I don't know too much about costume creation and such, so don't have much to say about how you might go about making them, though i can't imagine it would be that hard to create something similar out of bits and pieces from menswear shops and second-hand clothing stores (e.g. a maroon velvet waistcoat, a loose white shirt, some blue trousers, and some black wellington boots)

As for my thoughts on the uniforms - my opinion would probably be twofold.

Firstly, on the general idea of the Dawn Treader crew actually having uniforms - it was actually something i was never that keen on when the idea was floated about on the forum in the past. The whole concept of a "uniform" seemed very anti-Narnian to me. Most of the books seem to be about escaping from a life of uniforms and strict regulations in the real world, to a life of much greater freedom and adventure in Narnia. Furthermore, since 'Prince Caspian' is about overthrowing the dictatorial regime of the Telmarines, i felt it would then of seemed very odd if Caspian would then to impose a uniform on his crew.

However, now that they have actually decided to go down the uniformed crew route i'm alot more convinced by the whole concept. Purely from a visual point of view, i think it just looks quite nice to have the crew uniformed. Also with the presence of creatures on board (although thats something i'm still not entirely happy about) i think the uniforms do help to further convey that sense of a "united narnia" which they seem to be going for (even if the Minotaurs uniform is just a large red version of the crew's belt. lol)

As for the look of uniforms themselves, i guess im reasonably happy. They are perhaps a little plain and basic, and in some shots look a little cheap. Again, that might be the look they are going for, to contrast with the extravagance of the Telmarine uniforms in PC, but in doing so i do feel they lack a little of the "wow" factor that even the basic Telmarine solider costume in PC had.

In one of the spy reports we've had on the news, the person seemed to indicate that the blue-shirted men were the higher ranking officers, whilst the red-shirted men were the lower ranking sailors. Though i'm not entirely convinced that is correct (given that Drinian, the highest ranking member of the crew, also wears red and that this photo here shows 3 different combinations of red/blue waistcoats/trousers - suggesting the rank/colour relationship might not be so exact as they made out) it would be quite amusing if the low ranks wore red, effectively making them the equivalent of the "Red Shirts" in Star Trek - the low ranking, unnamed expendable officers who went on away missions, seemingly for the sole purposes of getting zapped by the aliens

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshirt_(character)

I agree with you about the uniforms, icarus. I like the way the Dawn Treader crew were costumed in the BBC dramas, actually. They all dressed a bit differently, a bit freely Narnian, and I would have liked to see that here, but I do like these uniforms... and how easily they lend themselves to fan-made costumes!

I do think that the blue-vested men are higher ranking. For one thing, there are many more red-vested men than blue vested, and for another, the two blue vests that I've seen are better quality... the red vests have simple metal buttons and leather trim, whereas the blue vests have fabric-covered buttons and are trimmed with a matching velvet color or with cord. Plus the blue vests have little sleeve caps that the red vests don't.

(given that Drinian, the highest ranking member of the crew, also wears red and that this photo here shows 3 different combinations of red/blue waistcoats/trousers - suggesting the rank/colour relationship might not be so exact as they made out)

I think you forgot to link the photo, but I think I know which one you're talking about. So far I've seen blue vest/red pants, red vest/blue pants, and blue vest/blue pants. I'm thinking they rank in that order, blue/blue being the highest, since the collar on the white shirt does seem to be an indication of rank, and the man in this shot wears blue and blue and a collar. This makes sense, too, with the proportion of the crew wearing red/blue vs. blue/red or blue/blue... most are of "low" rank.

However, you do make a good point about Drinian! My original thought was that since his vest isn't at all like the vests of the crew (it's not the same fabric, it has a collar or lapels and it buttons up the front, double-breasted), I wondered if he wears a big blue coat over it.

And then I saw this shot, and though it's a bit of a stretch, doesn't that look like him in a blue coat? Even though it's very dark and he's very much a silhouette, you can tell he's bald... and he's at the helm!

Another thing confirmed that thought... Caspian wears a big duster-type coat, similar to what I imagined Drinian wearing.

ETA: Though on second thought, Caspian might just be wearing a long, loose sleeveless tunic-type coat, and the sleeves of the shirt underneath are a similar color. All the same...

I think you forgot to link the photo, but I think I know which one you're talking about.

Oops! forgot to to do add the link i was talking about, but yeah, it was the one you linked just afterwards. Thanks for that!

http://www.narniafans.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/tamika-sailors.jpg

That said, now that you've pointed out that the blue vested uniforms are of a higher quality to the red vested uniforms, and that the all-blue uniforms are the only ones with a collar (plus the fact that the uniforms get progressively rarer from red, to blue, to all-blue) i'd probably agree with your ordering after all!

I guess also the actors seen in blue so far do look a lot older and more "lordly" than the regular looking guys in red. Plus the woolly beanie-type hats (so far only seen on the red guys i believe) do suggest more of a working-class man. The hats kind of remind me of arctic Whalers for some reason.

Drinian may just be the exception to the "more blue = higher rank" rule, or perhaps when we see Rhince in costume (im assuming no-one else has spotted him yet either?) that will help to bridge the gap in the costume/rank scale.

EDIT: i checked on the old unpostable TitoMedia photos from the Lone Islands shoot, and just as you suggested, Drinian does indeed wear a big dark-blue (perhaps even grey/black) overcoat, with these big splits up the forearm of the sleeve.

Hasn't been many new developments on the crew uniform recently, but a couple of observations from looking back through the mass of set photos:

Plus the woolly beanie-type hats (so far only seen on the red guys i believe)

Seems the hats arent just for the crew members in red as i had earlier thought. Several of the crew members in blue have hats also - though blue hats obviously.

e.g. here:
http://www.narniaweb.com/wp-content/gal ... g_0769.jpg

Also, there are at least 3 members of the crew with the all-blue uniforms. I think previously we had thought there was just this guy:

http://www.narniaweb.com/wp-content/gal ... c98342.jpg

But there is also the guy with the grey hair and grey beard here:
http://www.narniaweb.com/wp-content/gal ... g_0900.jpg

And the guy with the grey beard and no hair, up on the balcony:
http://www.narniaweb.com/wp-content/gal ... 07cb09.jpg

There are a couple better shots of all three of those guys, but i cant find them in the NW image gallery yet. Waaaay too many photos on there to search through.

or perhaps when we see Rhince in costume (im assuming no-one else has spotted him yet either?) that will help to bridge the gap in the costume/rank scale

Well, as it turned out, Rhince's costume didnt help much with interpreting the uniform colour/rank relationshp, since he doesnt appear to be wearing a uniform at all!

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=405

^ The picture of Rynelf didn't help much either as the one known shot we have of him is in armor.

http://www.narniaweb.com/wp-content/gallery/vdt-cast-and-crew/tonynixon-rynelf.jpg

Here is a good shot of Captain Drinian in costume. I'm not sure if he should be considered a crew member, exactly. But there is no "Drinian" costume page. http://andygreening.com/narnia/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/IMG_0652.jpg
(Photos first discovered by Lady_Liln)
It appears as though his waistcoat (is that the proper term?) has ship's wheels embroidered in a lighter thread all over it! Either that or some sort of fancy compass.
For a larger view which will take a considerable time to load, visit here:
http://andygreening.com/narnia/

Would all the ship's crew have this touch, or is this a perk of being Captain of the Dawn Treader?

Here is a good shot of Captain Drinian in costume.... It appears as though his waistcoat (is that the proper term?) has ship's wheels embroidered in a lighter thread all over it! Either that or some sort of fancy compass.

I'd be willing to go with either of those two explanations. Both kind of make sense. If they were compass roses though, the one observation i would make is that don't appear to be Telmarine-style compass roses - of which we saw plenty of in the last film. Which is probably just as well, since of all the crew members cast, Drinian has definitely not been cast as a Telmarine character (despite the characters name heavilly implying that he his).

On a similar note, even though the other crew uniforms dont appear to be all that Telmarine in style either(based on the designs seen in the last film), i saw something recently which kind of made sense to me in terms of the design style of the crew's uniform:

Thats an 18th Century Spanish Soldiers uniform. Obviously a lot later in style than the 16th Century Spanish Conquistador style uniforms seen in Prince Caspian, and obviously a lot more modern than the uniforms we've seen so far in VDT (and not a great deal similar either).... But i can now perhaps see how the change to a more vibrant red and blue colour scheme in the Dawn Treader uniforms might still be in keeping with changes in the style of traditional Spanish military uniforms.

Thus it perhaps provides VDT with uniforms which still show a natural evolution of the Telmarine heritage established in the first film, but at the same time allows them to exhibit a brighter and colorfuller "Narnian" style to them.

That's a good insight Icarus. Now the changes cosume-wise make more sense to me. The crew's uniforms could deffinitly be described as part Telmarine, part Narnian, while I would say that the DT herself is mostly (if not all) Narnian.