Pierre Cardin

 

Pierre Cardin (1922-) rose to prominence as a prominent and widely admired designer as well as a highly successful businessman in the latter half of the twentieth century. Cardin is known for his keen intuition, which has helped him establish himself as a trendsetter and design leader. Cardin's design operations have expanded far beyond men's and women's fashion to encompass all aspects of modern living. As he has expanded his commercial operations through timely licensing, the name Cardin has become synonymous with his brand. Cardin's corporate empire held 900 production licenses in 140 countries as of the early 2000s.

Early Training

On July 2, 1922, the designer was born in Italy to French parents as Pietro Cardini. However, after several years in Venice, his family relocated to France. Cardin briefly studied architecture as a young man before joining the house of Paquin in 1945. During his time there, he was able to collaborate with Christian Bérard and Jean Cocteau on the 1946 film La Belle et la Bête, for which he designed the velvet costume for the Beast, played by Jean Marais. Following a brief stint with Elsa Schiaparelli, Cardin worked for Christian Dior from 1946 until his departure in 1950. Cardin honed his tailoring skills as the head of Dior's coat and suit workroom. Cardin's shop was originally on the rue Richepanse (later renamed the rue du Chevalier de Saint-George), but it was later relocated to the famed rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, where the designer debuted his first couture collection in 1953. Cardin opened Eve, a women's boutique, in 1954, followed by Adam, a men's boutique, in 1957.

Cardin established himself as an innovator and a rebel from the start. He was reported to have said, "The fabric is almost secondary to me. First and foremost, I believe in shape, architecture, and the geometry of a dress " His fabric experiments embraced geometric abstraction without losing sight of the human figure.

Cardin became known for his ability to sculpt fabric with an architectural sensibility. Cardin possessed the skills and vision to turn his dreams into wearable reality, creating garments with impeccable craftsmanship. Even when his dresses transitioned from a sculpted to a more draped silhouette in the 1970s, the fluidity of his work remained formal. Cardin was a highly successful couturier, but he also sought to commercially redefine the field of fashion design. Cardin's membership in the prestigious Chambre Syndicale was revoked in 1959 for his efforts in launching a ready-to-wear line alongside his couture collection. Cardin was quickly reinstated, but resigned from the Chambre in 1966.

Cardin's Men's Wear

Cardin's early training as a tailor's apprentice shaped his approach to men's fashion design throughout the 1950s. Cardin reinvented the classic business suit. He removed collars, cuffs, and lapels, resulting in one of the most arresting images of the early 1960s. When Dougie Millings, the master tailor who made stage outfits for many British rock musicians, dressed the Beatles in his version of matching collarless suits, the look became instantly famous.

By 1962, Cardin's men's wear line was housed in a separate building on Place Beauvau. After seeing the traditional high-collared jacket of India and Pakistan, he distilled its form into another popular innovation in men's fashions of the 1960s, the so-called Nehru jacket. Cardin further disrupted men's traditional suiting by introducing neck scarves in place of ties and turtlenecks in place of button-down shirts. He was also capable of designing classic men's clothing, such as the costumes worn by the character John Steed in the British television series The Avengers.

Space Age and Unisex Styles

During the 1960s, advances in fabric production and technology coincided with a widespread interest in space exploration. Cardin's 1964 Space Age or Cosmocorps collection combined his streamlined, minimal dressing for men and women. This body-skimming, uniform-like clothing featured op art-inspired cutouts. Cardin's use of vinyl and metal in conjunction with wool fabric was novel. Cardin's clothing was often asexual rather than unisex. Cardin, unlike other fashion minimalists such as Rudi Gernreich and André Courrèges, did not advocate for women's pants. He frequently paired his minidresses with monochromatic stockings or white patterned tights. Cardin's 1970 response to the miniskirt was the "Long Longuette," also known as the maxidress. Cardin signed an exclusive contract with a German firm to use its stretch fabric in 1971, declaring that "stretch fabrics would revolutionize fashion." In 1974, he demonstrated white cotton T-shirts paired with couture gowns on the runway, and in 1979, he introduced exaggerated shoulders.

Licensing and Global Marketing

Christian Dior, Cardin's mentor, taught him a lot about the business side of fashion. Dior had been very successful in licensing his designs internationally using his name. Cardin took this approach a step further, seeking and finding global acceptance for his designs in places as diverse as the Soviet Union, India, and Japan. Cardin pioneered what is now known as branding long before other fashion designers did. As early as 1971, he was the first designer to sell ready-to-wear clothing in the Soviet Union. Despite the fact that Cardin's menswear lines were ultimately more successful than his womenswear lines in the United States during the 1970s, he still owned over 200 American retail outlets. Cardin was enthusiastically received by the Japanese market. Cardin boasted 192 factories around the world at the height of his expansion in 1969.

By the early 2000s, Cardin's fashion empire had spread across the globe thanks to his trademark licensing. Cardin-branded items included everything from accessories and handbags to home interiors, luxury cars, and luggage, as well as personal items like Fashion Tress wigs, which were introduced in 1973. The well-known brand name was known all over the world. "It is difficult to name something that Pierre Cardin has yet to design or transform with his imprint," Caroline Milbank said (Milbank, p. 338). Cardin renamed the former Théâtre des Ambassadeurs L'Espace Cardin in 1971 to foster new talent in performance art and fashion design. Cardin used his celebrity once more in 1981, when he purchased Maxim's, the famous Paris restaurant, and used its name to build a worldwide chain of restaurants in the mid-1980s.

Brand Identity and Logos

Cardin was a pioneer in designing clothing with his company's logo prominently displayed in the early 1960s. From the 1970s onwards, many other designers followed suit. Cardin's logos, which were often three-dimensional vinyl appliqués or quilted directly into the garment, were often his initials or a circular bull's eye. Cardin's unrestricted licensing, while symbolic of his success, may have prematurely diluted his name brand image.

"The job of fashion is not just to make pretty suits or dresses, it is to change the face of the world by cut and line. It is to make another aspect of men evident."

Pierre Cardin (in Lobenthal, p. 153)

Many fashion writers chastised Cardin for overexposure, particularly given the rapid expansion of his product lines in the 1980s and 1990s. Nonetheless, Cardin's name was known around the world, and the public associated it with quality and high standards. Cardin stood out as one of the twentieth century's most complex designers because he was one of only a few who understood that fashion is, above all, a business. His entrepreneur skills, particularly his creative licensing, made Pierre Cardin one of the wealthiest people in the fashion world.