Even though the clothing’s pharaonic prices didn’t cover the cost of crafting the made-to-measure garments, the media coverage generated by his couture shows helped sell lower sticker-price items, like hats, belts and hosiery.Īs Cardin’s fame and fortune spiked, so did his real estate portfolio. Described by both as a “true love,” the relationship lasted about five years and they never married.Ĭardin saw the astronomical expense of producing haute couture collections as an investment. Cardin’s relationship with the organization - the governing body of French fashion - was rocky, and he later left of his own volition to stage shows on his own terms.Ĭardin’s high-profile relationship with French screen siren Jeanne Moreau, the smoky-voiced blond of “Jules and Jim” fame, also helped boost the brand’s profile. Success quickly followed, with the 1954 launch of the celebrated “bubble” dress, which put the label on the map.Ĭardin staged his first ready-to-wear show in 1959 at Paris’ Printemps department store, a bold initiative that got him temporarily kicked out of the Chambre Syndicale. He also was involved in creating the costumes for the director’s 1946 hit, “Beauty and the Beast.”Īfter working briefly with Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior, Cardin opened his own house in Paris’ tony first district, starting with costumes and masks.Ĭardin delivered his first real collection in 1953. “It’s much more difficult to enter a dark woods alone than when you already know the way through,” he said.Īfter moving to Paris, he worked as an assistant in the House of Paquin starting in 1945 and also helped design costumes for the likes of Jean Cocteau. The academy did not give a cause of death or say where or when he had died.Īlong with fellow Frenchman Andre Courreges and Spain’s Paco Rabanne, two other Paris-based designers known for their Space Age styles, Cardin revolutionized fashion starting in the early 1950s. He had been among its illustrious members since 1992. The Fine Arts Academy announced his death in a tweet Tuesday. That number dwindled dramatically in later years, as his products were increasingly regarded as cheaply made and his clothing - which, decades later, remained virtually unchanged from its 60s-era styles - felt almost laughably dated.Ī savvy businessman, Cardin used the fabulous wealth that was the fruit of his empire to snap up top-notch properties in Paris, including the Belle Epoque restaurant Maxim’s, which he also frequented. ArtReview News 30 December 2020 artreview.A licensing maverick, Cardin’s name went on thousands of products and in the brand’s heyday in the 1970s and ’80s, while goods bearing his fancy cursive signature were sold at some 100,000 outlets worldwide. In 1969, he was commissioned to create a spacesuit for NASA.Ĭardin also left his mark in pushing a fashion house’s global ambitions – he presented in China in 1979 (becoming the first French designer to trade with the communist country), and Moscow’s Red Square in 1991, attracting a crowd of 200,000. He experimented with vinyl, silvery fabrics, and transformed hats into space-age helmets. In the 1960s, he began producing striking, square-cut dresses with geometric sleeves which chimed with the cosmic enthusiasms of the time. In 1959, he produced his first ready-to-wear collection (a scandal that led to his expulsion from Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne), realising his vision of bringing high fashion to the masses. Under his own House of Cardin, he created his iconic ‘bubble dress’ in 1954 (named after the manner in which it flared below the waist). The French-Italian designer began his career working for the fashion designers Paquin and Schiaparelli, and then Christian Dior. One could ‘dress Cardin, eat Cardin, dwell Cardin, sleep Cardin, and travel Cardin’, the ’Napoleon of Licensers’ once boasted. ‘We are all proud of his tenacious ambition and the daring he has shown throughout his life’.Īs well as dressing celebrities such as Brigitte Bardot and the Beatles, Cardin was equally notable for his early adoption of licensing and branding that disrupted the world of haute couture, eagerly placing his name on all manner of products, from sunglasses to pickles. ‘It is a day of great sadness for all our family. The news was confirmed by the designer’s family. Pierre Cardin, the fashion designer known for his futuristic, space-age-inflected creations, and maverick business acumen, has passed away in France at the age of 98. Raquel Welch in a Pierre Cardin outfit, 1970.
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