With Prada, no less. The Italian house and the American space travel company Axiom Space have just revealed what next-frontier space wear looks like

Prada has gone where no fashion house has gone before: Spacesuit design. These are actual suits that would be used in space—specifically on the moon—by real astronauts, not for a fashion show or to be worn by either Miuccia Prada or Raf Simons to take a bow at the end of the brand’s fashion shows, as others have sensationally done in the past. These are functional, tech-heavy suits that will undergo a final review stage next year, which includes manned underwater testing by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with the objective of using the suits for lunar activities from 2026.

Co-created with Axiom Space, the space travel company selected by NASA as the official spacesuit development contractor in 2022, the kit for astronauts looked like something out of a sci-fi film. In fact, they are reminiscent of those worn during the era of the Apollo missions, although the colour scheme is rather Prada, including the red accents that recall the logo of the brand’s sporty Linea Rossa, as well as details such as pleated, pentagon knee pads. That Axiom Space chose Prada as co-designers is indication that even when you leave earth and rocket to the moon, you should be fashionably, if not luxuriously, togged. Something many travellers to another country onboard a plane could learn.

No stretch of the imagination is needed to know that the design of space wear would be fraught with difficulties. Foremost, the suit needs to withstand the moon’s crazy temperatures that can swing between 121°C in the day to -133°C in the night, according to Science Alert. The Prada/Axiom Space suit is air-tight and is equipped with a life support system that manages the body’s condition, allowing it to operate in space for about eight hours, including maintaining comfortable pressure, as well as equipping the astronauts with tools that they would need to explore the surface of the moon, since they are unlikely going to bring along a Prada nylon bag.