Pierre Cardin, the French designer whose famous name embossed myriad consumer products after his Space Age styles shot him into the fashion stratosphere in the 1960s, has died aged 98.
Cardin was born on 7 July 1922 in a small town near Venice, Italy, to a modest, working-class family. When he was a child, the family moved to Saint-Étienne in central France, where Cardin was schooled and became an apprentice to a tailor at age 14.
Cardin would later embrace his status as a self-made man, saying in the same 1970 interview that going it alone “makes you see life in a much more real way and forces you to take decision and to be courageous”.
“It’s much more difficult to enter a dark woods alone than when you already know the way through,” he added.
After moving to Paris, he worked as an assistant in the House of Paquin starting in 1945 and also helped design costumes for the likes of Jean Cocteau. He also was involved in creating the costumes for the director’s 1946 film Beauty and the Beast.
After working briefly with Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior, Cardin opened his own house
Cardin’s name was carried by thousands of products, from wristwatches to bed sheets, and in the brand’s heyday in the 1970s and 80s, goods bearing his fancy cursive signature were sold at 100,000 outlets worldwide.
That number dwindled dramatically in later years, as his products were increasingly regarded as cheaply made and his clothing, which, decades later, remained virtually unchanged from its 60s-era styles felt almost laughably dated.
A savvy businessman, Cardin used the fabulous wealth that was the fruit of his empire to snap up top-notch properties in Paris, including the Belle Epoque restaurant Maxim’s, which he also frequented.
