NASA wears Prada: it will be the first luxury brand to reach space | Fashion

The Italian fashion house Prada revealed this Sunday its creation that will be worn by NASA astronauts. It will be the first luxury brand to reach space, underlining the brand’s effort to become a partner of the space industry.

The full-body suit, created in collaboration with Houston-based space infrastructure development company Axiom Space, includes ventilation tubes woven into the garment.

“We really have a broad spectrum of capabilities and knowledge,” said Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada’s marketing director, at an event at the Prada store in Manhattan, sitting next to a mannequin wearing the new liquid cooling and ventilation clothing.

Skills to develop space exploration products “can come from many seemingly unrelated sectors,” said Jonathan Cirtain, CEO of Axiom Space.

The new product follows Prada’s entry into space fashion in 2024, with the presentation of a space suit intended for use in Earth orbit on NASA’s Artemis III missionwhose launch is scheduled for 2027, and the moon landing in the mission Artemis IV, in 2028.

Luxury brands have long been inspired by space travel. But Prada has moved “from inspiration to an effective partnership” as the space exploration and tourism industries develop, said Thomai Serdari, a luxury brand strategist and marketing professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Serdari pointed to two factors that motivated Prada’s interest in the space industry: gaining access to affluent consumers who are thinking about traveling in space and aligning the brand with cutting-edge ideas.

Companies like Blue Origin, by Jeff Bezosand the SpaceX, by Elon Muskhave dedicated themselves to space tourism for the richest. The resumption of space exploration and human travel to the Moon “will attract a lot of attention”, says Luca Solca, global director of luxury products at Bernstein. Luxury brands need to remain relevant and visible, he argued. Prada’s push comes against the backdrop of a struggling luxury goods sector.

After two years of contraction, the sector showed signs of stabilization until the start of the Iran war at the end of February, which disrupted travel and affected luxury spending far beyond the Middle East.

Other space luxuries

Other fashion and apparel companies have joined the space movement. Under Armor partnered with spaceflight company Virgin Galactic to create space apparel, while Columbia Sportswear worked with space exploration company Intuitive Machines on space fabric technology.

But it is not yet clear whether other operators in the luxury sector will be able to follow Prada’s example. “In luxury, it’s important to be the first to do something, to be a trendsetter,” Serdari said, noting that LVMH’s Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Chanel are all interested in space travel, but will likely find new ways to make inroads.

“You will never see the top tier of the luxury sector copying each other,” he added.