From Runway to the Moon: Prada Designs NASA Astronauts' Inner Spacesuit for Artemis Lunar Mission
Fashion has conquered runways, red carpets, and luxury real estate. Now, with characteristic Italian audacity, it has set its sights on the moon.
Italian fashion house Prada and Houston-based space infrastructure firm Axiom Space have unveiled a jointly developed next-generation lunar spacesuit layer, the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment (LCVG) , scheduled to be worn during NASA's upcoming Artemis IV moon landing mission , currently targeted for early 2028 . The unveiling happened not at a launch pad or a laboratory, but at Prada's flagship SoHo store in Manhattan , because of course it did.
The garment comes complete with stirrup pants, thumbholes, and a red stripe . But beneath the fashion-forward aesthetic is a piece of life-support engineering built to keep humans alive through temperature swings of more than 400 degrees Fahrenheit . So yes, it is couture. It is also, rather critically, the difference between an astronaut returning home and an astronaut becoming a very expensive memorial.
The LCVG is the inner layer worn directly against the astronaut's body inside the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) , the next-generation spacesuit for NASA's Artemis III and IV missions . It features a primary and backup cooling system , if the primary loop fails, a secondary system activates to prevent the astronaut from overheating on the lunar surface. A separate ventilation loop delivers fresh oxygen across the astronaut's face and removes exhaled carbon dioxide. This is Prada engineering human survival, which is considerably more consequential than engineering a handbag.
Prada contributed its expertise in advanced 3D modelling, high-tech knitting, and specialised fabrics , making this the first time a luxury fashion brand has been directly involved in spacesuit development . Historically, spacesuits were designed around male body types with bulkier materials, but Prada has focused on greater flexibility, improved protection , and suits that can accommodate a wider range of astronauts including, historically, the first woman and person of colour to walk on the moon.
The Axiom contract for the suit design is valued at $228.5 million , a number that would make even Prada's most extravagant runway budget look modest. Prada first announced its collaboration with Axiom Space in October 2023 , then presented the outer spacesuit in October 2024 at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan. Sunday's New York event unveiled the inner garment, completing a collaboration that has taken fashion from terrestrial glamour to genuine lunar engineering .
Luxury brands have long drawn inspiration from space travel. But Prada has gone "beyond inspiration into an actual partnership ," as one NYU marketing professor put it. From Luna Rossa's America's Cup sails to the surface of the moon, Prada has always believed that excellence has no ceiling . It turns out, it has no atmosphere either.