The move from elitist, glamorous couture to the more profitable, middle class market revealed his savvy business acumen, making him rich, and influencing countless designers since. So affronted was the French haute couture guild by this “cheapening” act, that they threw him out, only allowing him back in years later. The Beatles in Pierre Cardin / Photo by Harry Hammond / 1963Įver the progressive, forward-thinker, Cardin was the first French couturier to launch a ready-to-wear, commercial collection for the mass-market, forming an alliance with Printemps department store. Within a year, Cardin had become a whirlwind success, attracting celebrity clients including Elizabeth Taylor and Brigitte Bardot, who wore his designs in movies and magazines, promoting his clean, modern look to a wide audience. Garments were made with luxury in mind, from crisp textiles including wool, crepe and jersey in conjunction with the Italian firm Nattier. Another signature look from this time was his long, tailored and boldly coloured coatdress, with detailed panelling on the reverse. His first couture collection was presented in 1953, with unusual, experimental shapes including his iconic bubble dress, a play on Dior’s 1950s, nipped in waist and full skirt, but with a gathered hem, which quickly gained critical acclaim. Dior invited Cardin to create a series of costumes for the flamboyant, multi-millionaire art collector and socialite Carlos de Beistegui, who was planning a Venetian themed “party of the century.” Launching into the commission with relish, Cardin produced around 30 extravagant, outlandish costumes, including a lion’s mane garb for Dior, and a fabulous feast of clothing for many other guests, launching Cardin’s reputation amongst the Parisian elite.īy the early 1950s Cardin had branched out into fashion, hoping to tap into the commercial potential of the mass market. Venturing out alone, Cardin started out as a costume designer for stage and theatre, investing in his designs a playful, outlandish quality which would remain for the rest of his career. Pierre Cardin at the St.James Theatre / Photograph by Ivan Farkas / 1977 “Designers like Pierre Cardin are the future of haute couture,” praised Dior, after Cardin helped him launch his pioneering ‘New Look’ of the 1950s. A hard worker, Cardin quickly moved on to work with prestigious designers including Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior, learning enough tricks, skills and connections to quickly progress. In 1945, following the end of the war, Cardin moved to Paris and took on an apprenticeship with the famous couturier Jeanne Paquin, where he helped create costumes of French Surrealist artist Jean Cocteau’s iconic film Beauty and the Beast. Working as a couturier’s apprentice aged 14, Cardin moved on to work for a tailor in Vichy, specialising in women’s suits. His family quickly fled to Saint-Etienne in France to escape the rise of fascism when he was just 2 years old, changing his name from Pietro to the French version, Pierre. Though less of a household name, perhaps, than his recent contemporaries, including Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, Cardin’s legacy is just as important, as revealed in a huge retrospective at New York’s Brooklyn Museum from 2019-20, revealing the lasting influence he has had, not only on mainstream 1960s fashion, but the templates we continue to know and love today.Īlthough he is known today as a Parisian, Cardin was born Pietro Cardin in San Biagio di Callalta in Venice, Italy, in 1922, the youngest of 10 siblings. His sci-fi take on fashion came to define the rebellious, avant-garde attitude of a new, 1960s youth culture, who rejected the old-world glamour of the 1950s in favour of a new, industrialised future. Like many of his generation, Cardin embraced the arrival of the Space Age in the late 1950s with great gusto, envisioning a future world made of day-glo, candy coloured plastic, vinyl and neon. Shiny, thigh-skimming boots, skin-tight synthetics, stretchy knits and micro-miniskirts these were the epoch defining looks of Pierre Cardin. “The clothes that I prefer are those I invent for a life that doesn’t exist yet – the world of tomorrow.”
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