Farewell Pierre Cardin
Pierre Cardin was born on July 2nd, 1922 at San Biagio di Callalta, a commune in north-eastern Italy to wealthy landowner parents. The family moved to France in 1924 in hopes of escaping fascism where, as a young naturalised French boy, Cardin began apprenticing with a clothier at age 14 and left home by age 17 to work for a Vichy tailor making suits for women. By 1945, he had moved to Paris and was studying architecture as per his father’s wishes for his career. At the same time, he worked with the Paquin fashion house following World War II and his work with the Red Cross.
In the next few years, he worked with prominents like Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior until 1950 when he opened his own fashion house, naming it after himself – “Pierre Cardin”. It was a series of 30 costumes designed for Don Carlos de Beistegui’s “party of the 20th century” masquerade ball on September 3rd, 1951 at the Palazzo Labia that really launched the Italo-French designer’s career. By 1953, Cardin inaugurated the haute couture output and a year later, he introduced the famed short-skirted “bubble dress”.
At the turn of the decade, Cardin introduced ready-to-wear collections – something that got him expelled from the Chambre Syndicale (French fashion federation) and reinstated soon after as well. In the next 10 years, Cardin introduced the system of licensing clothing by displaying the brand’s logo on the fabric as well as innumerable trends, fashion styles and form combinations, becoming the reigning name behind the fashion revolution of the 1960s and 70s.
Pierre Cardin was awarded with 4 major awards. Italy awarded him the Commander (1976) and then the Grand Officer (September 1987) of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. France awarded him with two Knighthoods in 1983; one for the Order of Arts and Letters (February) and the other for the Legion of Honour (April). He was awarded the Commander of the National Order of Merit in May 1985. Cardin also achieved becoming the Officer (April 1991) and the Commander (January 1997) of the Legion of Honour. Besides his home and birth countries, Japan, Belarus, Monaco, and Russia also awarded him with Orders and Commanderies from 1991 until 2014.
Over time, Pierre Cardin became known for his sexual orientation as a gay man – he did date Jeanne Moreau for about 5 years but André Oliver was his longtime business and life partner until his passing in 1993.
The fashion icon passed away at the age of 98 of undisclosed causes on Tuesday, December 20th, 2020 at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. His family’s statement read: “It is a day of great sadness for all our family. Pierre Cardin is no more… We are all proud of his tenacious ambition and the daring he has shown throughout his life.”
Credit: AP Photo/Ronald Zak
