Pierre Cardin
(1922 - )
Born in Italy on July 2, 1922, his given name was Pietro Cardini. After several years in Venice his family relocated to France. He studied architecture before joining the house of Paquin in 1945. After leaving Paquin, he worked for a brief time with Paquin and Elsa Schiaparelli.
In 1946, he began working for Christian Dior until 1950. He opened his own business, on the rue Richepanse , but later moved to the famed rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, there he launched his first couture collection in 1953. In 1954 Cardin opened a boutique called Eve, for women, which was followed by Adam for men in 1957. During the 1950s, Cardin designed coats with draped hemlines and loose back panes, bubble skirts and unstructured chemises. In the 1960s he introduced colored wigs. His cut-out dresses; coats and flared applique pockets were widely popular.
Cardin is a highly successful couturier, and also one of the first designers to commercialize ready-to-wear, alongside his couture collections. In the 1960s he also embraced the space-age style and experimented with vinyl and metal in combination with traditional wool. Cardin’s Space Age or Cosmocorps collection of 1964 synthesized his streamlined, minimal dressing for both men and women. He introduced knitted catsuits, tight leather trousers, close-fitting helmets and batwing jumpsuits. He raised skirts to four inches above the knee and plunged necklines, band and front, to the navel. Cardin is associated with the use of supple, knitted fabrics made up into bodystockings, catsuits, tubular dresses, tabard tops over leggings and tights. He frequently used the bias cut to produce spiral dresses and is fond of cowl draping. In 1970 he created the controversial maxi dress. In 1971, Cardin obtained an exclusive agreement with a German firm to use its stretch fabric, declaring that "stretch fabrics would revolutionize fashion."
He was the first designer to sell ready-to-wear clothing in the Soviet Union as early as 1971. While Cardin’s men’s wear lines were ultimately more successful than his women’s fashions in the United States during the 1970s, he still owned more than two hundred American retail outlets. His skills as an entrepreneur, and especially his creative licensing, (about 900 licenses), made Pierre Cardin one of the richest people in the fashion world. In 2006, the Pierre Cardin Museum opened in Saint Ouen, Paris, containing more than 1,000 examples of his work.
