SpaceX Taps Hollywood Costume Designer to Create Its Space Suits

Hollywood costume designer Jose Fernandez has taken on a project that’s truly out of this world. Fernandez is known for designing the superhero suits for Batman v Superman (2016), The Avengers (2012), and Iron Man (2008), as well as fantastically futuristic costumes for Tron: Legacy (2010) and Jupiter Ascending (2015)—and now, he’s designing the space suits for real astronauts.

SpaceX has yet to unveil its new space suit, but Gizmodo reports that founder Elon Musk hired Fernandez to design a stylish new ensemble for the 21st century. Though Fernandez has finished his design, the company must now reverse-engineer a version that will be fully functional in space.

Fernandez told Bleep that he never expected to work on an actual astronaut suit: “SpaceX, the company run by Elon Musk, reached out to me to ask if I would create a space suit. I didn’t know what SpaceX was and I thought it was a film. Then I realized it’s an actual space program.” Nevertheless, he was proud to work on the SpaceX space suit with Musk. “You look heroic in it,” he explained. “It’s an iconic thing be a part of.”

Musk isn’t the only space CEO concerned with style: In January, Virgin Galactic unveiled a line of sleek, futuristic space suits designed for space tourism in collaboration with Adidas’ fashion brand Y-3. But Musk seems to be taking outer space fashion a step farther. He doesn’t just want to develop a more streamlined space suit, he wants his astronauts to look like they’re stepping straight out of a science fiction movie.

Fernandez told Bleep that he worked with Musk for six months to develop a space suit that was both iconic and practical. “[Musk] wanted it to look stylish,” Fernandez explained. “He kept saying, 'Anyone looks better in a tux, no matter what size or shape they are,' and when people put this space suit on, he wants them to look better than they did without it, like a tux.”

[h/t Gizmodo]