Progress Chic | SpaceX Space Suit


Another milestone for our Progress Chic tracking. With an Instagram post, Elon Musk marked the dawn of space fashion. Sure, there have been many fabulous costumes in sci-fi movies, fashion editorials inspired by space, and even a few attempts to make real world astronaut apparel a bit more appealing but functionality has always won out over fashion....for very good reasons mind you, that whole life support thing in space and all. This...is real-world space fashion.

Musk's comment "Was incredibly hard to balance esthetics and function. Easy to do either separately." essentially put form and function on the same level. He clearly didn't, in fact he couldn't, devalue the necessary functionality of the garment, but by including esthetics in the comment, even putting it first in order, he established that space apparel of the future will need to be functional, as well as something pleasing, even inspiring, to the human eye...as is any good inspiring, innovative, visionary fashion design.

Sci-fi costumes and fashion spreads can make space apparel look good, but none of it is truly functional in actual outer space. Musk and SpaceX have now started to accomplish both tasks and there is no doubt that more inspiration, innovation, and vision await us in future space fashion.