Pierre Cardin was born in Italy on July 2, 1922, as the 11th child of a French wine producer family. The family immigrated to France due to the toughening Mussolini regime when Cardin was still a child.
French designer Pierre Cardin was born in San Biagio di Callalta, Italy, in 1922. Educated in France, Pierre learned the basics of clothing design and sewing, starting the journey that would turn into a successful career story as a tailor at a very early age, at the age of 14. Later, at the age of 17, he left home to work for a tailor in Vichy, where he started to produce suits for women. Young Cardin, When he started working for the Red Cross during World War II, it was the first of his lifelong philanthropy.
The family wanted their youngest child to become an architect, but Cardin was interested in fashion and design from a young age.
According to Cardin's own account, the course of his life changed after meeting a fortune teller in Paris. The fortune teller told Cardin that he would be very successful and his fame would spread to Australia. Cardin thought the woman was crazy, but asked if she knew anyone in Paris. The woman gave him a name.
With nothing to lose, Cardin set out to find his name. He stopped a man on the street to ask for the address, but by chance, he realized that the man he stopped was the person he was looking for. Cardin described it as insane, but said from then on he felt more like it was his destiny.
He went to Paquin, one of the leading fashion houses in France, where he met the legendary film director Jean Cocteau and designed the costumes for his film Beauty and the Beast. Impressed by Cardin's work, Cocteau introduced him to Christian Dior.
After the war, in 1944, 22-year-old Cardin, now living in Paris, first studied architecture and later started working at the famous Paquin Fashion House. Pierre Cardin, who later started working with Elsa Schiaparelli, was rejected when he applied to Balenciaga, but in 1947 he was appointed head of Christian Dior's suit workshop. In this way, he worked on the famous "New Look" collection, which left its mark on the feminine silhouette of the 1950s.
Design Concept
Cardin, who was predicted by many to head the brand after Dior, surprised those who made this prophecy and opened his own fashion house in 1950. Initially, he focused solely on costume design with his costume designer partner, Marcel Escoffier, whom he met while making the costumes for Jean Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast" in 1946. The preparation of thirty costumes for the masquerade ball with famous names, held at the Palazzo Labia in Venice in 1951 and known as the "party of the century", was the key to making his name known. Thus, he started the production of "Haute Couture" in 1953. In 1957, he would open a men's clothing store in Paris under the name "Adam".
Pierre Cardin's design aesthetic was associated with geometric shapes, reflecting his passion for architecture. The futuristic attitude that marked the 1960s was embodied in his design in an avant-garde way. Some of his clothes were geometric shapes with their cuts, while others were decorated with rounds and quadrilaterals. At the same time, he did not neglect to use materials that evoke the "space age" such as vinyl, metallic fabrics, and huge zippers.
Pierre Cardin was one of the first western designers to turn to Japan as both a source of inspiration and a potential Couture market. He went to Japan in 1957, observing new opportunities to expand his business while studying the country's fashion. Bunka Fukusoi, a fashion school in Japan, declared Cardin an "honorary professor", where Cardin lectured on three-dimensional cuts for a month. In 1962 he would initiate a "Pierre Cardin Award" to be awarded to the designer of the year at the same school.
Pierre Cardin as a Brand
Aside from the strong design aesthetics and avant-garde stance that marked the 60s; Pierre Cardin's greatest impact on the history of fashion is his contributions to the ready-made clothing industry. Cardin introduced innovations that we are used to today, but that created a scandalous effect for his time. So much so that in 1959 he was expelled from the strict Couture Syndicate for being the first French designer to create a collection for the large Printemps store in Paris. It is said that this move was perceived as a threat to the future of couture, which was the reason for his dismissal, as Haute Couture designers were accustomed to working with private clients at the time. In another version of the story, Cardin resigned from the union because the union prevented the press from publicizing this move. However, this polarization did not last long; Not only did it not take long for Cardin to be reinstated in the union, but soon after, many designers followed him on this path.
In the 1960s, the designer again surprised the audience by launching a collection that bore his own logo. Following this, Cardin broke new ground in licensing in the fashion world, and its logo soon became ubiquitous.
Cardin today
Although Pierre Cardin's influence in the fashion world has led to much debate, it is an undeniable fact that the innovations he pioneered had a great impact on the fashion world. As one of the most economically successful designers in the fashion world, 95 years old Cardin is still at the head of his brand, continuing to design and run his business.
29 December 2020
French fashion designer Pierre Cardin died at the age of 98. Standing out with his Space Age-themed futuristic designs in the 1960s and 70s, Cardin was considered one of the names that brought fashion to the masses.
Pierre Cardin became the second fashion giant to die in 2020, after Japanese designer Kenzo Takada, who died in October due to coronavirus.