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© Associated Press
Pierre Cardin (right) after being elected to the French Academy of Fine Arts in 2017.
Pierre Cardin, one of the most influential fashion designers of recent decades, has died at the age of 98, the BBC reported.
Poin magazine called him in its message “a genius of style and business, a visionary, an exceptional patron of design and the last monument to French haute couture.”
He was always one step ahead of others and earned both admiration and irritation, the post continues. Remember that with the introduction of a licensing system for his famous brand, Pierre Cardin built a business empire, but sometimes he also lost control over parts of it.
Pietro Costante Cardin, as his real name is, was born in Italy on July 2, 1922, and his professional career in fashion lasted more than 70 years. The fashion house was founded in 1950 and became known for its provocative ideas with geometric shapes and motifs that often ignore the curves of the female body. It also included new materials such as neoprene, vinyl, and Plexiglas.
By the 1960s, he was already competing with names like Andre Courage and Paco Raban for the title of “futuristic designer.” But Carden, already in 1959, stood out for being able to depart a bit from haute couture to make ready-made garments and make his models more accessible to people.
Pierre Cardin is also considered the first designer to bring a man to the runway in 1958. At a time when male models were practically non-existent, he assembled an entire “army” of students with attractive physiques.
He also came up with ideas for spectacular shows, like a fashion show in the middle of the Gobi Desert in 2007 or on Red Square in front of nearly 200,000 onlookers in 1991. In 1974, he boldly stood in front of Time magazine with just one towel around the waist. and took off his socks.
The boy, born into a wealthy landowner family in Treviso, puts his name on cigarettes, ties, chocolates, furniture and even canned sardines. His colleagues, including Yves-Saint-Laurent, criticized him for only corrupting the world of luxury, fashion and creativity. But with the bold expansion of the Carden brand understanding, it also gained financial independence.
He fled the Mussolini regime in 1924 and initially dreamed of becoming an actor in France. He later claimed that he set out to create clothes for a woman who was looking at his hand.
He first worked as a tailor in Saint-Etienne, and in 1945 he moved to Paris, where he worked for two months for Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior. In 2019, according to Challenges magazine, his business empire is estimated at more than 600 million euros.
