French fashion designer Pierre Cardin was born Pietro Cardin in Treviso, Italy on July 2, 1922. His parents were wealthy landowners who, in 1924, left Italy to escape fascism and settled in France.
He was educated in central France and, at the age of 14, began as a clothier’s apprentice. At 17 he left home to work for a tailor. There he started to make suits for women. During WWII, he worked for the Red Cross, helping with the humanitarian activities that continue to this day.
Cardin moved to Paris in 1945 and worked there until he became the head of Christine Dior’s tailleure atelier in 1947. Cardin founded his own house in 1950. He made his name when he designed 30 costumes for “the party of the century,” a masquerade ball at Palazzo Labia in Venice in 1951. He started his haute couture in 1953.
In 1959, Cardin began travelling to Japan, turning it into a high fashion market.
During the 1960s he began the system of licensing. At the same time, he democratized high fashion, with his ready-to-wear label “Pierre Cardin.” This proved the right decision and he gained great success.
Of Pierre Cardin’s many endeavors, I’d like to mention his passion for NASA and its success in putting the first man on the moon. He loved the space suit so much that he opened his “Espace Cardin” to show his own collections.
The Pierre Cardin brand was initially a prestigious fashion brand. In the 1960s, he expanded successfully into perfumes and cosmetics. It was said that success was the premium nature of the brand and at the time it was estimated that his annual income from licensing alone was $10 million. But he sold his name to anything. You could find it on everything from key chains to cigarette lighters and that dented the name’s cachet.
He bought Maxim’s restaurant in 1981 and opened branches in New York, London and Beijing. I visited his restaurants in Paris and Beijing quite frequently. And then by accident I checked into his hotel, the Residence de Maxim in the center of Paris, and was totally taken in by its decor. This was 1983. ITMA was being held in Paris at the time and I was using the Michelin guidebook to find a hotel and found Residence de Maxim. At first I was given only one night to stay but luckily they extended our stay for the full period we were in Paris.
The room was a suite with totally different decor in every room. The bathroom wall was all hand painted by an artist. It was spectacular and for many years it became my residence whenever I traveled to Paris.
Every now and then I was able to catch a glimpse of Pierre Cardin because he was living in another section of the building, which he held privately. I met him once or twice and was able to have a conversation with him.
He was the designated UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 1991 and was nominated as the Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2009. He is a living legend.
