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In the late 1950s, the revolutionary French couturier Pierre Cardin broke ranks in Parisian fashion by presenting the first ready-to-wear collections for both women and men. Despised by his confreres for being as well Democratic, he was summarily expelled from the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne, the governing body of French fashion at the time. Cardin, who died in Paris on Tuesday at the age of 98, didn’t care. “I was born a artist“, He told the New York Times in 1987, “but I’m a businessman.”
In fact, it was. Having started in fashion in Paris after the war, as an assistant at Paquin, Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior, he launched himself on his own in 1950, eventually becoming the licensing king, with his name stamped on everything from scarves to silk even cigarettes. . In the 1960s, Cardin was praised for his wonderful Space Age designs for women. But it was his menswear that had a truly lasting impact. He adapted the collarless neckline of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s jackets for the suits, creating a style that is still seen today. Cut slim suits: small shoulders, high armholes, a fitted and tailored waist, a silhouette that Hedi Slimane has built upon his career. Twenty years ago, when Cardin was 78 years old and still working in his studio on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, he sat down to chat about menswear. The interview remained unpublished, until now.
Dana Thomas: When did you launch your menswear line?
Pierre Cardin: In 1958. At that time, men’s fashion came from England and Italy. I was the first to make designer clothes for men in Paris. I showed it at the Hôtel Crillon and asked university students to model it, because I wanted to bring youth closer to my fashion. It was the first time anyone did that. I completely changed men’s fashion.
Why did you decide to dedicate yourself to men’s fashion?
I wanted to dress myself. And I thought: Why do Italians and British design menswear and no the French?
What was fashion like for the French at that time?
There was no fashion for men in Paris. Well-dressed Frenchmen went to London to buy clothes, made to measure. Everything else was very normal.
Was your line only for the French?
No, it was for the whole world. He wanted to influence men’s fashion in the same way that he had influenced women’s fashion.
Why did you think of launching menswear at that time?
I was 25 years old and I wanted to be very elegant. People told me that I had my own way of dressing and that I was elegant. That’s the kind of fashion I wanted to create and it worked really well.
How has fashion design changed since then?
Before, those of us who worked in fashion received education. We work for old houses, apprentices. Now anyone who can or cannot draw is backed by money, gets a name. It is so superficial.
Is it important to always be well dressed?
I can define someone by the way they dress: if they are an intellectual, an artist, ordinary, refined. Whether it has good or bad taste. If you like to provoke with colors. If it is discreet. We can define everything with clothes. That is the amazing thing.
What is Cardin’s silhouette?
Like a tube, cylindrical. It is very difficult to do in factories.
What do you think of the black tie?
A man in a tuxedo is very nice. Even if he’s ugly, short, or fat, a tux gives him a certain class.
At Versailles, men were better dressed than women.
So well dressed, certainly. The men of the court only had to worry about when they got up in the morning. They put on makeup, combed their hair, got dressed preparing for lunch at court. That was his job.
And today? Will men’s clothing become fashionable again?
Certainly. It is a cycle.
