When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on to the lunar surface in July 1969, they wore spacesuits made by Playtex: 21 layers of fabric, each with a distinct yet interrelated function, custom-sewn for them by seamstresses whose usual work was fashioning bras and girdles. Playtex’s spacesuit won out against hard armour-like spacesuits designed by military contractors and favoured by NASA’s engineers. Today we explore the story of that spacesuit.
Guests
Nicholas de Monchaux
Assistant Professor of Architecture at the College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley.
Publications
Title: Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo
Author: Nicholas de Monchaux
MIT Press