UNB student launches interdisciplinary fashion project into zero gravity 

The sky is no limit for a University of New Brunswick undergraduate student who is blending fashion, space technology and culture into a unique project.  

Jagriti Luitel, who is studying culture and media studies, boarded the G-Force One – a highly specialized aircraft that does zero gravity flights – in Boston last May. Joined by others from the Aurelia Institute’s Horizons Program (a collaboration with MIT’s Media Lab) she experienced a range of gravity-free conditions including microgravity, lunar gravity, Mars gravity and hypergravity.   

Ms. Luitel was there to test her zero-gravity project – an innovative garment reflecting her Nepalese background – created with designer Deborah Won for life in space. The outfit features red rhododendrons, Nepal’s national flower, which appear to bloom from the black garment in the weightless environment.  

“I’ve always had a goal to do a zero-gravity flight,” said Ms. Luitel, who immigrated to Fredericton from Nepal with her family in 2017. “Growing up, I often wondered — how are people not completely obsessed with space?” Her family’s move to Canada opened her eyes to a world of opportunities. She initially studied mechanical engineering, eventually switching to computer science and then to culture and media studies.  

During that time, she and two other engineering students sent a painting to the Earth’s stratosphere aboard a high-altitude weather balloon. 

But she didn’t see her future in engineering. “I just slowly started seeing what my life would look like if I continued on this path,” she said. As her academic focus evolved, so did her vision for what she wanted to achieve in the aerospace field.  

“I felt like I could find an intersection within this field where it could fulfill all of my desires.”  

In January 2024, she enrolled in an online course called SpaceKind, which is “a leadership course about the future of humanity and the democratization of space,” she said. She met Ms. Won, who designs weightless space fashion through her startup, Pisces Rising, and the zero-gravity project was conceived.  

“She has a drive and a sort of focused-ness to her ambition that I think is really strong and perhaps unique for someone so young,” said Lauren Cruikshank, an associate professor in UNB’s department of culture and media studies, who also worked one-on-one with Ms. Luitel. “Her project is a really interesting bringing together of art, science, media and a personal cultural story,” said Dr. Cruikshank, “as well as the idea of how cultural belonging can play a helpful role in keeping astronauts from feeling isolated and disconnected when they’re in space.”  

“I realized how space can be used as a tool for expression,” said Ms. Luitel. “It can be used as a tool for impact. It can be used as a tool to make other people’s lives better … and create an exciting future for all of us to look forward to.”