 No one's ever asked me this, but since I've been studying and reading about the X-15 so much lately, I've asked myself this a number of times. Why do the X-15's suits look the way they do? The X-15 flew high enough that pilots needed a pressure suit in case their cabins lost pressurization in flight, and they were stylish, silver lame with a white helmet and black gloves and boots. But the look wasn't dictated by any technical considerations. It was purely a stylistic choice from North American's company pilot Scott Crossfield. The X-15's suit was manufactured by the David Clark Company. The company's owner and president, David Clark, had cornered the market making girdles and braziers, but his natural inclination to tinker and invent solutions to problems found an outlet in designing and building military garments. He came up with a new, full-pressure suit that was flexible, but became rigid if a cockpit lost pressurization. The suit was a hit with naval aviators, so much so that it even got some press coverage. It was great material for a story, but the suit itself didn't appeal to photographers. It was khaki and didn't look like a space suit should. One magazine sent a photographer who ended up being so underwhelmed by Clark's new state-of-the-art suit that he pulled a big, bulbous-y, full-pressure hard suit the Navy had investigated and abandoned years earlier from the rack. It wasn't the new state-of-the-art suit, but it looked much better in a magazine. So when it came time to design the X-15's suit, Scott Crossfield worked closely with the David Clark Company, tweaking the design to perfection. One day, Crossfield spotted a piece of silver fabric lying on the table in Clark's workshop. Recalling the incident with the photographer who scoffed at the khaki suit, Crossfield told Clark to add a layer of the silver for style. Clark added black boots and gloves and a white helmet for contrast. After a few flights, Crossfield realized his hands were sweating from the black material absorbing heat in the gloves. So the gloves became silver like the rest of the suit. But in either incarnation, it was a very photogenic suit. Sometimes style, even in space, is very important.