“What I am now never existed before”
~ Pierre Cardin
THERE are so many tributes written about this French-Italian fashion ‘deity’, hundreds upon hundreds in the English language alone, and to pay homage, yet again is a daunting task, but a must.
Italian born Pietre Cardin came into the world on July 2, 1922, to an affluent family of wine connoisseurs/dealers at San Biagio di Callalta, in the administrative district of Treviso, North Italy. The family moved to Saint-Etienne, France when he was two.
Even as a child he was exceptional, and perhaps subconsciously drawing inspiration from the wine itself, which is profoundly interweaved with documented human history in terms of taste, scent, its euphoric aura and scintillating effects, Pierre was hypnotised in a similar sense.
He chose to make clothes. He made women and men explore their inner “wickedness”, to get the tigress out, to toss out inhibitions and strut the streets in creations so outlandish they became wardrobe staples for the in-crowd.
His style is conceptually ingenious, and many are unwearable, but it did not stop his die-hard devotees. His Space Age creations were empiric, with absolutely little consideration for the female silhouette; they wore his clothes anyway.
Pierre had his education in France, became an apprentice at 14, moved to Vichy in 1939 and began to seriously hone his craft – designing suits for women under the tutelage of a tailor.
Pierre was very much involved with the Red Cross during the Second World War, deeply concerned with human-centred causes.
He did stints with Paris houses Schiaparelli and Paquin, then moved to Dior as a tailor in 1946 when Christian Dior established his atelier at Paris’s 30, Avenue Montaigne.
In 1959, Pierre, in an unprecedented move, created a line of pret-a-porter (ready-to-wear) for Printemps in Paris, which caused an outrage, resulting in him being expelled from the French Haute Couture Guild.
He cared little – fashion is meant to be available for everyone, and designing an affordable line put him in the limelight.
Pierre was a visionary, he knew what the fashion world needed, and did so with panache, telling the world, “This is what matters!”.
His designs are peculiar, his infamous A-line short dresses were made from hard crepe, minimally enhanced by a kind of mathematical geometric contouring at the collar and hem. These mini’s zip at the back.
Despite their restrictive shape, these concoctions were bold, screamed timeless – and no matter the type of body shape, the dress ‘moves’ fluidly, arousing its wearer from a lover’s caress.
Pierre’s career was nothing short of astonishing, but what completely took the world by its reins were his ties to Asia, especially China.
Pierre was the first Western fashion star to show his designs in China. In 1979, the ‘no holds barred’ artist achieved the most incredible feat - he created a runway at the Beijing National Culture Palace. Pierre, I think, was clairvoyant: that crystal ball in his mind foretold of things to come.
China, albeit quietly, began to lift its steel curtains, permitting the outside world to gain entry in terms of culture and trade, and Pierre recognised this ‘change’ as a way to add another dimension to his career.
The result? Chinese consumers were immediately under his spell, and Pierre Cardin emerged as the epitome of opulence.
In 1985, as part of diplomatic dialogue, (evidently nothing is ‘free’) he hand-picked a dozen Chinese models to showcase his works during Paris Fashion Week, something never done before. But that is Pierre, always gleeful to shock the world.
After four decades of the Pierre Cardin brand dressing China’s elite, the couturier was gifted with an ‘ex post facto’ show on the Great Wall of China. He paved the way for foreign labels to enter China, and that fact alone made him revered, and for always.
It did not stop there. Pierre held more shows in China’s Kunming Stone Forest, the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang and Beijing’s Ancestral Temple. Pierre Cardin brought Western fashion ideas to China, and inspired Chinese fashion designers until their heads spun.
Pierre Cardin helped induce an increase of the modelling and brokerage commerce in China’s fashion industry, resulting in a burgeoning industrial building block and connection between the East and the West.
Pierre also had an obsession with spacesuits, which influenced much of his style – futuristic, metallic-like, bubble silhouettes, helter-skelter, unconventional. This man obliterated fashion. He is the outcome of postmodern thinking, who threw cosmopolitan meaning and narratives into the trash can.
Cecil Beaton commented, “Pierre is a member of the Martian school: his young models are equipped for any science-fiction activity. Their heads protected by crash helmets, firemen masks, culinary weapons. They are silhouetted like pears, torpedoes, or rocket missiles, in light hairy materials. They are in the advance guard of those exploring outer space.”
Every fashion designer has his/her muse – Pierre’s was Hiroko Matsumoto, the leader of Asian couture models. There have been others since; Tao Okamoto, Ai Tominaga, Miki Ehara, Manami Kinoshita, but none compares to Hiroko.
Pierre’s love affair with Asia ‘consumed’ him. In the early sixties, he was the Professor Emeritus at Beijing’s Bunka College, but eventually crossed paths with Hiroko on one of his many trips to Japan.
Pierre said, “She incarnates purity as I have never seen in anyone.” He gently persuaded her to consider Paris as the next move in her career, which she later did. The press went crazy.
Hiroko, or Miss Hiroko as she is infamously known, was Pierre’s muse throughout much of the 60s, and became a household name, modelling for Hanae Mori, Yves Saint Laurent, Vogue and every designer one can think of.
Hiroko died in 2003, but her intimate relationship with Pierre was her legacy.
What can one say about someone who dressed everyone from Raquel Welch to The Beatles, whose relationship with French actress Jeanne Moreau and lifetime partner, fashion designer Andre Oliver made headlines everywhere, (Andre threatened to commit suicide upon discovering Pierre’s affair with Jeanne) who made fashion accessible for everyone, except:
Dearest Pierre, your aesthetic responses, your wonderfully mad, mad life, vulnerabilities, ‘grooviness’, insanely-elegance and freakish contrasts of dynamics is a reminder that in these times of uncertainties, one thing remains true: “we were in love”….we are still in love.
What else could we do, for the doors were guarded,
What else could we do, for they had imprisoned us,
What else could we do, for the streets were forbidden us,
What else could we do, for the town was asleep?
What else could we do, for she hungered and thirsted,
What else could we do, for we were defenceless,
What else could we do, for night had descended,
What else could we do, for we were in love?
Curfew
~ Paul Eluard ~ – The Vibes, January 23, 2021
