Catwalk to spacewalk, unisex is the flavour

The ‘space age’ has impacted fashion right from André Courrèges’ astronaut-inspired plastic-embellished creations and Pierre Cardin’s ‘Cosmocorp’ collection in the 1960s to Nike’s ‘Mars overshoe’ last year. But when it comes to fashioning a suit to wear in space, it is entirely appropriate than an engineer rather than a whimsical designer is behind the just-unveiled new-look Artemis spacesuit US astronauts will wear on their next Moon mission. After all, any wardrobe malfunction during a moonwalk rather than a catwalk would be more than merely embarrassing for the wearer, the creator and the audience. It is heartening that unlike many couture garments, emphasis has been placed on comfort rather than silhouette as the one-size-fits-all principle is more suited to spacewear than earthwear.


The continuing unisex appeal of the new outfits must also be commended; that even space suit engineers are hewing to the current androgynous trend in fashion confirms the increasing acceptance of non-binary identities in diverse fields. From the astronauts’ point of view, however, the most important innovation is surely the suits’ ability to facilitate normal perambulation — crucial to catwalks and moonwalks — rather than the ungainly ‘bunny hopping’ that characterised Neil Armstrong’s ‘small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’.