Vanna Bonta Is No Fashionista But Knows What's Haute
Novelist Creates Sensible Stiletto Shoes
Mountain View, CA 4/21/2008 01:56 PM GMT (TransWorldNews)
Dressed in a bright orange suit, white gloves and pumps, adventuresome author Vanna Bonta looked like she stepped out of the moon-landing era 60s, except for the flashing hair lights and glowing crystal earring in one ear.
At the occasion known as Yuri's Night, a yearly space bash commemorating the first human in space and the anniversary of the space shuttle, Ms. Bonta confessed from the stage to thousands that she would have been voted least likely to give a talk about fashion, admitting she often wore paper clips as hair barrettes so she could get on with what interested her.
From a stage at the NASA Ames Research Facility's Moffet Field event, Bonta said space is the best inspiration for "hot haute" style, which should multi-task as well as express and impress. Agreeing with Yves St. Laurent that fashion is whimsy but style is a forever thing, the Flight author said spacewear style is all about the "convergence of fashion and function."
Bonta held up a pair of pale blue mettalic flats and praised them as sensible shoes. "But remember," she said, "When you get there..." and with a flick of her finger, the flats ejected heels as she finished, "... you need something to wear."
It's called the Ever shoe (as in GoWear Ever), and is a combination flat that converts to heel with telescoping platform or stiletto high heels. Still a prototype, like her invention of the 2suit, a garment that includes diaphanous inner material designed for intimacy in the near-weightless environment of space, the shoe awaits the finish of a manufacturer.
Bonta said the first female independent space explorer, Anousheh Ansari, deserved thanks for making space "human for girls everywhere" when she mentioned her lip gloss floated away within five minutes of arriving at the International Space Station.
Moving beyond "the little black dress" for space, geek rhymed with chic as Bonta described her idea of exciting fashion, such as spray on protective "second skins" that glitter, portable atmosphere and hydration in balloon couture, self-illuminating purse interiors. blue tooth earrings, thermal fabric, fabrics in the brilliant colors of the cosmos, and velvet with fibers that are sensors.
Selected spacewear from a 2007 Tokyo design contest was also showcased at the event by Misuzu Onuki. The Aerial Showgirls performed an acrobatic dance choreographed to Bonta's music about human flight and zero gravity.
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