Upgraded 8 June 2026 at 08:54 IST
The body-hugging fit, produced in partnership with Houston-based area facilities designer Axiom Space, includes ventilation tubes knitted into the garment.
Italian style home Prada revealed on Sunday the inner-layer garment set to be used by NASA astronauts heading into area, highlighting the brand name’s push to be the very first significant high-end gamer to make inroads in the area market.
The body-hugging fit, produced in cooperation with Houston-based area facilities designer Axiom Space, includes ventilation tubes knitted into the garment.
“We have really a broad spectrum of capability and know-how,” Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada’s chief marketing officer, stated at an occasion at Prada’s Manhattan shop, sitting next to a mannequin wearing the brand-new Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment.
Knowledge for establishing area expedition items “can come from lots of seemingly unrelated industries,” stated Jonathan Cirtain, CEO of Axiom Space. The brand-new item follows Prada’s splashy venture into area style in 2024 with the unveiling of a spacesuit that is anticipated to be utilized for NASA’s Artemis 3 Earth orbit, set to release in 2027, and the expected Artemis 4 moon landing in 2028. High-end brand names have actually long drawn motivation from area travel. Prada has actually gone “beyond inspiration into an actual partnership” as the area expedition and tourist markets establish, stated Thomai Serdari, a high-end brand name strategist and marketing teacher at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Serdari indicated 2 elements encouraging Prada’s interest in the area market: to get to upscale customers who are considering area travel, and to line up the brand name with progressive idea. Business from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to Elon Musk’s SpaceX have actually leaned into area tourist for the rich.
The resumption of area expedition and human travel to the moon is “bound to attract a lot of eyeballs,” stated Luca Solca, international head of high-end items at Bernstein. High-end brand names require to remain appropriate and noticeable, he stated. Prada’s push comes versus a background of a having a hard time high-end items sector. After 2 years of contraction, the market was revealing indications of stabilization till the Iran war started at the end of February, interfering with travel and denting high-end costs far beyond the Middle East.
WILL LUXURY PEERS FOLLOW?
Other style and garments business have actually gotten on the area bandwagon. Under Armour has actually partnered with spaceflight business Virgin Galactic to produce area clothing, while Columbia Sportswear has actually dealt with area expedition business Intuitive Machines on area material innovation.
It stays uncertain whether other high-end gamers may follow Prada’s lead. “In luxury, it is important to be the first to do something, to be a trend-setter,” Serdari stated, keeping in mind that LVMH’s Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Chanel are all thinking about area travel however that they would likely discover brand-new methods to make inroads.
“You will never see the upper crust of the luxury sector copying each other,” she included.
