When President Kennedy announced America’s goal of sending a man to the moon he not only inspired most of the western world but also set the tone of the decade. It started slowly at first; space suit white outfits, hats reminiscent of helmets, not to mention THOSE boots!

André Courreges created a pair of pure white ankle length boots with almost completely flat soles to accompany his collection for 1964.These simple boots created quite a stir because they were relatively different from shoe styles at the time, but they were embraced by the fashionable youth, and soon every designer and his dog had released their own version of Courreges’ boot.

In the same collection Courreges launched the ‘space-age’ look, which was a form of futurism. The clothes in this collection were crisply cut and mostly all white but sometimes with black accents and stripes. These were the clothes of tomorrow for the new fun youth. It was the antitheses of conventional status dressing and also allowed young girls to rebel from their parents generation through clothing.

Courreges’ success was followed by Paco Rabanne’s 1966 interpretation of the futuristic theme. Rabanne created clothing using plastic, metal and even chain mail. This extreme look caught on commercially in the form of chain link belts, heavy metal necklaces and disk like earrings. Pierre Cardin also created his version of the space age look with stylised visored helmet hats and shift dresses.

Last updated: June 01, 2003

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