Pierre Cardin's Emblematic Fashion of the 1960's

One may be fascinated with the fashion of the 1960’s, and the designers that have

revolutionised the way of dress. It can be argued that the designer to best represent this

decade is Pierre Cardin. Pierre Cardin had a rebellious attitude that always looked to the

future, and beyond. This essay will explore the designer’s inspirations and what he

reflected through his fashions on a social, cultural and technological basis.

During the 60’s, Pierre Cardin’s fashion reflected the rebellious youth culture. Perhaps

this is not necessarily a social influence, but rather the social context in which he

worked and what he embraced with many of his fashions of this decade. The 1960’s saw

the rejection from young people of the previous 1950’s glamour and suburbia, and

instead focused on a more space age, futuristic aesthetic with industrial applications in

comparison. A lavish use of bold colours was also featured regularly in the designer’s

collections.

His celebration of the youth culture became apparent on the release of his ‘Cylinder’

collection in 1960, which was modelled by 250 college students (a part of the new

young people demographic). By having the collection essentially be about young

people, he was directly including them in the Pierre Cardin brand, thus becoming a

supporter of this subculture.

Cardin did not want to force any specific aesthetics on anyone, but rather released

unisex garments in his collections that contributed to the rest of his ‘space-age work’ as

described in Chang’s study (2022). It should be noted that this attitude towards fashion

was highly inventive for the period. An example is the designer’s ‘Cosmocorps’

collection from 1964.Cardin was outputting garments that did not promote conforming

to a specific look, but rather allowed the freedom to play, with gender not being a factor.

In addition to this, Pierre Cardin dressed models with androgynous body types such as

Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton.

Pierre Cardin also collaborated with influential people of the 60’s that were either part

of or popular amongst the youth culture, for example model Sin May Zao, The Beatles,

and The Rolling Stones.

Sin-May Zao wearing Pierre Cardin (1968)

Cardin (2010) said ‘Back in the day, I dressed The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. I have

always designed very provocative clothes for young people’.

The Beatles wearing Pierre Cardin (1963)

By doing this, Cardin was able to remain extremely relevant, despite not concentrating

on trying to be popular amongst the youth culture. He instead became if not a part of

the subculture, a supporter who shared similar values when it came to fashion.

Pierre Cardin’s unisex garments supported the youth culture’s rejection of previous

fashions. This decade was the time in which young people became recognised as their

own demographic. They became a new and evolving target market, which Pierre Cardin

provided countless fashions for. In this sense, one may say that the designer allowed

youths to flourish with fashion, as well as setting a style that was recognised globally in

all of the major fashion capitals.

One of Pierre Cardin’s great cultural influences throughout his career (but

predominantly in the 1960’s) was the space race and the space age. What screams

futurism more than space, especially during these years when space was an obsession

of many.

Pierre Cardin was undoubtedly the pioneer of this futuristic, space look. Cardin (2010)

said that his approach to designing was not based off a woman’s body, but rather ‘a

shape, a volume, an idea, a silhouette’. The avant-garde looks of this period were

completely new and inventive. Cardin (2020) said that he utilised his inspiration from

space ‘moon, satellites' to develop garments that were almost more architectural. This

developed the idea of models being placed into a garment, as if it were a small

sculptural piece opposed to a regular piece of clothing.

An example of Cardin’s architectural approach during the 1960’s is the ‘car wash dress’

– one may say this is one of Cardin’s designs from this decade that best reflects his

design process, as well as the spirit of the decade itself. This style of dress was released

in 1969 (excluding a similar style released in 1962) and features fringed fabric that falls

into a baby doll trapeze silhouette – a common shape of garment during this decade.

These features show Cardin’s unique perspective of designing in the inventive way in

which this garment was constructed. As well as this, the aesthetic of this garment

embraced youthfulness, which as previously mentioned, was something Pierre Cardin

reflected on consistently throughout the decade.

Car Wash Dress by Pierre Cardin (1969)

This fresh perspective of thinking manifested into several new silhouettes for garments.

Whilst this was the case for womenswear as well as menswear, it can be said that Pierre

Cardin had more of a significant impact on womenswear. The lines may have been

slightly blurred, however, with Pierre Cardin’s exploration of unisex garments. It can be

said that Cardin helped transform women’s fashion perhaps more than men’s fashion,

as the silhouettes he was designing were (stereotypically) more on the masculine side,

despite being unisex. Evidently, Cardin had the ability to take what was going on around

him and use that as inspiration to design garments that transformed people’s way of

thinking regarding their dress.

Whilst social revolutions were prominent during the 1960s, it can be said that Pierre

Cardin extended the spirit of rebellion into his work with fabrics and his exploration of

daring materials for this period. Pierre Cardin not only brought a new perspective to

designing garments, but also the materials they are made of. Simultaneously with his

space age designs, Cardin began experimenting with different materials that were

rarely, if ever, used for garments prior.

The 1960s saw radical improvements to manufacturing systems for garments and the

production of synthetic textiles, specifically the mass scale on which both of these

things could happen. In a way, one may say these developments became technological

influences for Pierre Cardin’s fashion during the 1960s. An example of Pierre Cardin’s

use of radical synthetic materials is his two-tone jersey dress with a vinyl wader,

released in 1969, as well as several looks that use PVC materials.

Two Tone Jersey Dress with Vinyl Wader (1969)

Before the 1960s, vinyl and PVC were not necessarily widely used fabrics, but definitely

not in any high fashion or haute couture collections. The designer pushed the

boundaries of his material and surface applications and celebrated such explorations

through the many creations of this decade that featured such fabrics, in combination

with his unique architectural approach. One can say that despite the regulations

previously assigned to couturiers, Cardin was in keeping with his futuristic visions of the

1960s, as well as the rebellious spirit.

As mentioned above, major developments in manufacturing systems meant that mass

production for any apparel became more accessible. Pierre Cardin was one of the first

fashion designers to release a women’s ready to wear collection in 1959, in preparation

for the more accessible fashions to become popular throughout the 1960s. His first

men’s ready to wear collection was released shortly after in 1960. It should be noted

that this links to Cardin’s rebellious attitude, as Le Chambre Syndicate asked for his

resignation after these releases (which was later reassigned to his brand after

continuous success).

Whilst these collections were not necessarily cheap enough to compete with high street

fashion, they were cheaper to purchase than any haute couture pieces released under

his brand’s name. They became cheaper to sell and more accessible due to the lower

manufacturing cost. (These lower costs were potentially a combination of mass

production as well as the cheaper, synthetic materials, as discussed above). Pierre

Cardin took the opportunity to trial this technological shift in the way fashion could now

be produced and saw great success from producing garments on a larger scale for a

cheaper production cost. Other designers began to release ready to wear collections

shortly after.

One may say Pierre Cardin was an important influence during this period for this reason

alone. He didn’t just focus on haute couture high fashion, nor did he solely focus on

more available ready to wear collections – he did both. He understood this then

rebellious way of thinking would actually help his brand remain relevant, as well as

inspire other designers to release cheaper collections on a less exclusive basis. Pierre

Cardin’s new era of readily available fashion paved the way for the decade (not to

mention those that followed).

The mod fashion of the 1960’s was emulated by several designers, including that of

Mary Quant and Andre Courreges. Yet Pierre Cardin was able to make mod his own,

whether that was to reference his futuristic, space inspirations or to reflect the mood of

the youth culture at this moment in time. His compositional designs had the ability to

revolutionize fashion for both women and men globally. Whilst Pierre Cardin’s attitude

towards fashion during the 1960’s was the epitome of rebellion. He understood the

technological, social and cultural changes of this decade, and reflected upon them

through the designs he released.

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2024).

Chang, Y. (2022) 'Space exploration inspiration for fashion styling and design in six

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Photographer unknown. (Year of publication unknown) Pierre Cardin black wool crepe

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