Cosmic Couture and the Legacy of Space Age Fashion

The LINE Fashion Show on March 6th will see the vision and craftmanship of our designers challenged as their garments must reflect their understanding of different biomes, which together comprise the overarching theme, 'Echoes of the Universe'. Designers representing the cosmic realm in their creations will have much historical precedent to work with.

The Space Age of the 1960s and 1970s, set against the backdrop of the Space Race between the USA and the USSR in the Cold War, resulted in much space-related and science-fiction-oriented media; from Star Trek and the Silver Age of Superheroes to Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), and more. The cultural phenomena that encompassed the Space Age prompted a fashion revolution of sorts, facilitating a turn towards what we now call retro-futurism, which was reflected both in couture and everyday fashion.

The creative ethos of the Space Age was characterised by pushing boundaries and challenging conventions. The garments of the Space Age were known for their body shapes, thigh-high hemlines, and complimenting avant-garde accessories (Sampson, 2023). The post-war surge in preference for synthetic materials ensured designers' increased use of nylon, corfam, orlon, spandex, and more, given their affordability, quick-drying qualities and wrinkle-resistance, all of which suited the increased innovation and experimentation of designers that marked the era (Sampson, 2023). The sleek, futuristic feel of other non-cloth materials like polyester, lucite, and polyvinyl chloride (or PVC) made them popular in aforementioned accessories like plastic raincoats, bubble dresses, and helmet hats (Sampson, 2023).

The garments were notable for their distinctive, futuristic colour-schemes, mainly consisting of metallic silvers and stark whites. Op-Art, a movement exploring abstraction, ensured geometric prints were widely used, while fluorescent colours and light-up dresses became popular, synthesising a visual trend that Sampson dubs a 'kaleidoscope of futurism' (Sampson, 2023).

The work of designers like Andre Courrèges, Pierre Cardin, and Paco Rabanne was foundational, as their collections are both defining in their intergalactic, futuristic vision and enduring in their legacy.

Wearing Andre Courrèges Ensemble 1965, these models are styled as intergalactic representatives of Earth (Ramzi, 2014).

In the spring of 1964, André Courrèges released his Moon Girl collection, notable for its use of white go-go boots and tall spherical hats (Dolan, 2021). Thus began his interest in space-age couture, collections of which he would put on runways well into the late 1990s, at which point his legacy as a pioneer of Space Age fashion had been cemented. Courrèges popularised trouser suits, box-shaped dresses, and go-go boots in the everyday (Sampson, 2023). It was him, too, who recognised that the Space Age had much to offer the everyday working woman, who had evolved from the 1950s housewife. Courrèges, influenced by modernism and futurism, designed clothes that represented a shift away from the constricting corsets and girdles of the 1950s, creating liberating, androgynous clothing to promote the mobility of the modern woman, asserting that 'a woman's body must be hard and free, not soft and harnessed' (Maria, 2024).

Pierre Cardin at Paris Fashion Week 1968 (Dolan, 2021).

Pierre Cardin was another pioneer of space-age fashion, notable for his extensive use of silver vinyl and his practice of crafting sharp, modernist silhouettes from shimmering lamé to evoke an alien-like, otherworldly feel to his garments (Dolan, 2021).

Paco Rabanne with Isabel Feldel in 1967 (Bromley, 2023).

However, what separated Paco Rabanne, master of the avant-garde, from establishing designers of Space Age fashion, was his use of unconventional, industrial materials. Rabanne embodied the Space Race's emphasis on experimentation as he crafted minidresses and headgear with metals, acrylic discs, paper, and more  (Bromley, 2023).  It was these futuristic silhouettes, like the chainmail dress worn by Isabel Feldel in 1967, that earned him the moniker of 'the metal worker' by Coco Chanel (Bromley, 2023).

Florence Pugh's Princess Irulan in Dune: Part Two wears a reworked Paco Rabanne F/W 2020 headpiece (@fendifaguette on X).

Florence Pugh's headpiece in Dune: Part Two (2024) is a reworked piece  from a F/W 2020 collection, reminiscent of the headpiece Feldel wore in 1967. The film's costume designer noted that she modernised the look through 'linked silver chainmail cut with a more ornate lattice' to allow for a futuristic, high-fashion look (Schmidt, 2024). Rabanne's legacy has allowed for his pieces to evoke an intergalactic, futuristic feel in a film representing a world set tens of thousands of years in the future. Nonetheless, period-specific fashion is something often difficult to accomplish, like that of the Space Age, which while rife with opportunities to feel dated and untranslatable to present-day, rarely does.

The work of designers like Thierry Mugler, Issey Miyake and Iris van Herpen demonstrates both the legacy of the Space Age and its aforementioned auteurs, but also the artistic vision of the modern minds that have crafted cosmic couture. 'The sartorial legacy of the ’60s and ‘70s was defined by a space-race exuberance,' writes Dolan, 'but even decades after we first set foot on the moon, the cosmos has remained a mainstay of inspiration for a variety of fashion houses' (Dolan, 2021).

Thierry Mugler's trademark was the use of corsetry to dramatically proportion the female form to look alien, whilst dressing them like cyborgs. Thus, the otherworldly character of his creations emerged from his combination of the human feminine with the "zeitgeist" of emerging technology, including robots (Hughes, 2022). His garments included chrome bustiers and plexiglass catsuits, typically tinfoil silver (Hughes, 2022).

Zendaya wore a reworked 'gynoid' suit from Thierry Mugler's F/W 1995 collection for a Dune: Part Two premiere (Maitland, 2024).

The 'gynoid' suits debuted in 1995 was named for their 'scalpel-cut, aerodynamic designs' made of chrome and plexiglass, co-designed alongside Mugler by an aircraft bodywork specialist and illustrator (Maitland, 2024). These industrial leanings were reminiscent of Rabanne, while his use of plexiglass and silver were comparable to Courrèges and Cardin, respectively.

However, Mugler established his own presence through his focus on robots and cyborgs; interestingly, while the auteurs of the Space Age imitated lifeforms, be it alien or astronaut, modern designers have sought to represent technological or celestial bodies in their garments.

Issey Miyake's S/S 1994 collection Pleats Please saw the debut of his famous 'flying saucer' dresses (Jana, 2019).

Issey Miyake used spacecrafts as the basis of his Pleats Please collection, drawing on Japanese paper lanterns, biomorphic sculptures, and UFOs (Jana, 2019). Miyake, known for his origami-like garments and textile engineering, 'tested the kinetic energy of fabrics by pleating and cutting cloth like a sculptor' (Jana, 2019). The pleated polyester garments have 'saucer'-like shapes cascading down the body, 'offering the wearer the look of something extraordinary in motion – a curiously eye-catching object hovering just above the ground' (Jana, 2019). 

Iris Van Herpen's S/S 2019 collection Shift Souls was filled with otherworldly creations (Iris van Herpen, 2019b).

Iris van Herpen both homages and deviates from the Space Age designers in her abstract representations of both organic lifeforms and non-living celestial bodies. 'No designer working today appears more consistently influenced by otherworldly shapes and ideas than Iris van Herpen' affirms Dolan (Dolan, 2021).

Her S/S 2019 collection, Shift Souls, was inspired by 'early celestial cartography and its representations of mythological and astrological chimera' (Iris van Herpen, 2019a). She felt inspired by Cellarius' Harmonia Macrocosmica, a star atlas published in 1600 (Iris van Herpen, 2019a). Van Herpen imagined a sci-fi, futuristic world in which human/animal hybrids, 'cybrids' had been created to allow for the scientific progression of humanity as the background for this collection, a nod to cosmic couture's ties with Space Age retrofuturism (Iris van Herpen, 2019a).

The 'cosmica' dresses above were inspired by cloud-like structures, evident in their colour palette of earthy ochre, tyrian purple, and deep indigo pigments (Iris van Herpen, 2019a). To make these, an engineer-turned-artist printed vaporous coloured clouds on translucent organza, to be meticulously dissected and voluminously layered to embody the cosmic (Iris van Herpen, 2019a).

The designer frequently themes her collections around biomes, aligning with that of LINE's Fashion Show. Themes and concepts reflecting 'Echoes of the Universe' are also present, representing the cosmos in groundbreaking, inspired ways. Her work could well be the basis of much of our designers' inspiration, as her craft marks her not only as a legacy of the Space Age but as a pioneer of cosmic couture in the future.

Ultimately, while our designers could represent the cosmic in ways that align with the vision of the precedent, this Fashion Show calls for an original, individual approach, and it will undoubtedly be a pleasure to witness their craftmanship and creativity in representing the cosmos. The most noteworthy accomplishment of Space Age fashion was what its promotion of the experimental offered the everyday woman, the legacy of which is enduring. So long as these designers honour the cosmic's calling for pushing boundaries and challenging conventions, they will have consolidated that legacy.

Sources

Bromley, J. (2023). Paco Rabanne: The Life and Legacy of the Late Spanish Designer. [online] Evening Standard. Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/fashion/paco-rabanne-space-age-avant-garde-chainmail-b1057831.html [Accessed 9 Feb. 2025].

Dolan, L. (2021). A Visual History of Space-Age Fashion. [online] CNN. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/space-age-fashion-scn/index.html [Accessed 6 Feb. 2025].

Hughes, S. (2022). A Tribute to the Late Legendary Designer, Thierry Mugler. [online] CULTED. Available at: https://culted.com/a-tribute-to-the-late-legendary-designer-thierry-mugler/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2025].

Iris van Herpen (2019a). Behind the Scenes | Shift Souls | Collections. [online] Iris van Herpen. Available at: https://www.irisvanherpen.com/collections/shift-souls/shift-souls-photography-by-molly-sj-lowe [Accessed 10 Feb. 2025].

Iris van Herpen (2019b). Runway | Shift Souls | Collections. [online] Iris van Herpen. Available at: https://www.irisvanherpen.com/collections/shift-souls/runway-6 [Accessed 10 Feb. 2025].

Jana, R. (2019). To The Moon And Back: The Most Dramatic Space-Inspired Fashion Through The Years. [online] British Vogue. Available at: https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/best-space-inspired-fashion [Accessed 6 Feb. 2025].

Maitland, H. (2024). In a Vintage Mugler ‘Gynoid’ Suit, Zendaya Is In a Fashion Galaxy of Her Own. [online] Vogue. Available at: https://www.vogue.com/article/zendaya-vintage-mugler-gynoid-suit-dune-part-2-premiere [Accessed 6 Feb. 2025].

Maria, E. (2024). Space-Age Couture by André Courrèges 1964-1969. [online] Pezzi di Perla. Available at: https://pezzidiperla.com/blogs/news/spage-age-couture-by-andre-courreges-1964-1969 [Accessed 6 Feb. 2025].

Ramzi, L. (2014). Fashion Inspired by ’60s Space-Age Chic. [online] Vogue. Available at: https://www.vogue.com/article/60s-space-age-fashion [Accessed 6 Feb. 2025].

Sampson, P. (2023). Exploring The Space Age Fashion Revolution Of The 1960s. [online] Out on the Floor. Available at: https://outonthefloor.co.uk/space-age-fashion/ [Accessed 6 Feb. 2025].

Schmidt, I. (2024). The Costumes of ‘Dune: Part Two’: Behind Austin Butler’s ‘Vampire-Esque’ Looks, Florence Pugh’s ‘Nun-Like’ Headpieces. [online] The Hollywood Reporter. Available at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/style/dune-part-two-costumes-austin-butler-florence-pugh-looks-1235843098/ [Accessed 9 Feb. 2025].