Italo-French stylist Pierre Cardin,
one of the greats of haute couture of the 20th century who was
also famous for bringing fashion to the masses, died on Tuesday
in Paris aged 98.
Cardin was born near Treviso on July 2, 1922 and never forgot
his Italian roots.
His birth name was Pietro Costante Cardin, scion of a farming
family that fell into poverty after WWI.
His parents moved to France in 1924 and he became an apprentice
to a couturier at Saint-Etienne in 1936, at just 14.
In 1945 he went to Paris, working first at chez Jeanne Paquin
and then at Elsa Schiaparelli's atelier.
He was the top dressmaker at Christian Dior's when it opened in
1947 and a major part of the success of the 'New Look' designer.
In 1950 he founded his own maison and moved into high fashion
three years later.
Cardin was celebrated for his futuristic designs, inspired by
Manì's first exploits in space.
He preferred geometrical designs that often ignored feminine
forms.
In 1954 he introduced the bubble dress and became the first
Western designer to open a boutique in Japan, in 1959.
Cardin won fame for his pret a porter collections that
popularised high fashion looks among ordinary people.
After resigning from the Chambre Syndacale de la Haute Couture
et du Pret-à-Porter in in 1966, which had forced him to display
his designs there, he showed his couture in his own exhibition
space, l'Espace Cardin, from 1971 onwards.
A member of the international jet set, in 1981 he bought the
famed Parisian restaurant Maxim's, and later launched mineral
water in its name.
He opened branches in New York, London and in 1983 in Beijing,
where he flanked it with a chain of hotels.
He bought a castle where he staged theatre festivals, and
continued to reap French and international awards for his
designs.
A documentary on his life was shown at the Venice Film Festival
in 2019.
In it, he said he was still working every day and aimed to live
past 100, fashion being "my raison d'etre and reason for
existing".
Cardin said his fame was perhaps due to the fact that "I was
never scared of risk".
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