The Bristol fashion designer creating clothes for outer space

Musing about astronauts and travelling to the outer worlds, it struck fashion designer Anurita Chandola that today’s spacewear has an intrinsic problem.

“Whenever we think of space, we just think of those bulky space suits, right?” Anurita said recently over a coffee at the Watershed cafe.

“But there’s so much focus on creating this vessel, nobody is properly thinking about what you would wear underneath it.”

That was the starting point of the textile artist’s journey of designing clothes for outer space that she hopes one day will be worn by real-life astronauts as they explore our solar system and the realms beyond.

“I learned to utilise every resource that I have: a very valuable lesson for creating things for space” – photo Alina Hasan

In 2015, NASA revealed its hopes to get humans living on Mars by the 2030s.

“If you were living on Mars, you would want to wear comfortable clothes. If you were celebrating a birthday or a wedding, you would want a fancier outfit that is different from others,” said 31-year-old Anurita, a resident of Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio.

“But, of course, you are very restricted with your resources and you have limited space for storage, so you would need a wardrobe which is ultra-sustainable and compact. That is the world I focus on.”

Anurita’s pathway into spacewear design was influenced by a NASA experiment in 2015, involving scientists living in a dome under conditions mimicking Mars.

Before long, t-shirts introduced into the environment caused the demise of plants due to dye chemicals, highlighting the impact of resource usage and sustainability, a lesson she now emphasises.

Her space-friendly apparel is multi-purpose, able to transfer its shape according to the pulse rate of the wearer so the same outfit can be worn for different occasions, or even shape-shift to become a sleeping bag.

The fashion designer’s collection is also made from mnemonic objects, from blankets to sarees, which are all dyed naturally to ultimately create a versatile and efficient wardrobe.

Anurita’s designs are influenced by elements of functionality and sustainability – photo: Betty Woolerton

From sustainability to functionality, Anurita’s love of textiles and the philosophy that underpins her designs today can be traced back to her Indian heritage and the values her mother instilled in her growing up.

“Just looking at my mum creating beautiful garments with just a yarn intrigued me as a little kid. She also taught me about the cycle of clothes: how a new, nice going-out outfit becomes your home outfit, then it’s your pyjamas and then one day it becomes a duster for the cobwebs in your house.

“That’s how I learned to utilise every resource that I have: a very valuable lesson for creating things for space.”

But creating super-sustainable fashion designs is a far cry from where her career started. A veteran in the fashion industry, and one of the youngest design managers for a renowned global fashion brand, she redirected her career after recognising the devastating environmental consequences of fast fashion.

Looking back, she said: “It was a difficult decision to leave the career I had trained for and it’s very nice to have a good paycheck at the end of the month, plus I loved the travelling. But I knew I could no longer be part of the industry.”

During lockdown, she set up Eesh – a Himalayan-product non-profit brand to empower women artisans by promoting their traditional skills in a socially responsible way.

She then decided to return to further education to pursue her dream of designing spacewear, going on to collaborate on the trial of an actual Martian house by creating a unique line of Mars-friendly apparel.

“Since that moment, I’ve never looked back. Designing spacewear is an absolute passion of mine and the fact that nobody else is doing it excites me more to continue.”

Through her work, Anurita hopes to not only pioneer the way for human exploration of the solar system but also inspire a revolution in how we live on Earth, fostering a more conscious and sustainable fashion industry for generations to come.

This story was originally published in the May & June 2024 Bristol24/7 magazine

Main photo: Adam Hughes

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