PARIS (Reuters) - French designer Pierre Cardin, who upended fashion styles in the 1960s and 70s with futuristic looks, has died at the age of 98, France’s Fine Arts Academy said in a statement on Twitter.
Cardin was also known for overhauling the fashion industry by successfully licensing his brand name and making savvy business moves.
Cardin, who was born in Italy in 1922 but emigrated to France as a child, started his journey in the fashion industry at the age of 14, as a tailor’s apprentice. Nine years later, he moved to Paris to study architecture and gained experience with the Paquin fashion house and later with Elsa Schiaparelli. While in the French capital, he met film director Jean Cocteau and helped design masks and costumes for the film La Belle et La Bete, released in 1946, reports CNBC.
The same year, he moved to Christian Dior, working as a pattern cutter on the feminine “New Look” fashion of post-World War II. In 1950, he opened his own fashion house, designing costumes for theatre. The next seven decades saw him go from the world of bespoke high fashion for private clients to ready-to-wear designs for the masses.
He died in a hospital in Neuilly in the west of Paris, his family said on Tuesday.
