PIERRE CARDIN ❘ ICONS OF FRANCE


through. Nonetheless, at the tender age of 30, he was already dressing the Begum (Yvonne Labrousse, the Aga Khan’s wife), Lady Raine Spencer, Eva Perón and the Duchess of Westminster, to name just a few: all beacons of youth and icons around the world! Such a tremendous opportunity would not be lost on Pierre.


Throughout his life, style was his guiding principle. All creation is a leap into the future, and Pierre was hot on the heels of success. To his mind, two artist-designers were at the summit of the fashion world: Dior and Cristóbal Balenciaga. Perhaps for fear of not measuring up, he looked for his own route, searched for novelty and recognition, a double springboard. In 1954, he launched the ‘bubble dress’. It all started with his


observations of the versatility of muslin. Until then, this material had been the calling card of Madame Grès, who reigned over couture in Paris from 1935 to 1984. Pierre wanted to try his own hand at it. To do so, he created a balloon of muslin, “inflated” it by inserting a light fabric into it, and realised poetic dresses with an ethereal quality. Dresses so beautiful and so precious that it seemed they should only be worn once and then put away forever. Dresses as elusive as a mirage. In Vichy, Pierre had befriended Albert Lamorisse, a student at the time, and now a talented and original filmmaker. He was working on his masterpiece Le ballon rouge (The


Red Balloon, 1956), which gave Pierre the idea of making muslin “balloons.” Following the bubble dresses came balloon dresses in pastel shades of blue, yellow, green, and purple: swelling forms echoed by a very light lining. Pierre would often call them “dream dresses”. For Pierre, fashion was an art form – something that could capture the very soul of a civilisation. He thought of himself, meanwhile, as an independent man, a kind of adventurer. In these years, he built himself up, equipped himself, and brought together men and women who would support him, such as the Baroness of Avilliers, former director of Lucien Lelong. Journalists liked him; he knew how to talk to them and win them over. He rose to the level of a ‘fashion founder’, like Charles F. Worth, who had become, through talent and hard work, the official couturier of the Second Empire. On a more personal


note, in 1952, Cardin’s life was enriched by a new life-and-work partner, André Oliver. Originally from Toulouse, Oliver had come to Paris at the age of 20 to present his sketches to the young designer, who hired him on the spot. He quickly became his right-hand man and companion. He was an incredible master of fashion and elegance: Pierre’s best ambassador! His dinner parties in his apartment on Rue du Cherche-Midi were among the most popular in Paris. For more than 40 years, the two men were inseparable, mutually enriching each other as they advanced to the top. Pierre would often say of Oliver: “I have met my creative match!” FT


 Taken from Pierre Cardin: Making Fashion Modern by Jean-Pascal Hesse & Pierre Pelegry (Flammarion, 2022)


Feb/Mar 2023 FRANCE TODAY ❘ 101


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