The Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Blog: Profiles in History Admiral Kirk Star Trek IV Jacket not what it is claimed?
Hey all. After a lot of work reviewing the Kirk Admiral Maroon that Profiles has up, I concluded it was not from Star Trek IV as claimed, and possibly not even Kirk's. It is possible it is from Star Trek II, but the interior flap color is wrong and that makes it highley suspect.
I think the interior flap color makes it clear that if this was ever Kirk's, it had to be from ST2 with the different flap color due to either early or mistaken production of the maroon with the wrong flap color. Since we do see him with a closed flap for significant stretches in the film it's theoretically possible, but it's very unlikely and so the burden of proof for all other features of this item matching Kirk would have to be much higher. What we really need to see are all the interior costume labels.
micdavis' point about the position of the belt-loops relative to the hem and flap is very important. This clearly does not match Kirk in ST4.
As for the Admiral braid being wrong, that's not diagnostic in itself because we would have to assume any admiral braid on a jacket would most likely be restored or added for later use rather than original anyway since most of the maroons were redressed for use in later films and even TV episodes. If this maroon really did walk out of the studio in the late 90s, I'd expect it to have been stripped down for later use by a non-admiral and that sourcing the original ST4-accurate admiral braid and gold flap trim to restore it would have been impossible at that time; the ST2 admiral trim would have been an easy find, though.
The lapel strap discrepancy you point out on your blog is not very diagnostic either, since despite a heroic effort to match angles the strap in the PiH image is tilted at the clasp end since it isn't clasped. So that's a wash as far as I can see.
The tan interior flap and the placement of belt-loops relative to hem and flap are the real discrepancies. Unless the belt-loop position can be positively matched to screencaps from a film, we have to assume certain fakery. Unless that film is ST2, where the interior flap color could be excused due to early or mistaken production, we have to assume probable fakery. And even if the belt-loops match ST2, I'd want to examine those interior tags closely before making any sort of bid, and also look for signs that correct admiral trim was once attached.
