NASA to wear Prada as luxury group pushes into space industry

NEW YORK — Italian fashion house Prada on Sunday unveiled the inner-layer garment designed for NASA astronauts preparing for future lunar missions, highlighting the brand’s efforts to become a leading luxury player entering the emerging space industry.

The body-hugging suit, developed in partnership with Houston-based space infrastructure company Axiom Space, includes ventilation tubes directly knitted into the fabric to help regulate temperature and support astronaut performance in extreme conditions.

“We have a broad spectrum of capability and know-how,” said Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada’s chief marketing officer, during an event at the brand’s Manhattan store. He was seated beside a mannequin wearing the new Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment.

Jonathan Cirtain, chief executive officer of Axiom Space, said expertise for space exploration products can come from “seemingly unrelated industries,” emphasizing the importance of cross-sector innovation in advancing human spaceflight.

The new garment follows Prada’s earlier entry into space-related design in 2024, when it helped unveil a spacesuit intended for NASA’s upcoming Artemis 4 mission, which is currently targeted for a 2028 lunar landing.

Luxury brands have long drawn inspiration from space exploration, but industry experts say Prada has moved beyond inspiration into direct collaboration as space tourism and exploration expand.

“Prada has gone beyond inspiration into an actual partnership,” said Thomai Serdari, a luxury brand strategist and marketing professor at New York University Stern School of Business. She added that the space sector offers luxury brands both access to high-net-worth consumers interested in space travel and alignment with forward-looking innovation.

Companies such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX have helped accelerate interest in space tourism, which is increasingly viewed as a future luxury market.

The renewed focus on lunar exploration and human space travel is expected to draw significant global attention, according to Luca Solca, global head of luxury goods at Bernstein. He noted that luxury brands must continue to innovate to remain relevant and visible.

Prada’s expansion into space comes amid broader challenges in the luxury sector. After two years of contraction, the industry had begun to stabilize before geopolitical tensions and conflicts earlier this year disrupted global travel and weakened luxury spending across multiple markets.

Other apparel companies have also explored space-related partnerships. Under Armour has worked with spaceflight firm Virgin Galactic on space apparel development, while Columbia Sportswear has collaborated with space exploration company Intuitive Machines on advanced fabric technologies.

However, it remains unclear whether other top-tier luxury brands will follow Prada’s lead into the space sector.

“In luxury, it is important to be the first to do something, to be a trend-setter,” Serdari said, adding that major houses such as LVMH, Hermes and Chanel are watching developments in space exploration closely but are likely to pursue their own distinct approaches.

“You will never see the upper crust of the luxury sector copying each other,” she said. -Reporting by Danielle Kaye, Editing by Lisa Jucca/Reuters