Pierre Cardin Haute Couture Fashion Designer

Pierre Cardin - Haute Couture designer

Pierre Cardin is an enigmatic fashion figure with a creer spanning over 6 decades. Born in 1922 Pierre Cardin arrived in Paris in 1945. He started to work for Paquin and then Schiaparelli made the acquaintance of Jean Cocteau and Christian Berard with whom he designed numerous costumes and masks for several films. In 1946 he began to work for Christian Dior.

Four year later in 1950 Pierre Cardin started his own fashion house on the Rue Richepanse. By 1953 he had exhibited his first fashion collection and in 1954 his "bubble dresses" caught the imagination of the world. A successful year Pierre Cardin opened his first Paris boutiques, Adam and Eve. On his first trip to Japan in 1957 he was made an honorary professor at the stylism school of Bunka Fukusoi . This same school in 1962 created the Pierre Cardin Prize awarded to the best designer of the year.Pierre Cardin created a worldwide fashion movvement by presenting for the first time in 1959 a collection of ready-to-wear for women at the Printemps department store in Paris . He was expelled from the Chambre Syndical because of this but was soon re-instated.

250 students presented his famous cylinder line collection for men in 1960. A year later, he started distributing ready-to-wear and accessories for men, and by 1963 he was doing the same for women. His first fashion collection for children was presented in Paris in 1966 and in that year he also opened his first childrens shop on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris .

In 1977 Pierre Cardin received the first of his three "Dé d'Or" for French Haute Couture, executed by Cartier, in honor of the most creative collection of the season. He also won this award in 1979 and 1982. Known for his experimental groundbreaking approach he was the first foreign couturier to present in China a fashion collection for men and women in 1979.

Pierre Cardin celebrated his 30 years of fashion creation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1980 and inaugurated his new offices on 53 East 57th Street . The following year he opened a showroom in the Gardens of Temple in Peking . This event marked the explosion of his international reputation. The Sogetsu Kaikan Museum in 1982 hosted a general retrospective of the creations of Pierre Cardin spanning the previous 30 years. Awarded the Ascot Brun award in Milan as the most creative man of the year he went on to win a Fashion Oscar at the Paris Opera House. Cardin signed contract with the USSR in 1986 for the local production of ready-to-wear for men, women and children and in 1987, he opened a 10,000 square meter showroom. The Victor and Albert Museum in London in 1989 presented in the 20th Century Gallery a retrospective covering 40 years of women's fashion and 30 years of men's fashion. It went on to be shown in Canada , Mexico and China .

The 1990s again saw Pierre Cardin boast a number of firsts. Moscow 1991 saw Pierre Cardin present a fashion show on the Red Square before a crowd of 200,000. In 1993 Cardin presented his first fashion collections in Vietnam . The 26th Olympic Games in Atlanta saw him present his Evolutive fashion collection designe specially for the event. In 1997 the inauguration of a retrospective exhibit of 50 years of Pierre Cardin's creations at the Espace Cardin was conducted.

The presentation of his eighth ready-to-wear fashion collection for women called Evolution Fall/Winter occurred in 2000. A retrospective exhibition took place in Tokyo the same year to celebrate a career spanning 50 years. On Jannuary 10 th 2003 a retrospective fashion show took place at the Palazzo Corsini ( Firenze ).

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At the time of writing, the practicing Haute Couture houses are as follows:

Balmain, Pierre : Cardin, Pierre : Carven : Chanel : Dior, Christian : Feraud :

Givenchy : Lacroix, Christian : Lapidus, Ted : Laroche, Guy : Rabanne, Paco :

Ricci, Nina : Yves Saint Laurent : Scherrer, Jean Louis : Ungaro, Emanuel