MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Angela Maragni, Technical Design ’12, helped produce new ceremonial uniforms for the Space Force
In 2023, shortly after joining the federal government’s Defense and Logistics Agency (DLA)—which supplies the armed forces with clothing, food, and other necessary items—as a product specialist, Angela Maragni was given a special assignment. She would help create a ceremonial uniform for the Space Force, a military branch founded in 2019 to protect U.S. interests in space.
Usually, Maragni’s role involves working with domestic garment factories to maintain the fit, form, and function of dress uniforms defined by decades of design continuity, for example, the Army Green and Marine Corps Blue uniforms. But the new Space Force uniform would require extensive teamwork among multiple offices on a tight deadline.
The design, created by a separate office, specified a semifitted coat with six asymmetrically positioned buttons, representing the six military branches, on the front.
Maragni’s small team collaborated with multiple others at DLA, recommending fabrics and construction methods to translate the drawings into beautiful, durable, and functional garments. She then worked closely with five mills and factories to produce them. This was the first ceremonial uniform to incorporate spandex, and her team had to make sure the factories knew how to sew this challenging material.
Maragni’s FIT training helped immensely. The garment specifications her agency uses are like the tech packs she put together as a student. And knowing industry verbiage—like “hook and loop” instead of “Velcro” and “slide fastener” instead of “zipper”—helped her develop rapport with factories.
“The vendors know when they’re talking to somebody who knows construction and has worked in this field,” she says.
Also, FIT’s famously heavy workload helped prepare her for the project’s lightning pace. In just two years, Maragni’s team produced 600,000 items in more than 400 sizes for the Space Force Guardians. The uniforms included many pieces—coats, caps, jackets, belts, trousers, skirts, etc.—graded on multiple dimensions.
When she saw the Guardians in uniform at the Space Force graduation in San Antonio last December, Maragni beamed with pride for her work and her country. “They said they really loved the new designs,” she recalls. “It was definitely the coolest part.”
Photos by Daniel Cruz, courtesy of the U.S. Space Force