Pierre Cardin

Designer of the week is Pierre Cardin. Italian fashion designer who is known for his avant-garde style and space age designs. Cardin is son to Maria Montagner and Alessandro Cardin. His parents were wealthy wine merchants that lost their fortune in World War 1. Cardin father wanted him to study architecture. However, at a young age, Cardin has always been interested in dressmaking. By 1945, Cardin moved to Paris to study architecture and work with the fashion house Paquin after World War 2. Worked with Elsa Schiaparelli until he became head of Christian Dior's tailleure atelier by 1947. Surprisingly, he was denied work at Balenciaga. By 1950, the birth of his fashion house came alive which he introduced the bubble dress in 1954. Cardin designed about 30 of the costumes for a masquerade ball in Venice. 

Cardin advanced into unisex fashion which often times became experimental fashion. He was also the first to combine the mini and the maxi skirts of the 1970s by introducing a new hemline. By the 1970s, Cardin set another new trend called mod chic. A combination of extremely short and ankle length pieces. These creations allowed for the geometric shapes that captivated him. He became an icon for starting this popular trend. On top of trying to be fashion forward, Cardin also starting to dabble in furniture boutique on the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honore. By 1995, Cardin started to get some bad press. Cardins name was everywhere. While it's still profitable, the indiscriminate licensing approach was considered a failure. This lead to Cardin eventually trying to sell his company. However, when Wall Street Journal made a comment that his company is only worth about a fifth of the 1 billion he was requesting. 

Cardin decided to not sell his company. Instead of taking this hit, he decided to enter more into the industrial design by developing thirteen basic designs. Cardin started to reach out into different fields to expand his brand which worked in increasing his name sake value. By December 2020, Cardin passed away at the age of 98. What's inspiring about Cardin is the fact that he didn't just stick to one talent. He expanded his skills and even though some may not have been successful, you could tell that he never gave up. He smiles, kept trying and kept moving to his goal of having his name is many retail/department stores. 

Rights go to:

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