Sexy, slimming, elegant — no these are not words used to describe the latest collections in Paris, but the custom made space suits created for the first all-female crewed Blue Origin spaceflight. The group, counting Lauren Sánchez, wife of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, popstar Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King, film producer Kerianne Flynn and scientist and activists Amanda Nguyen and Aisha Bowe, rocketed into space today, Monday 14 April.
But rather than be bagged down in the oversized spacesuit one might visualise when astronauts come to mind, Sánchez had a very different idea when she began organising their outfits five months ago.
Call the designers of Oscar De La Renta, she said, and quickly Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim got to work creating the cobalt blue, skin-tight, flame-resistant stretch neoprene kick-flare jumpsuits under their 2015 co-founded label Monse.
“Let’s reimagine the flight suit,” Sánchez said was her initial brief, in an interview with The New York Times. She said the completed outfits, produced by Creative Character Engineering, “are elegant but they also bring a little spice to space.” It’s the fact they have been designed with the female body in mind that makes them stand out, she thinks. “Usually, you know, these suits are made for a man then they get tailored to fit a woman.”
It was Firework singer Perry who perhaps summarised the whole bonkers situation best: “We’re putting the ‘ass’ in astronaut.”
Garcia, one half of the design team, has explained “simplicity was important, and comfort, and fit but we also wanted something that was a little dangerous, like a motocross outfit. Or a ski suit. Flattering and sexy.” Kim said “I, personally, would want to look very slim and fitted in my outfit.”
One idea was to add corsets to cinch the waist. During an interview with The New York Times Garcia said “I almost put a corset in your suit, because I know you wouldn’t have been against it,” to Sánchez, who replied: “I probably wouldn’t have, but we’re going to be in zero gravity. So we have to be able to move.”
Instead, a consensus that an ombré shading effect would be more appropriate for their approximately 11-minute trip to zero gravity. When the designers saw Sánchez in the final product, Garcia said “Damn, you look good. You’re going up in space looking hot.”
Historically, this marks the first all-female space flight since Russia sent Valentina Tereshkova on a solo flight in 1963. It does feel a slight shame that looking “sexy” on the rocket was quite so high up the agenda.
