Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin had his work cut out for him even before last night’s event at the original Pierre Cardin flagship, now in full renovation mode for a reopening next month.
For all the admiration (and envy) his great-uncle, Pierre Cardin, inspired—from Space Age clothes to pioneering the modern licensing model and leveraging his name from a label to a brand—it’s been a generation since the house unveiled an official PFW collection. And even longer since it had true currency.
Still, in fashion few things are harder to resist than a reboot: Old houses need new blood, and Cardin’s archives run famously deep. A smattering of loyalists including society ladies, the occasional celebrity (singer Mireille Mathieu), some of the once all-powerful French fashion editors who wore Cardin back in the day, and throngs of the culturally curious packed into the store across from the Élysée Palace and filled tents outside in order to get a glimpse of whatever might come next.
The archives yielded plenty of ideas for a collection of 70 looks designed by Basilicati-Cardin (an interior designer by training) and petites-mains who have spent their entire careers in the Pierre Cardin studio. There were Trek-y shifts and crisp column dresses, one in silver pleating anchored by a big red dot, another in black coiled in serpentine silver and strass; seasonal pieces with plenty of shine, like a sparkly green trench layered over a khaki crop top and matching trousers; and an emerald bustier dress whose skirt was a lineup of fluttery, vertical half-moons. An orange faux-fur coat with gold cones at the breast flirted with Surrealism; men’s suits flashed modernist silver buttons. In keeping with the label’s eco-responsible new strategy, materials were sourced from the house’s own deadstock, Basilicati-Cardin said.
Even so, he offered, “my job here now is to keep things on the rails.” Pointing to a post-pandemic surge in interest among a young clientele that is always hungry for something different, Basilicati-Cardin said he’s placing the house’s future in the hands of a new generation via design competitions for fashion students at 35 schools around the world. The prize: a chance to come to Paris and work at Cardin.
The late designer made his reputation on a fascination with “the world of tomorrow.” One of his most-often quoted lines is: “My favorite garment is the one I invent for a life that doesn’t yet exist.” Little might he have known that the house’s survival would depend on precisely that.
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