He was fascinated with the idea of space travel, often incorporating goggles and helmets into his looks, and he was the first civilian to try on Buzz Aldrin’s original space suit before designing his own version for NASA in 1970.Ĭardin carried this sense of adventurousness into the business realm as well his rejection of fashion’s traditional strategies ushered in a new era of accessibility in luxury design. In describing his philosophy, Cardin often said, “My favorite garment is the one I invent for a life that does not yet exist, the world of tomorrow.” His designs, worn by the likes of The Beatles and Lauren Bacall, established a mod-chic aesthetic long before 2001: A Space Odyssey hit theaters in 1968. © 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc.FIRST Film Festival: Chinese Women Take Spotlight in First Frame Competition “The whole idea of unisex dressing and showing men’s and women’s clothing together is one of the biggest trends today.” “It was incredibly influential,” Yokobosky told The Post. “I can buy my flowers, make my soup, eat my food, sleep in my bed - I can live in my own personality,” he boasted from his suite in the Pierre Hotel on East 61st Street.Īlas, his brand’s look remained largely unchanged through the years, causing dwindling sales.īut the man behind the label’s impact on fashion was indelible. I don’t need it.”Īt the time, Cardin was quite unapologetic about his unusual business strategy - and admittedly very, very rich. “I don’t want to be told when to show my fashion - to be told I have to have a show between the 20th and 30th of certain months,” he told The Post in 2002. Pierre Cardin wearing an Apollo 11 space suit, 1969.Ĭardin quit showing at Paris Fashion Week in 1996 after he grew bored by the rigid schedule. But the exhibit, which included 170 objects spanning seven decades, proved just how far-out Cardin was. “Like much of the culture, Cardin was obsessed with the space race in the 1960s,” Matthew Yokobosky, curator of 2019’s “Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion” retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, told The Post. Those otherworldly threads - launched in 1964 with his Cosmos collection - included ribbed body stockings and vinyl minidresses worn with silver thigh-high boots, as well as astronaut-inspired helmets, metallic pendants and Plexiglass vests.Īnd, yes, he really did intend them for interplanetary living. His sartorial inventions also included the “Carwash” dress - a micro mini with dangling loops that resemble the flaps at a car wash - and his own heat-molded, synthetic fabric, called Cardine.īrooklyn Museum’s ‘Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion’ is out of this worldĬardin, however, made clothes to wear on the moon. He first specialized in “sharp shapes” and graphic patterns starting in the 1950s - and was known for spandex gowns with plastic hoops, bubble dresses and bucket hats that covered the entirety of a model’s head. It’s easy to think of something, but it’s sometimes very difficult to really do it.” “Fashion is always ridiculous, seen from before or after - but in the moment, it’s marvelous,” Cardin said in a 1970 interview with French television.īy 2002, the veteran designer told The Post: “Fifty years ago, I thought of things that I wanted to have, and now I have done them. The most avant-garde of the 1960s fashion futurists - who included André Courrèges, Paco Rabanne and Rudi Gernreich - Cardin was also the first couturier to design ready-to-wear, the first to use plastics in his clothes and the first to license his name out for every product under the sun, from cars to furniture to silverware. He first worked as an assistant in the House of Paquin, and also collaborated with Jean Cocteau, Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior. It did not specify when the designer died or his cause of death.īorn outside of Venice, Italy in 1922, Cardin moved to France as a child and became a tailor’s apprentice at age 14. The French Academy of Fine Arts in Paris announced Cardin’s death in a tweet on Tuesday. Legendary French fashion designer Pierre Cardin, famed for launching the mod “Space Age” style of the 1960s, has died at age 98.Ī pioneer in the type of brand licensing that’s so in vogue today, Cardin’s name was embossed on thousands of products throughout the 1970s and ’80s, including watches and bedsheets, and sold at more than 100,000 stores across the world. Paul Reubens and Pee-wee made dumb kids TV brilliant Paul Reubens remembered by former co-star Natasha Lyonne Angus Cloud remembered by ‘Euphoria’ cast: ‘Way too young to leave us’
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