Pierre Cardin: Not Only a Legendary Designer

Pietro Cardin was born on the 2nd of July in San di Callalta in 1922 (Venice, Italy). He arrived in France at the age of 2 and grew up in Saint-Etienne. Then Pierre Cardin Arrived in Paris (1945) and started working for Paquin and then Schiaparelli. In the same year, he met Jean Cocteau and Christian Berard, with whom he designed masks and costumes for their film “La Belle et la Béte” (The Beauty and the Beast). One year later, Christian Dior, who had just opened his own Fashion House at 30 Avenue Montaigne in Paris, hired him as a tailor. After all, Pierre Cardin founded his own company (1950), at ten rue Richepanse. He started designing masks and costumes for the theatre.

In 1954, Pierre Cardin’s “bubble dresses” were a worldwide triumph, and he opened his first Parisian boutique, “Eve.”

One year apart, first women and then men presented his first ready-to-wear collection (1959-60), the men’s group “Clindre” is presented by 250 French students. In 1966, he gathered all the triplets in Paris to show his first children’s collection.

Four years later, he took over the “Théatre des Ambassadeurs,” Avenue Gabriel in Paris, and turned it into the “Espace Pierre Cardin.” This new theater was a temple for theater, dance, music, painting, and gastronomy. On March 31st, 2016, “Espace Pierre Cardin” closed its doors after more than 45 years of culture.

He visited NASA and became the first civilian in the world to put on the spacesuit worn by Buzz Aldrin.

On December 23rd in 1974, he became the first couturier to be on the Time magazine’s cover. He was 52.

In 1979, in the United States, Pierre Cardin’s designs were taken to the sky when he signed a contract with Atlantic Aviation for the interior and exterior design of the Westwind 1124.

In 1991, he held his fashion show in the Red Square, Moscow, in front of 200.000 people, a first in Russian history.

Within the same year, he is promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honour and made Honorary Ambassador of UNESCO. He designs a medal and jewelry pieces for the UNESCO-Tchernobyl program’s profit, and in 1995, he creates six flags for the year of tolerance.

One year later, he accepts a seat in the Academy of Fine Arts at the French Institute.

3rd retrospective for his fifty years of creation, presented at:

• Parals (Espace Pierre Cardin)
• Shanghai
• Beijing
• Los Angeles
• Tokyo
• Florence
• Athens
• Istanbul

In 2006 he opened his museum, “Past-Present-Futur,” at Saint Ouen (France). He was named Goodwill Ambassador for the food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2009. (FAO)

In 2018, to celebrate the 40 years of presence of Pierre Cardin in China, a spectacular fashion show was organized on September 20, 2018, on the Great Wall of China.

On February 20^th,2020, Pierre Cardin was honored at a dedication ceremony adding him to the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.

He passed away on December 29, 2020, in the American Hospital of Paris, Neuilly-sur-Seine France, and the cause of death has not been announced.