“The perpetual secretary, Laurent Petitgirard, and members of the Academy of Fine Arts are deeply saddened to announce the death of their colleague Pierre Cardin. He was elected on February 12, 1992 to the chair of Pierre Dux,” the Academy of Fine Arts Arts said.
Pierre Cardin photographed in one of his stores in Paris in April 2016. Credit: Joel Saget / AFP / Getty Images
His creations adorned many stars of the time, including Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand, Jeanne Moreau, Jackie Kennedy, Charlotte Rampling, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Cardin was one of the first designers to capitalize on the commercial side of fashion, becoming a household name thanks to a powerful brand.
He also broke the tradition through his futuristic designs – and by producing unisex and ready-to-wear collections at a time when both were actually new.
Cardin was born in 1922 in San Biagio di Callalta, a small town in northeastern Italy about 20 miles from Venice. He was born as Pietro, but became known as Pierre after his family moved to France to escape fascism two years later.
Pierre Cardin creating a dress for Danielle Lebrun in 1962. Credit: Lipnitzki / Roger Viollet / Getty Images
As a young man, his first steps in fashion coincided with a move to Paris, where he worked on the costumes for Jean Cocteau’s film version of “Beauty and the Beast”. In 1946, he was hired as a tailor by his subsequent mentor, Christian Dior, who had just opened his haute couture house in Paris.
Four years later, at the age of 28, Cardin founded his own namesake fashion brand, first designing theater costumes, then moving on to haute couture in 1953.
Fashion innovations
His revolutionary creation was the bubble dress – so named for the bubble shape of the area between the waist and the hem – that he designed in 1954. He proved to be a commercial success worldwide, setting the stage for a series of innovations of fashion.
Hoping to make designer clothes more accessible, he launched his first ready-to-wear collection at the Printemps department store in Paris in 1959, a move so outrageous that it led to the expulsion of the Chambre Syndicale, the governing body of the high French sewing (he would be reinstated shortly after, before leaving on his own in 1966).
Denise Cox modeling a woolen dress and cape with Pierre Cardin design. Credit: John Minihan / Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Pierre Cardin is in his studio surrounded by models. Credit: Pierre Vauthey / Sygma / Getty Images
Presenting one of the first business ideas, Cardin was one of the first foreign designers to open stores in Japan, China and Russia. He pioneered the modern brand, lending his name to a variety of products – including perfumes, watches, cigarettes and even frying pans – raising eyebrows in the world of traditional fashion and earning a lot of money that he invested in real estate.
Among the designer property purchases were a castle of Provence, formerly owned by the Marquis de Sade, and the famous Maxim’s restaurant in Paris, which he transformed into a global chain with offices in New York, Beijing and elsewhere.
In the 1960s, Cardin combined his interest in space exploration – he was photographed wearing Buzz Aldrin’s space suit two years after landing on the moon – with a fascination for technical fabrics, creating innovative space-age unisex collections.
Pierre Cardin presents his collection in Moscow in 1986. Credit: Daniel Simon / Gamma-Rapho / Getty Images
One of her prominent outfits, a pink dress composed of 3D molded shapes and made from a fabric of her own creation, Cardine, was worn by actress Lauren Bacall in 1968.
Both countries of Cardin’s origin offered him recognition: in 1987, Italy appointed him Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, while in 1991, France appointed him Officer of the Legion of Honor. In the same year, UNESCO made the designer an ambassador of goodwill.