Pierre Cardin
The Dior protege dressed The Beatles and Lauren Bacall and redefined fashion s business model as he built an international empire of licensed products.
Pierre Cardin, the Italian-born French designer of an eternal tomorrow who defined the futuristic look of the 1960s and revolutionized the business of high fashion, died today. He was 98.
Cardin died Tuesday at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, just outside Paris, his family told the Agence France-Presse.
During his seven-decade career, Cardin came to be known for his avant-garde creativity in both fashion and business, and his futuristic materials and stark silhouettes with geometric details became synonymous with the Space Age. A Cardin garment is unmistakable with its trademark minimalism and almost complete disregard for the female form; it is the antithesis of the womanly New Look pioneered by Christian Dior, with whom Cardin worked before founding his eponymous couture fashion house in 1950.