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Pierre Cardin, French Fashion Designer, Dies At 98 : NPR

Holly B. Martin

French designer Pierre Cardin has died at age 98. Here, the member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts is seen in 2016, at the end of a fashion show marking 70 years of his creations at the Institut de France in Paris.

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French designer Pierre Cardin has died at age 98. Here, the member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts is seen in 2016, at the end of a fashion show marking 70 years of his creations at the Institut de France in Paris.

Chesnot/Getty Images

French designer Pierre Cardin, who extended his brand far beyond the fashion world, has died at age 98. The son of Italian immigrants worked with luminaries such as filmmaker Jean Cocteau and designer Christian Dior before launching his own fashion house, drawing on his love for futuristic design.

Cardin’s family announced his death to Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.

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Famed French designer Pierre Cardin dies at 98

Holly B. Martin

Pierre Cardin, the French fashion designer famed for 1960s-era avant-garde and Space Age looks, who pioneered fashion ready-to-wear and the fashion licensing system that made him rich but diminished his brand’s reputation, has died. He was 98.

His death was announced by French Academy of Fine Arts on Tuesday. The academy did not give a cause of death or say where or when he died.

Born Pietro Cardin in 1922 to French parents in their vacation home in San Biagio di Callalta near Venice, Cardin’s family left Italy two years later to escape fascism and moved back to Sainte-Etienne in central France, where Pierre grew up.

From an early age, he was interested in dressmaking, starting work at age 14 as an apprentice even though his father wanted him to become an architect. He moved to Paris in 1945, where he studied architecture and worked with the fashion

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Obituary: Pierre Cardin

Holly B. Martin

Fashion designer Pierre Cardin was a supreme innovator – for 70 years, he ripped up convention and captured the zeitgeist. His thirst for the new and surprising was never satisfied.

He will be remembered for his futuristic designs – some were inspired by the space age, some were even impossible to wear.

He carved his own way through the fashion industry. Parisian haute couture had always been exclusive – its high priests believed it should be high-end, individually tailored and eye-wateringly expensive.

Cardin broke the mould. He launched “ready-to-wear” collections, bringing high fashion to the middle classes. His designer peers were aghast, and threw him out of their club.

In the 1950s, men wore traditional suits which made the young look like their fathers. Cardin threw out the boxy jackets and stiff white shirts, creating a revolutionary look for a new, progressive generation.

Gone were the bulky details; collars, lapels,

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