“My motto is: create.”

Pierre Cardin
(1922- )

With each and every stride, create is what Cardin has done. As architect. Couturier. Trendsetter. Furniture designer. Hotelier. Diplomat. Men's, women's, and children's clothing designer. Restaurateur. Futurist. Interior designer. Art promoter. Perfumer. Experimentalist. Auto and airplane interior designer. Musical showman.

Visionnaire extraordinaire, and with enough imagination to enchant so many for decades.

Legend beyond his own time? Much more, actually. Just one indication that while Cardin’s creations continue to sprawl across the world – from his singular furniture to his product brands – the man himself remains wondrously enigmatic. Born “near” Venice, Italy (where, exactly, no one seems to know,) to French parents, Cardin moved to Paris in 1945, where he studied architecture and worked with Paquin, Schiaparelli, and became head of Christian Dior’s tailleure atelier in 1947. Only Balenciaga turned him down, but for what reason? Can one surmise that sole rejection might have been the springboard from which Cardin leapt into his own unparalleled career?

“The clothing I prefer are those I invent for a life that doesn’t yet exist – the world of tomorrow!”

A mere three years later, Cardin started his own house at the age of 28, and launched into haute couture in 1953. A year later, he introduced the Bubble Dress, went on to design collarless suits for the Beatles, Nasa Spacesuits, and throughout, legions of other avant-garde originalities. One surmises that the word “arrêt” does not exist in Cardin’s mind, and clearly not in his body of work. Maxi on mini coats, asymmetrical dresses, Cosmocorps, Hoop dresses, 3D dresses.

Watches, rings, bracelets, necklaces. Make-up. Perfumes for men and women: Tristan & Yseult (for eternal youth), Rose, Bleu Marine, Centaures, Choc, Ophelie, Enigme – blending mandarin, rose, musk, blackcurrant, cardamom, sandal, armoise, basil, patchouli, umber, oregano, labdanum.

In 1971, Cardin created his own venue in Paris in which to show his collections: L'Espace Cardin, formerly the Théâtre des Ambassadeurs, near the American Embassy. (Not incidentally, it is also a vehicle to promote new artists, including musicians and theater ensembles.)

Ever open to new venues, Cardin contracted with American Motors to design the interiors of the 1972 and 1973 AMC Javelin, a total of 4,152 cars whose interiors boast Cardin’s daring, mirrored, bright multi-colored stripes.

"Design greatly inspires me whether it be gigantic or microscopic."

It was at this time that Cardin, the inventor of Prêt-à-Porter, turned his attention to the creation of furniture. Naturally, his sculptural approach to fashion found form in a unique line of futuristic designs that melded time-honored lacquer and cabinetmaking techniques with revolutionary modernity.

A glance at his ouevre reveals that until 2005, when Cardin put his $1.32 billion empire up for sale, he had 200,000 people across the globe working under his trademark. At least 900 Cardin enterprises existed in 140 countries.

Among his own creators, Cardin oversaw some 20,000 sketches, samples, mock-ups and patterns a year.

In 1981, Cardin took the Paris restaurant, Maxim’s, under his wing on the Rue Royale. It flourished then and now, and, like many of his creations, expanded across major cities: New York, London, Tokyo, Monte-Carlo, Peking, Geneva, Shanghai, Brussels.

In 1982, Hotel Residence Maxim’s be-came Cardin’s next focus in his empire. Filled with his own works of art and entirely designed by Cardin down to the final piece of furniture, it is a lasting place of panache offered to the world by one of France’s last great fashion and furniture icons.

Even his website has won an award, receiving the Gold Cindy prize in 1999. An honorary UNESCO peace ambassador, Cardin was a member of the Chambre Syndicate de la Haute Couture et du Prêt-à-Porter and of the Maison du Haute Couture from 1953 to 1993.

“Art is my whole life.”

A concept for which one has no choice but to believe, as Cardin’s creations have been bursting – replete with a panoply of style, color, and pizzazz, for 65 years.