Notes on cosmic fashion, 1969-2009

The space discoveries made in the 60s brought great hopes to humanity: in March 1965 Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov made the first space walk during the Voskhod II mission and, in July 1969, the Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

In the States the conquest of outer space inspired many films and writers to develop the science-fiction genre, but in Italy space inspired more than anything else a taste for futuristic design, art and fashion.

Italian designer Emilio Pucci became famous in the mid-‘60s for producing six distinctive hostess uniforms for Braniff International Airways. His 1965 “Gemini 4” uniform comprised a reversible coat, with print hat and scarf, lime gloves, two-colour stitched boots in the André Courrèges style, and a space helmet dubbed “Space Bubble” (officially called a “rain dome” by Braniff).

In the Summer of 1967 the Fontana Sisters created a collection that featured colourful capes – crossovers between a beach hut and a space rocket (I mentioned them already in one of the first posts on this blog) – that women could use as personal beach huts in which they could change themselves.

Early footage of catwalk events held on 27th July 1966 broadcast by the Italian State TV channel Rai, show how the A/W 1966-67 collections were inspired by space and also included Antonelli’s space age cape-jacket and beret made entirely of plastic and capes and evening pyjamas made of see-through plastic and vitrified aluminium.

A few years later, in 1969, journalists reviewing the Rome Fashion Week on the Gazzetta del Sud on 23rd July 1969 (see small pic in this post) and on the Gazzetta di Vigevano on 29th July 1969, claimed that “lunar fashion” had landed on the catwalk.

The cosmonauts' space suits had indeed inspired the clean cut forms and shapes of the collections, made in new and experimental materials, such as plastic and PVC; the trapezoidal shapes of the dresses and capes reminded instead of rockets or arrows pointing towards the sky.

Among the many designers influenced by the moon landing there were Alain Reynaud who created for Biki garments in wonderful colour combinations and sculpted coats with futuristic angular cuts donned by models wearing a silvery make up and with hairstyles designed by Baldan.

Turin-based fashion house Sanlorenzo opted for cropped coats and evening trousers and for jumpsuits matched with capes or mosaic-like furs and see-through trousers paired with fringed ponchos.

Mila Schön chose a palette that comprised all the colours of outer space - black, prune and cyclamen pink - for her jumpsuits, capes and embroidered short and long skirts.

The Sorelle Fontana collection featured blue and white sleeveless dresses and jackets with geometrical motifs formed by plastic plaques and rocket-shaped capes (the fourth and fifth picture in this post).

Make up was also influenced by the space discoveries and Helena Rubinstein launched for the occasion new colours with evocative names such as “Moonlight” and “Subliminat”.

July 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, yet so far no designer seems to have taken their inspirations from such an event.

There is probably one main reason and that's the fact that space discoveries continued and brought humanity "to infinity and beyond", so nowadays space doesn't seem to hold any mystery for us anymore.

Besides new researches into textiles helped companies to develop technologically advanced fabrics or integrate small devices such as mp3 players or mobile phones into garments, so there doesn't seem to be the need to celebrate astronauts and space rockets anymore when by pressing a button on our jacket we can maybe make a phone call.

Yet I think that not celebrating such an anniversary in fashion also represents a sort of loss of fantasy: it looks like designers are too focused on resisting the constant pressures of quickly producing trendy, commercial and saleable items, warding off in this way the ghosts of crisis and recession, to dream about cosmic landscapes.

We live maybe in a disillusioned world in which Pucci's "space bubble" and stylish uniforms couldn't exist, replaced as they are by the horrid colours and bad quality uniforms of low cost airplane lines, but I sometimes wish there would be the same adventuresome spirit that led the space discoveries behind fashion collections, rather than just the hope of making a lot of money.

Talking about space and fashion, is anybody up for a collection inspired by Mario Bava's Terrore nello spazio (Planet of the Vampires, 1965)? I think the colours of the sets that at time resemble abstract paintings and the black/yellow and grey/peach spacesuits worn by the actors may provide enough inspirations for a fun and futuristic collection, don't you think so? 

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