"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for fashion," isn't quite what astronaut Neil Armstrong said after his 1969 walk on the moon. But the Space Age, starting with the Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik 1 and including the Apollo 11 mission, has had a huge influence on what people have worn on Earth since.
Outer space _ representing a new frontier, adventure, endless possibilities and a clean slate _ was the perfect fit for a fashion industry increasingly being driven by rebellious young customers bucking tradition and abandoning old dress codes for things that were fresh and new. So, in the 1960s the fashion universe became one of extremes, representing diverse youth movements _ with traditional looks colliding with counterculture Space Age, hippie, Carnaby Street, Mod and Beatnik styles.
Designers Pierre Cardin, Andre Courreges and Paco Rabanne began looking to the stars to push the boundaries in their choice of materials and silhouettes, and creations inspired by events such as the moonwalk landed squarely on the catwalk.
