There is a long tradition of fashion meeting function at the extreme edges of human experience. Think Schiaparelli’s surrealism, the military-surplus heritage baked into workwear, the technical fabrics that migrated from alpine climbing into everyday wardrobes. Or even the futuristic materials of Vollebak. But none of those crossovers quite prepares you for what Prada unveiled on June 7, 2026: the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment — the LCVG — designed to be worn by NASA astronauts inside the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuit on the moon.
At first glance, the piece looks like something a Marvel costume designer might produce for a quietly confident superhero. It is a gray, form-fitting unitard — stretchy, clean, technical — with stirrup pants, thumbhole sleeves, and a subtle V-neck. Raised ribbed channels map the surface in flowing curves that follow the body’s major muscle groups, and larger black tubes arc from shoulder to arm, carrying the garment’s actual payload: circulating cold water and fresh oxygen. It is a wearable thermal management system. It is also undeniably extremely good-looking. So good-looking in fact, that you can expect to see it show up on the catwalk even sooner than you’ll see it on a spacewalk.
Prada has been collaborating with Axiom Space since 2024, when the Italian house contributed to the design and materials development of the AxEMU’s outer shell (the recognizable white suit built to survive the lunar south pole’s thermal extremes and micrometeoroid bombardment). The LCVG is the hidden layer beneath that, the piece no one on Earth will ever see in context, pressed against the skin of the astronaut who will take humanity’s first lunar steps in more than fifty years.
The engineering here is not decorative. It is the epitome of modernism in the way that form does indeed follow function. Chilled water circulates through the garment’s integrated tube network, absorbing metabolic heat and routing it to the suit’s portable life-support system, which then expels it into space. A secondary ventilation circuit delivers fresh oxygen across the astronaut’s face while scrubbing exhaled carbon dioxide. Missions may last up to eight hours. The system must work without fail — and in a nod to that unforgiving requirement, it incorporates a fully redundant cooling circuit, a backup that activates if the primary loop fails.
What Prada brought to this was not just aesthetic confidence, though that is evident in every line of the garment. The house applied its deep expertise in engineered knitwear — the kind developed for high-performance activewear and luxury sportswear — to the sourcing of specialized fibers capable of withstanding repeated use across long-duration missions. Advanced 3D modeling shaped the garment’s geometry. The signature Prada red stripe runs along the sleeve; the only stronger branding could’ve come from the Nike Swoosh emblazoned on the side of moon boots.
The LCVG will be tested aboard the International Space Station before it makes its lunar debut, likely with Artemis IV. Watch the skies!
Images courtesy of Axiom Space / Prada. Via Axiom Space and Space.com.