The designer died at the age of 98 Pierre Cardin, in the American hospital in Neuilly near Paris. Of Italian origins (he was born in San Biagio di Callalta, in Veneto) but naturalized French from a young age, he marked the fashion of the twentieth century with his innovative style: he was in fact one of the pioneers of pret-à-porter. Emigrated to France with his family (he had 9 brothers) to escape the Mussolini regime, his talent emerged after the war: after being an apprentice tailor, in 1947 Christian Dior put him in charge of his tailoring (Balenciaga instead rejected him ) and his career takes off. In 50 he set up on his own, founding the maison that bears his name, in 51 he made himself known to the general public thanks to the creation of numerous spectacular costumes for the masquerade ball organized in Venice by Carlos de Beistegui, and presented his first couture collection in 1953.
However, high fashion is up to a certain point his world: constantly projected forward, he senses that the future of fashion is on the street, on "ordinary" people, and he soon begins to work with this goal, becoming one of the pioneers of pret-à-porter. He is the first ever couturier to enter the Japanese market in 59 (and in 1979 he was the first to parade on the Great Wall of China) and then to create a low-price collection for the French department store Printemps: the Chambre Syndacale de la Couture did not appreciate it and chased him away, only to readmit him shortly afterwards.
Obsessed with technology and by imagining how people will dress in the following decades, he pushes his creations ever further, preferring artificial fabrics and emphasized geometries: it's from 67 Cosmos, along fourreau surrounded by "satellite rings", and in the following years PVC dresses, goggles, cocoon pullovers, shorts and patent leather boots arrived. Her most famous creation is perhaps the Bubble Dress, created in homage to his famous house on the French coast, the Bubble House, built in collaboration with the architect Antti Lovag and composed of a series of "bubbles" furnished in pure 60s futurist style.
His last official appearance dates back to September 22, 2020, at the Chatelet Theater in Paris where, in the midst of Paris fashion week, surrounded by friends and admirers, celebrates the 70th anniversary of his maison.
