April 30, 2024

spazialis

We Do Shopping Right

Goodbye, Pierre Cardin, The World’s First Fashion Diplomat

In a chaotic year marked by too many untimely tragic deaths, the quiet passing of Pierre Cardin at the age of 98 has the air of a strong-willed closure, the last grand gesture from a couturier that defied odds at every turn of his phenomenal career. To have been creatively active into late years, to have taken business risks that changed history, to have secured an unrivaled artistic legacy…

That is a life well spent. In the coming days tributes from around the world will enumerate the designer’s many achievements: the futurism of his vision, the groundbreaking licensing deals, the extraordinary real estate collection. He famously bought a castle that belonged to Marquis de Sade and the iconic Palais Bulles, one the most expensive properties outside of royal holdings. As a chronicler of emerging markets, I want to pay a special tribute to Pierre Cardin as the world’s first Fashion Diplomat, a visionary who recognized both the transformative power of style and intercultural value of fashion beyond commerce. He was truly a man of the world.

Pierre Cardin and China

In 1979, he became the first Western designer to hold a major fashion show in China when he transformed the Beijing National Culture Palace into a runway. As the reforming communist nation was beginning to open its borders to foreign cultural influences and trade, he saw an opportunity to build bridges. His unique styles resonated with the people’s imagination and the brand became the epitome of luxury for generations of Chinese consumers.

To commit to the diplomatic principles of cultural exchange, in 1985 the designer invited twelve Chinese models to walk in his show in Paris, a resounding “first” for Paris Fashion Week. In 2018, after forty years in the market, the Chinese government allowed the couturier exclusive rights to stage a historic retrospective on the Great Wall of China, the country’s most famous landmark. These are stunning images. Every global brand operating in China today owes Cardin a thank you.

Pierre Cardin and Russia

In 1963, during his first visit behind the Iron Curtain, the designer fell in love with Russian culture and Russian space program. Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to orbit Earth, sparked his lifelong fascination with the cosmos and its exploration. In the 1970’s, Cardin became the first Western brand to commission textiles from Soviet manufacturers. Raisa Gorbacheva, the last First Lady of the USSR, wore his outfits to state functions and visits abroad. This sartorial alliance, akin to that of Jackie Kennedy and Oleg Cassini, became formative for the post-Soviet sense of style.

MORE FROM FORBESFirst Ladies On Display At The National Portrait Gallery

In 1991, Cardin became the first fashion designer ever to stage a show in the iconic Red Square, more accustomed to military parades. An estimated 200,000 people attended the event making it one of the largest live audiences for a fashion show in history. It was seen as a hopeful sign of a new world beyond the Cold War hostilities.

In 2011, Vladimir Putin’s government granted Cardin permission for another milestone show: a space-themed extravaganza at the Kremlin! It commemorated 50 years of the first space flight. Cardin has engaged in cultural diplomacy in Russia throughout its modern history. No fashion brand comes close in such impact. 

These two examples would be enough to secure one’s fashion diplomacy legacy in history books. However, there was more. He launched the Enigme perfume from the Great Pyramids in Giza. He designed a uniform for Pakistan International Airlines, ushering in a new era in aviation style. Due to his stalwart commitment to being different, so much of fashion industry’s global practices now is “precedented.”

Like no other before him, Cardin manifested the power of fashion to communicate democratic ideas and foster ideals of self-expression in a world before Internet. Goodbye, Pierre Cardin, the world’s first Fashion Diplomat. Rest in (world) peace.