Cardin, << kahr DAN, >> Pierre (1922-2020), was an influential and successful French fashion designer. Cardin became internationally famous for clothing designs for men, women, and children. He created the first ready-to-wear high-fashion line for women in 1959, and for men, in 1960. The mass-produced ready-to-wear styles brought high fashion to many purchasers who could not afford the custom-designed clothes previously created by the high-fashion industry. Cardin’s ready-to-wear concept of menswear in particular had a major influence on later designers.
Cardin was born Pietro Costante Cardin on July 2, 1922, near Venice, Italy, to wealthy French parents. His family moved back to France two years later. Pietro later changed his first name to Pierre. Cardin developed an early interest in architecture and theatrical costume design. He took an apprenticeship with a tailor in 1936 to learn his craft. During World War II (1939-1945), he worked for a dressmaker in Vichy. In 1945, he moved to Paris and worked briefly for the fashion designers Jeanne Paquin and Elsa Schiaparelli. He also did costume design work for theater and film, including for Jean Cocteau’s famous motion-picture fantasy Beauty and the Beast (1947).
Cardin began working with the fashion designer Christian Dior in 1946. He assisted with the creation of Dior’s “New Look,” a style of dress that emphasized femininity in women’s clothing. It revitalized the French high-fashion industry. Cardin opened his own business for theatrical costumes in 1950. He presented his first high-fashion collection of women’s clothing in 1953 and opened his first boutique, Eve, the next year. His “bubble dress” (1954) was an international success. In 1957, he opened his first boutique for men, called Adam. Cardin was especially known for his avant-garde (cutting edge) approach to the structure of fashion and his minimalist, geometric, futuristic sense of beauty. In 1966, Cardin presented his first fashion line for children, using “all the triplets in Paris” for its launch.
Cardin expanded his business with fashion boutiques worldwide. He also licensed a number of other products, including fashion accessories, fragrances, home décor, exhibition spaces, and the famous Parisian restaurant-and-hotel chain Maxim’s. He was the first French designer to stage fashion shows in Beijing and Shanghai. Cardin was made a member of the French Academy of Fine Arts in 1992, among many other international honors. Cardin died on Dec. 29, 2020.
