousers seemed to extend, perhaps, all the way to the lower rib cage:

DS9, 7x4 "Take Me Out to the Holosuite"

Avery Brooks seems to love his unusually high pants, so I bet he and Blackman were a match made in heaven!

Over the next two and a half years or so, we saw nearly all of the (Starfleet) casts on both Deep Space Nine and Voyager wearing the duty trousers at some point (though not during the TNG movies - only Captain Picard).

As you can see, Worf's duty trousers were navel level, as were Chief O'Brien's and Nog's: