Space Age reflected in universe of fashion
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for fashion,” isn’t quite what astronaut Neil Armstrong said after his 1969 walk on the moon. But the Space Age, starting with the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik 1 and including the Apollo 11 mission, has had a huge influence on what people have worn on Earth since.
Outer space — representing a new frontier, adventure, endless possibilities and a clean slate — was the perfect fit for a fashion industry increasingly being driven by rebellious young customers bucking tradition and abandoning old dress codes for things that were fresh and new.
Designers Pierre Cardin, Andre Courreges and Paco Rabanne began looking to the stars to push the boundaries in their choice of materials and silhouettes,
and creations inspired by events such as the moonwalk landed squarely on the catwalk.
Pieces resembling astronaut gear were created, such as jumpsuits, puffer coats, flat boots and helmet-like hats. All-white outfits, see-through vinyl dresses, thigh-high skirts, shutter glasses, minimalist, geometric and androgynous looks were everywhere. Models on runways and in magazines resembled aliens or space cadets.
“The French especially were the ones who I think embraced this most obviously,” said Patricia Mears, deputy director of the Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) in Manhattan and curator of its 2018 exhibit on extreme fashions. “Everybody was caught up in the Cold War thing.”
“In the ’60s, young women didn’t want to wear antiquated, old-fashioned clothes like their mother would wear,” Mears said.
She added that the British, led by designer Mary Quant (a main figure in the 1960s London-based Mod fashion movement), were now looking for ways to wed the quality of couture with something that not only looked new, but also was futuristic.
French designers went far out by adopting “almost a Hollywood version” of futuristic fashion, Mears said. “They used shiny materials, metals, clean looks … taking their cues from space movies like ‘Barbarella’ and ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’ ”
Rabanne designed some of the Barbarella looks for that film.
Fast forward to today and Space Ageinspired fashion is still sending a galaxy of designers and brands into orbit, including Givenchy, Balmain, Rodarte, Armani Prive, Carolina Herrera, Alexander Wang and Thierry Mugler. Some have had collaborations with NASA. The designer of the Moon Boot brand said he was inspired by the boots worn by Apollo 11 astronauts during their 1969 lunar landing.
Giancarlo Zanatta, who founded Moon Boot, a snow boot brand started in 1969, has said his inspiration for the shape and technology of the original boot came after watching the Apollo 11 lunar landing and seeing the astronauts’ boots.
The Moon Boot became popular in the years after the moon walk and is constructed with a thin rubber outsole and cellular rubber midsole covered by nylon fabrics and using polyurethane foams.
Ministry of Supply, a Boston-based men’s and women’s business fashion brand founded in 2012, uses the same temperatureregulating material as in the clothing of NASA astronauts. Those fashion pieces include the Apollo 3 dress shirt.
For the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s July 20, 1969, moon landing, Louis Vuitton launched a summer ad campaign for its luggage that featured Apollo 11 lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin; Sally Ride, the first woman in space; and Apollo 13 pilot Jim Lovell gazing up at the night sky and
a bright, full moon from the back of a pickup truck. The theme was “Some journeys change mankind forever.”
Chanel’s Fall 2017 show was simply out of this world with Karl Lagerfeld’s homage to all things Space Age, including the creation of a space station inside Paris’ Grand Palais, models in space shawls, galactic prints and spacesuit-print dresses walking to Elton John’s “Rocket Man.”
That same year, Alpha Industries came out with a silver-toned MA-1 Tight Apollo jacket with a NASA emblem in the chest area, and in 2018 a NASA and Vans collaboration included a slip-on that came in colors such as “Galaxy/ Black” with removable American flag patches.
David Ben-david, 29, is founder and creator of Manhattanbased Sprayground, whose website says the company targets “a streetwear, fashion and lifestyle market.” In 2017, the brand featured a fashion capsule collection with Aldrin that included backpacks, a futuristic-looking parka and a ball cap, reflecting Ben-david’s interest in aerodynamics and aerospace.
On the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonwalk, Sprayground will launch a collection to commemorate the historic event, something Ben-david said will continue to inspire fashion designers everywhere, along with the Space Age in general: “It represents man’s desire to go further.”