CARDIN, PIERRE

born July 7, 1922, Venice, Italy French designer of elegantly cut clothes for women and also a pioneer in the design of high fashion for men. Cardin's father, a wealthy French wine merchant, wished him to study architecture, but from childhood he was interested in dressmaking. At 17 he went to Vichy, Fr., to become a tailor at a men's shop. After World War II he joined the Parisian fashion house of Paquin, where he designed the costumes for Jean Cocteau's film Beauty and the Beast. At the designing establishment of Christian Dior (194750) he became one of the designers of the New Look (1947) and created his famous Bar suit with long, black skirt and fitted jacket in natural shantung. In 1950 he opened a shop to design creations for the popular Parisian costume balls, but he continued to create a limited number of fashions for men and women. He gradually gained a solid reputation as a men's suit maker and branched into whimsical accessories for men. In 1959 he created the first ready-to-wear collection for women ever presented by a top designer and in 1960 introduced the first designer ready-to-wear collection for men. He showed himself a master of the bias cut, soft semifitted lines, and lavish colour. In the late 1960s his stark, short tunics, and his use of vinyl, helmets, and goggles launched the Space Age look. His ready-to-wear line of men's clothing has especially influenced other designers of male attire, such as the American Bill Blass.