Pierre Cardin

Pierre Cardin, the audacity to revolutionize fashion

Challenging the status quo is an act that requires great courage, but also the ability to look beyond the now and anticipate the after. That is what Pierre Cardin did, who was the first to dare to give life to «dresses so that both the Duchess of Windsor and the gatekeepers can dress well», creating a collection for the Printemps department store.

The year 1959 was running and that choice cost him the expulsion from the French Chambre Syndacale that soon, however, returned to his steps and reinstated him.

Without a doubt that was one of the events capable of laying the foundations for the birth of the phenomenon that we know as ready-to-wear or ready-to-wear that, in turn, was prodromal to bring to completion the process of a ready-to-wear fashion, accessible to all without sacrificing ethics and quality.

A path through which today millions of people around the world can afford the luxury of wearing fashionable garments, without having the financial resources of the Duchess of Windsor.

A real conquest, which we consider the most important legacy of this great Italian capable of revolutionizing French and world fashion: born in ’22 in Sant’Andrea di Barbarana (TV), two years later Pietro Costante Cardin moved to France with his parents.

In 1950 he founded his own fashion house, becoming famous for his futuristic style that was based on the first feats of man in space, privileging geometric shapes and preferring unisex style.

Cardin was also a forerunner in the exploration of new markets and business models, in fact in 1959 he was the first designer to open a high fashion store in Japan and in ’81 bought the famous Parisian restaurants Maxim’s: audacity that, we hope, can be the pole star of Made in Italy for a 2021 during which the brands of Centergross can consolidate their role as protagonists.