Editor’s Note: This story has been amended from an earlier iteration published at the time of the 2024 total solar eclipse.
“We choose to go to the Moon,” said President John F. Kennedy in 1962, and we haven’t stopped opting in since America’s first lunar landing. Now Prada is headed there via a collaborative project with NASA.
Designers’ fascination (or should that be fashination?) with the Great Beyond dates to the mid-’60s when Pierre Cardin, André Courrèges, and Paco Rabanne, created out-of-this-world get-ups for starry-eyed earthlings. Their silver-and-white Space Age aesthetic set the template for futurism in fashion. White, as the BBC reports, actually has functionality for astronauts; it reflects radiation and allows for “visibility even in the darkness of Earth’s shadow.”
The looks assembled here, almost all from runways, are not intended to be hidden, but to make the wearer as memorable as a blazing comet. There are voluminous moon-walker puffers, to be sure, but also body-con and aerodynamic one-pieces, and flowing robes worth of Princess Leia, plus Dune-style draping and not-to-be-missed fluorescence. Technology is represented in the form of computer-chip prints and embroideries, and the sun, moon, stars, and planets are in constant rotation pattern-wise. Designers including Nicolas Ghesquière, Alexander McQueen, and Iris van Herpen, have made many repeat journeys of imagination into the new, blue frontier, and returned with suggestions for our well-dressed future selves. Feel free to explore.
Jennifer Turcios contributed additional image research for this story.
Anrealage, fall 2022 ready-to-wear
Photo: Courtesy of Anrealage
Balenciaga, fall 2021 ready-to-wear
Phoot: Courtesy of Balenciaga
Balenciaga, fall 2021 ready-to-wear
Photo: Courtesy of Balenciaga
Kiara Kabukuru, right, in a 3-D print developed by Stephen Sprouse from imagery provided by NASA, for fall 1999.
Photo: Thomas Iannaccone for WWD / Getty Images
Stephen Sprouse, fall 1999 ready-to-wear
Photo: Thomas Iannaccone for WWD / Getty Images
Moncler 5 Craig Green, fall 2018 ready-to-wear
Photo: Courtesy of Moncler 5 Craig Green
Moncler 5 Craig Green, fall 2018 ready-to-wear
Photo: Courtesy of Moncler 5 Craig Green
Jil Sander, fall 2023 ready-to-wear
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com
Chanel, fall 2017 ready-to-wear
Photo: Kim WestonArnold / Indigi
Chanel, fall 2017 ready-to-wear
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigital
Balmain, fall 2021 ready-to-wear
Photo: Courtesy of Balmain
Chalayan, fall 2017 ready-to-wear
Photo: Marcio Madeira
Alexander McQueen, fall 2003 ready-to-wear
Photo: Marcio Madeira
Féraud, spring 2002 couture
Photo: Antoine de Parseval / Shoot Digital for Style.com
threeASFOUR, fall 2023 couture
Photo: Courtesy of Threeasfour
Chalayan, fall 2007 ready-to-wear
Photo: Marcio Madeira
Undercover, spring 2019 ready-to-wear
Photo: Courtesy of Undercover
Noir Kei Ninomiya, fall 2022 ready-to-wear
Photo: Courtesy of Noir Kei Ninomiya
Givenchy, fall 1999 ready-to-wear
Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Jane Fonda in a Paco Rabanne–designed costume for Barbarella, 1966.
Photo: Bettmann
Balenciaga
Mugler, fall 1995 couture
Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Models wearing Space Age designs by André Courrèges in 1967.
PhotoL Keystone-France / Getty Images
Chalayan fall, 2009ready-to-wear
Photo: Don Ashby & Olivier Claisse
Chalayan fall, 2009 ready-to-wear
Photo: Marcio Madeira
Iris van Herpen, spring 2011 ready-to-wear
Photo: Michel Zoeter / Courtesy of Iris van Herpen
Schiaparelli, spring 2022 couture
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Rodarte, fall 2014 ready-to-wear
Photo: Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images
Vetements, spring 2016 ready-to-wear
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigitalimages.com
Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, fall 2014 ready-to-wear
Photo: Marcus Tondo / Indigitalimages.com
Louis Vuitton, spring 2019 ready-to-wear
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigital.tv
Louis Vuitton, spring 2019 ready-to-wear
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigital.tv
Undercover, spring 2019 ready-to-wear
Photo: Courtesy of Undercover
Gucci, fall 2017 ready-to-wear
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigital.tv
Givenchy, fall 2023 couture
Photo: Monica Feudi / Indigital.tv
Givenchy, spring 2002 couture
Photo: Antoine de Parseval / Shoot Digital for Style.com
Balmain, spring 2019 ready-to-wear
Photo: Monica Feudi / Indigital.tv
Alexander McQueen, spring 1997 ready-to-wear
Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Louis Vuitton, resort 2023
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Givenchy, fall 1999 ready-to-wear
Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Jean Paul Gaultier, fall 1995 ready-to-wear
Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Jean Paul Gaultier, fall 1995 ready-to-wear
Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Givenchy, spring 2014 menswear
Photo: Monica Feudi / FeudiGuaineri.com
Alexander McQueen, fall 2012 ready-to-wear
Photo: Monica Feudi / feudiguaineri.com
Solange in Giles, fall 2015 at the Met gala.
Photo: Jamie McCarthy / FilmMagic
Balmain, spring 2019 couture
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Alexander McQueen, spring 2010 ready-to-wear
Photo: Marcio Madeira
Iris van Herpen, fall 2019 couture
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com
Stephen Sprouse, fall 1984 ready-to-wear
Photo: Jonathan Postal / Penske Media / Getty Images
Christopher Kane, resort 2011
Photo: Courtesy of Christopher Kane
Giorgio Armani, spring 2013 ready-to-wear
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / GoRunway.com
Dior Men, pre-fall 2023
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Dior Men, pre-fall 2023
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Louis Vuitton, fall 2018 menswear
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigital.tv
Stephen Sprouse, spring 1985 ready-to-wear
Photo: Amy Meadow for WWD / Getty Images
Schiaparelli, spring 2022 couture
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Alexander McQueen, fall 2016 ready-to-wear
Photo: Kim WestonArnold / Indigital.tv
Gucci, fall 2016 ready-to-wear
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigital.tv
Andrew Gn, fall 2020 ready-to-wear
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Alexander McQueen, fall 2007 ready-to-wear
Photo: Marcio Madeira
Christian Dior, fall 2011 couture
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / GoRunway.com
Emilio Pucci, fall 2015 ready-to-wear
Photo: Monica Feudi / Feudiguaineri.com
Valentino, pre-fall 2015
Courtesy of Valentino
Viktor & Rolf, fall 2019 couture
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com