Common Threads: From Playtex to Prada — NASA’s Surprising Spacesuit Collaborations

Known for pushing boundaries and exploring the unknown, NASA has long been at the forefront of innovation. Yet, with the announcement of its 2026 Artemis III mission — the first to land on the moon since 1972 — NASA also reached a new frontier for the agency: that of fashion.

During the International Astronautical Congress in Milan in October, Axiom Space, NASA’s spacesuit provider, revealed its modernized Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit, the result of its collaboration with the Italian couture brand Prada.

At first sight, this collaboration seems surprising. After all, stylish outfits are not what comes to mind when we think about astronauts in space. But spacesuits are unique garments that function as a protective layer and serve as a “second skin” to the astronauts who wear them. They need to be safe and durable, but also be comfortable and allow mobility. Who could be better for this assignment than a well-known elite couturier specializing in custom-made tailoring and high-quality execution?

Indeed, this is not the first time that NASA has turned to the expertise of professional designers and seamstresses to provide sartorial solutions. When it first launched its Apollo program in 1962 — NASA’s first moon mission — the agency’s scientists were tasked with making the impossible, possible: to put a man on the moon. While issues like the proper fuel to use, how to exit and enter the earth’s orbit, and how to communicate and navigate in space without GPS certainly needed to be solved before a man could walk on the moon, what to wear in space posed no less of a challenge.

In the extreme temperatures and vacuum of space, it was essential to create a suit that would shield the astronauts from these dangers, while also being capable of replicating the atmospheric pressure required to sustain human life. The suit had to be made from non-combustible material, one that would not get torn or weakened, but would also be flexible enough to enable the astronauts to complete their mission.

At first, NASA turned to the three major defense contractors to spearhead the design. B. F. Goodrich, Litton Industries, and Hamilton Standard had all previously created prototypes for suits and equipment, and thus seemed to be the right choice. But their models, which were made of metal, were too stiff and bulky to be suitable for a moonwalk.

Looking for another option, NASA turned to Playtex, the consumer division of International Latex Corporation (ILC), that specialized in making bras, girdles, and diapers. While this choice certainly raised a few eyebrows, NASA realized that the technology and skill required to produce female undergarments were very similar to those needed to make an astronaut suit. Both outfits needed to be flexible yet durable, and both needed to keep their shape with body movement.

Unlike the other companies, Playtex designed its suits from fabric, using bra and girdle material like nylon to develop a fine high-tech textile known as beta cloth. It was made from fireproof Teflon-coated silica fibers that were flexible enough to manipulate, while also smooth enough to not irritate the skin.

NASA engineers also realized that professional sewers, especially the ones who specialized in delicate artistry and were used to operating complex sewing machines, would be the right people to complete this task.

Indeed, at a time when much of the space race was led by men and was seen as a masculine endeavor, it was the women cutters, seamstresses, and assemblers of Playtex who provided the essential workforce for making the spacesuits.

These women played an active role in the design process, contributing their knowledge and expertise to develop hand and machine sewing techniques to carry out the designs.

Unlike many of the engineers and astronauts, these were working-class women who learned to sew from their mothers or in home economics high school classes, but they were highly skilled in the clothing trade. This group of women was also racially diverse, a rare thing for NASA in the 1960s. Hazel Fellows, a Black seamstress, was depicted in a photograph will sewing pieces of an Apollo A7L spacesuit, while Iona Allen, another Black seamstress, was responsible for constructing Neil Armstrong’s boots.

Understanding that the astronauts’ lives were literally in their hands, these women were fully committed to executing their best work. Attention to detail was an essential requirement as there was no room for mistakes. Every stitch, which was less than one millimeter, had to be identical and was examined and counted as to be identical in every suit. The use of electric scissors was forbidden in order to achieve accuracy, and the pace of the sewing machines was also heavily reduced.

All suits were x-rayed to locate any forgotten pins — a common sewing mistake that could have proved deadly in space — and each sewer worked with her own color-coded pins that were counted at the end of every shift. Despite all of the stress and long hours that were built into the work, this group of women felt proud to contribute to the mission.

The contribution of these women was briefly caught on tape, in a promotional film that NASA produced in 1971, to explain the great labor and expertise that went to making the suits. While none of the seamstresses were interviewed for the film, or were given credit, it was their silent labor that enabled the astronauts travel safely into space.

A promotional film made by NASA in 1971 that explains how spacesuits were made (Uploaded to YouTube by The Space Archive)

Despite the continuous contribution of women to the space program,  It was not until 1983 that women would be able to not only sew spacesuits, but actually wear them, with Sally Ride rocketing into space on Challenger’s STS-7 mission. But while the names and stories of the women who sewed spacesuits have been mostly forgotten, their contributions, even if uncredited, have proved to be essential to the success of the moon mission. Indeed, in 1969, when he walked on the moon, Neil Armstrong might have taken a small step for man, but he could not have done it without the giant leap of the women who made his shoes.

To learn more about NASA’s spacesuits, visit airandspace.si.edu/explore/stories/spacesuits