The area Race will be the mail-order-bride backdrop for ABC’s miniseries that are new but rather of this astronauts, it is their spouses who’re front and center.

“The Astronaut Wives Club” (premiering Thursday at 8 p.m. on ABC) informs the real tale of seven modest armed forces spouses who rocketed to fame whenever their husbands — Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton — had been called as NASA’s original Mercury astronauts in 1959.

Through the ’60s, the women lived in Houston — many as next-door next-door neighbors — supplying help while their husbands went on death-defying missions and chased skirts in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Since the guys fought a symbolic Cold War within the skies — with every effective objective celebrated as a dent in Soviet Communism — the ladies rallied around each other home. Additionally they became superstars inside their right that is own by reporters along with their every move chronicled within the pages of Life magazine.

“They were a lot like the very first ‘Real Housewives,’ ” says series costume designer Eric Daman. “All eyes had been they unknowingly became fashion icons and scions of the social set. to them, and”

The 10-episode miniseries spans 1959 to 1971, a retold that is decade-plus aid from NASA footage, lifetime mag profiles and author Lily Koppel’s 2013 oral history “The Astronaut Wives Club: a genuine Story,” on that your show relies. (Koppel is really a consultant regarding the show; the 3 surviving spouses do not have formal participation.)

“One of this great things about the room program could it be’s super well-documented,” says producer that is executive Savage.

The decade: Ninety percent of the costumes are vintage, sourced by Daman on sites like Etsy and 1stdibs like that other ’60s-era show “Mad Men,” producers sought to meticulously re-create. Savage scoured Sears catalogs, women’s magazines like Good Housekeeping and cookbooks to have a sense of popular subjects and colloquialisms on her behalf scripts. Midcentury communities inside their location that is filming of Orleans had been scouted to increase once the area ’burbs of Houston and Florida.

Savage says, “Fashion, meals, automobiles, interior planning — it is all really particular.”

Louise (Dominique McElligott, from left), Jo (Zoe Boyle) and Marge (Erin Cummings) celebrate their husbands being known as towards the Mercury Seven team in Thursday’s “Astronaut Wives Club” premiere. ABC/Cook Allender Louise Shepard AP

Louise Shepard

Played by Dominique McElligott

After her spouse, Alan Shepard, became the initial regarding the Mercury Seven astronauts to blast down, Louise had been christened the “First Lady of Space” — as well as the group’s first fashion symbol. Clothing shops also advertised the cream-colored dress/jacket/hat combination ensemble she wore to your White home event.

“Her flavor and magnificence is a tad bit more elevated as compared to others, more Vogue compared to other wives,” says Daman, who frequently dressed McElligott in a far more palette that is neutral sparkly details.

Despite her husband’s track record of infidelity, the couple remained married and retired to Ca. They passed away five months aside in 1998.

Marge Slayton Allan Grant/The LIFESTYLE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Marge Slayton

Played by Erin Cummings

Slayton originated in a bad history and had to conceal the reality that she had been a divorcee. More than the other spouses, she ended up being nicknamed “Mother Marge,” which had been integrated into her fashion.

“Back then, people didn’t dispose of clothes, and I also feel just like Marge could have peaked in the belated ’40s,” Daman claims.

He gave Cummings a film-noir design fitting for the ten years with plenty of neck pads, slinky sweaters and form-fitting dresses to hug her curves.

Slayton, that has one son, divorced for a 2nd amount of time in 1983 over husband Deke’s cheating. She passed away in 1989 at age 67.

Jo Schirra Ralph Morse/The LIFESTYLE Pictures Collection/Getty Images

Jo Schirra

Played by Zoe Boyle

If there’s a Charlotte in this set of gal pals, it is “perfect Navy wife” Jo, whom rocked twin sets and headbands such as a pro that is preppy.

“In actual life, there’s a complete benefit of her using the pearls and white footwear — we utilized that as her signature thing,” Daman says. “We actually desired her become prissy and pristine.”

That designed a lot of cream-colored clothing, sleeveless sheath dresses and pencil skirts combined with a sweater throughout the arms. But as her celebrity rose, perhaps the prim Schirra started tinkering with her design.

“She opens up since it goes on. Later on, she gets a hairdo that is new” he claims. “She goes over the leg, begins putting on tan shoes.”

Jo and spouse Wally had two young ones and remained hitched until their death in 2007. She passed away in at age 91 april.