ASTRONAUT FLIGHTSUITS
Costumes for Spaceflight

The following two pages contain photos of the costumes worn by cast members while playing the part of Astronauts. The first page contains production stills of the cast from the film including a rare portrait of female crew member "Stewart" before the flight and the second page has photos taken of the costume made for Charlton Heston.

Stills From Planet Of The Apes:
These are a collection of stills of the cast in costume taken at Lake Powell.

Photo Survey Of Charlton Hestons Flightsuit:
In 1979 I rented Charlton Hestons flightsuit from Western Costume in Hollywood.  These are a collection of photos taken of that costume as a source of reference material used to copy it.

Description & Construction

The flightsuits were two-piece designs made of a heavy fabric called "satin backed cotton". Apparently this fabric is most commonly used in the making of wedding dresses, usually with the "shinny side" out. In this case they used the "dull side" out, only the shoulder flag being silk-screen printed on a piece with the satin side out. The shoes were leather athletic boxing boots with new leather pieces sewn over the lacing loops and a zipper installed instead. Another piece of leather was sewn around the top to make them taller as well. A special one-piece undergarment was also created which featured a "tank top" style upper portion made of netting and a nylon "boxer short" style lower portion.

Although not recognized at the time, they represented an extremely well thought out costume. Meant to be used by a group of people traveling to another star system, no one could know what kind of environment the crew might encounter. Therefore they required the most versatile clothing design available, one that could be used in a cold environment, a hot environment or anything in between. When you study the costumes you will note a closing collar, zippered sleeves and zippered ankles which gives maximum cold protection. If it is warmer, the sleeves can be opened all the way to a short sleeve length providing a vest like garment. If it is warmer still, the jacket can be unzipped or removed altogether exposing the light weight "tank top" underneath. And finally, if it is really hot, the jacket and pants can be removed exposing the light weight garment underneath. Of course the jacket and pants featured a variety of pockets for carrying small items and the crew were also equipped with hard shell, water-proof back packs. The person responsible for these designs should take a well deserved bow for an outstanding contribution to the film. Of course all of this effort was over shadowed by the "Apes" portion of the film but, never the less, it represented first class work on the part of the wardrobe department at Fox in both design and execution.