Fashion in Space: A Driver for Space Popularization. A Case Study of the World’s First Development of Suborbital Wear for Space Tourism
- Paper number
IAC-07-B3.5.10
- Author
Ms. Misuzu Onuki, Space Frontier Foundation, Japan
- Coauthor
Mr. Charles Lauer, Rocketplane Ltd., United States
- Year
2007
- Abstract
Art (all creative matters including fashion) can be enriched by the power of science and technology, and science and technology can become more understandable by the power of art, to put a charming essence on the message. So far, fashion and space have never met. All astronauts wear the same pressure suits for launch, and rugby shirts in orbit. However, for airplane and cruise ship travel, people were very fashionable from the beginning of commercial service. Now we have the beginnings of this fashion sense in commercial space tourism. Paying passengers need to have space tourism wear as their “Sunday Best”. This is not a requirement for space travel conducted by governments. However, in commercial space development it is necessary. For space development, fashion taste is very new and it can appeal to the general public. For the fashion industry, space taste can make the experience inspiring and make space more popular to the general public The Space Couture Design Contest (SCDC) was a year-long competition in Japan for selecting a new winning designer to develop original fashions for space tourism flights operated by Rocketplane Kistler (RpK). The final selection from a total of 882 entries was made during a Catwalk show in Tokyo in late 2006. The first place winner joins the collaboration team that will develop and test original space tourism catalog wear with fashion designers, RpK and others, supported by JAXA’s Open Lab. This will be the world’s first suborbital wear for space tourism developed under FAA licensing with testing at FAA/CAMI. The contest was a trigger to make young ladies attracted to space and space tourism; in fact most of the SCDC contest applicants were actually young ladies in spite of their low interest in space. This contest encouraged general public interest towards space tourism with many media outlets covering it, including women’s and fashion magazines, which had never covered space matters before. Fashion covers not only clothes but also jewelry, glasses, shoes, hair style, and so on. All these items are necessary for space tourism, because individual expression and style is part of the personal choice people make when they choose to fly to space. Another new market for space tourism is space weddings, where fashion and style are absolute requirements. This paper will discuss the necessity of fashion taste in space development by describing many aspects of fashion power, and the synergy effects between space development and fashion. It will also describe the current development status of the world’s first suborbital space wear. Fashion taste as shown in the SCDC designs and the development of space tourism wear can be one of the factors driving the popularization of commercial space development.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-B3.5.10.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.