Their spacesuit, their way: Bezos' fiancee re-imagines all-women crew suits

What do you wear for your first trip to space?
If you are like most people, probably whatever spacesuit or astronaut outfit the company (or govt agency) you are flying with provides. However, if you are Lauren Sanchez - journalist, pilot, children's book author, philanthropist and fiancee of Jeff Bezos, the second-richest man on the planet - you have another idea. You think, "Let's reimagine the flight suit." "Usually, you know, these suits are made for a man," Sanchez said. "Then they get tailored to fit a woman." Or not tailored: an all-female spacewalk, planned in 2019, had to be cancelled because Nasa did not have two spacesuits that fit two women. (Instead they sent out one woman and one man.)
But Sanchez is part of the first all-female flight since Russia sent Valentina Tereshkova on a solo flight in 1963. She will be going up on a Blue Origin flight with a pop star (Katy Perry), a journalist (Gayle King), two scientist/activists (Amanda Nguyen, Aisha Bowe) and a film producer (Kerianne Flynn). Feeling like yourself is what makes you feel powerful, she said, and you shouldn't have to sacrifice that because space has been - well, a mostly male space. Even if you are a space tourist, rather than a full-fledged astronaut.
So, five months ago, Sanchez got in touch with Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, co-founders of Monse, who are also creative directors of Oscar de la Renta's (Garcia and Kim made Sanchez's 2024 Met Gala outfit).

The result of their collaboration will be unveiled Monday, when Sanchez and crew climb into the Blue Origin rocket in West Texas, and take off for their approximately 11-minute trip past the Karman line and into zero gravity. "I think the suits are elegant," Sanchez said, "but they also bring a little spice to space." When Gayle King tried hers on, she said, she loved it. She thought the suits looked "professional and feminine at the same time." Nguyen called the suits "revolutionary." Clothes are about identity and representation, she said, and by allowing women to look like women, the suits are a statement that "women belong in space."
As to why designers were suddenly so popular with the astrophysics set, Garcia said, "if we make suits look approachable and like something anyone could wear, then space might feel a little bit less distant." Maybe, Garcia said, people might even think they "want to buy that spacesuit to go to the gym."
Sanchez was excited to give space travel a new look. "This isn't what you would call 'normal,' but neither is sending six women into space," she said.
"If you want to do glam, great. If you don't, great." The point was everyone gets to choose. Then she quoted something she said Perry had told her: "We're putting the 'a**' in astronaut," she said.