Paris: Famous French fashion designer Pierre Cardin passed away in an hospital in in Neuilly-sur-Seine near here, French Academy of Fine Arts told media on Tuesday.
He was 98.
Cardin was the French grand couturier and founder of the world-famous fashion brand, born in Italy in 1922 and residing in Paris since 1945. He was better known for introducing geometric shapes to haute couture and put his name on everything from clothing to furniture to perfume to pens.
Son of a wealthy wine merchant, Cardin was born near Venice on July 2, 1922. He and his family moved from Fascist Italy to France when he was 2.
Cardin was only 14 when he started as a tailor’s apprentice, and at 23, moved to Paris, studying architecture and working with the Paquin fashion house and later with Elsa Schiaparelli. In the French capital, he met the film director Jean Cocteau and helped design masks and costumes for the 1946 film “La Belle et La Bete.”
He got his first stint into the fashion industry with Dior in 1946, where he worked as a pattern cutter on the “new feminine look” post World War II. Four years later, he opened his own fashion house, designing costumes for theater.
In 1953, he presented his first women’s collection and the following year, he founded his first ladies boutique, Eve, and unveiled the bubble dress.
