Pietro Costante Cardin was born on a day in July in 1922 in a small village close by San Biagio di Callalta, Treviso. His parents were farmers, but the First World War made them so poor, that decided to move to France. He became Pierre Cardin and began to create a resume by working at first in small boutiques in the province and then in the fashion houses of Paris, one of these being that of Christian Dior, where he became the main costumier soon after its opening in 1947. A prestigious start for a totally revolutionary personality. His style will become famous for being strongly avant-garde: architectural works that play with fabrics, plastic forms that break with tradition to project collections in an imagined future. Vinyl shorts, plexiglass dresses and miniskirts on the catwalk at the turn of two decades – the ‘60s and ‘70s – characterized by the scandalous search for innovation. Pierre has a crazy passion for art, architecture, theater, culture. For this reason, in the early seventies, he opens what many now call the predecessor of modern concept stores: a Parisian space that includes a theater, a restaurant, and an art gallery.
If this iconic brand – which he wanted displayed everywhere, even in a hotel chain and in restaurants – is now one of the most recognizable, not everyone knows that he was the first to create the prêt-à-porter and bring the general public closer to high-end fashion: a strongly criticized move, but almost necessary in a society that was changing its customs and costumes.
Pierre Cardin is now 97 years old, but he’s still far from retirement: he does not abandon the the art of sewing, and the same goes for his distant and much adored roots that have inspired him throughout his life, while still keeping a strong connection with the most eclectic personalities of this beautiful country. From his palace in Venice he continues to look at the lands of his ancestors thinking about the clothes-sculptures that still have to be molded in order to change the face of the world: his eternal goal as an artist.
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