The latest creation by Japanese fashion designer Tae Ashida is truly out of this world -- an outfit¹ twinning a blue cardigan and shorts made for astronaut Naoko Yamazaki.

日本时装设计师芦田多惠的最新作品堪称真正的“超凡出世”，她为宇航员山崎奈绪子设计了一套太空工作服，上身是一件蓝色无领开衫，下身搭配一条短裤。

An illustration of an outfit made by Japanese fashion design Tae Ashida for astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, who is on a mission to the the International Space Station (ISS). Ashida put together a light blue cardigan with dark blue shorts in an outfit with "a sense of grace" for a mission in a male-dominated atmosphere.

The US space shuttle Discovery blasted off（点火起飞） on Monday with Yamazaki and two other female crew on board, bound for（开往） the International Space Station (ISS) on a historic mission that put more women in orbit than ever before.

Ahead of her departure, Yamazaki, 39, asked Ashida, daughter of fashion guru（领袖，专家） Jun Ashida, to design her work clothes for the 13-day space mission and she came up with（提出，想出） a slim knit（编织衣物） cardigan（开襟羊毛衫） in light blue with navy blue shorts.

"As a female designer, I chose a design and colour with a sense of grace ... so that she can feel at ease as she carries out a tough mission in a male-dominated, bleak²（荒凉的，阴冷的） atmosphere," Ashida said on Wednesday.

"It's like a dream come true to see my clothes worn in space," said Ashida. "I'm looking forward to seeing her wear my design."

Yamazaki also brought a miniature（微型的） version of the traditional Japanese harp³（竖琴） , known as a koto（十三弦古筝） , to the station to play an ensemble⁴（合奏） with her countryman Soichi Noguchi, who has carried his Japanese flute⁵（长笛） to the station.

Yamazaki asked a Japanese musical instrument factory to make a miniature version of the koto, which usually measures about 1.8 metres (six feet), to meet the size limit for her space shuttle cabin luggage.

"The sound is quite different from that of an authentic⁶（可信的，真实的） one, but I'm very much looking forward to seeing her play the koto in space," said instrument maker⁷ Kenzo Ogawa, who produced the mini harp.

Japan's astronauts have shown a penchant⁸（嗜好，倾向） for space entertainment in the past.

Last year Koichi Wakata performed a series of zero-gravity challenges, including testing a "flying carpet", folding laundry and using eye drops in the ISS, videos of which were posted online by the Japanese space agency.