The space suit designed by Prada will be worn by the first woman ever to step foot on the Moon’s surface.
Luxury fashion house Prada unveiled the space suit for the crew of the Artemis III lunar mission by NASA. The space suit co-designed by the Italian fashion house will be worn by the first woman and the first person of color ever to take their first steps on the lunar surface. Prada in collaboration with commercial space company Axiom Space presented the spacesuit design in the International Astronautical Congress in Milan. Axiom Space approached Prada to help design this critical piece of equipment after NASA chose the commercial space company to develop and deliver the ‘Extravehicular Mobility Unit’ for the historical mission.
As an extension of the IAC event in the city of Milan, the space suit will be made public from October 18th and displayed as an installation at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. The Space Suit developed for the first lunar landing since December 1972, after the Apollo 17 mission concluded, features a cropped torso and stone-gray patches across the knees and elbows. The said suit is kept free from any branding or logo, yet has red accent lines across the forearms, waist that gives a subtle hint of Prada’s sub-brand, Linea Rossa.
As per a joint statement by the spacesuit’s co-creators, their collaboration was mainly focused on the outer-layer design and the materials of the suit. Axiom engineers consulted the Italian fashion specialists on how to produce one of the planet’s most recognizable outfits that would “visually inspire future space exploration.”
The suits are equipped with innovative features using which the astronauts will be able to spacewalk for at least eight hours a day. Made of white material that reflects heat, the suit provides protection from extremely high temperatures and lunar dust. The suit is capable of protecting astronauts from the harsh environment of space, and enabling, for the first time, human exploration of the lunar south pole. And it was Prada’s expertise in raw materials, manufacturing techniques, and innovative design that helped bridge the gap between functionality and style.
“Prada’s expertise enabled advanced technologies and innovative sewing methods to bridge the gap between highly engineered functionality and an aesthetically appealing white outer layer, ” the release added. The AxEMU—Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit has already undergone extensive testing, included underwater to simulate the lunar environment. It is nearing the final development stage, the two companies said.
“I’m very proud of the result we’re showing today, which is just the first step in a long-term collaboration with Axiom Space,” Prada’s Chief Marketing Officer Lorenzo Bertelli said in a statement. Prada also proposed new weaving processes with high-performance yarns or near-seamless production to Axiom that could become interesting future solutions for the spacesuits team to consider, he mentioned.
In making for several years now, the suits are designed as such that it can fit any size and are gender neutral. According to the chief marketing officer of Prada Group, the fashion house has been discussing the collaboration since before the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020. Around 10 Prada employees worked on the spacesuit, commuting between Milan and Axiom’s base in Houston.
As the space exploration and tourism industries develop, luxury brands are looking out for more and more possible partnerships. Prada CMO hinted at the beginning of a new era of space tourism and said, “Today, anyone with deep pockets can go to space and soon it’ll become affordable and people will be able to go to the moon.
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