Happi Staff12.29.20
His name graced everything from haute couture to cars to fragrances and, most experts agree, too much more. Pierre Cardin died today at 98. The French fashion designer shot to fame in the 1960s for his avant-garde and Space Age looks. He began designing clothes as a teenager and founded his own house in 1950. After starting his haute couture business in 1953, his "bubble dresses" introduced in 1954 were an enormous success.
Pierre Cardin fragrance
In 1974, he was the first couturier to appear on Time magazine's cover. By the 1980s, he was winning awards such as the Gold Thimble of French Haute-Couture, and is made a Knight of the Legion of Honour. In 1992, he earned a seat in the Academy of Fine Arts at the French Institute. He launched a menswear line, and perfumes for both men and women.
But Cardin may be best remembered for his business strategy of licensing his name to a dizzying array of products, starting first with fashion, perfume and cosmetics. Those items were in keeping with an haute-couture brand but starting in the 1980s, the signature of Pierre Cardin appeared on up to 1,000 other items, most of them much cheaper, such as boxer shorts and baseball caps, cigarettes, pencil holders and pens and key chains.
The concept diluted the brand's cachet, but made Cardin extremely wealthy. In a 1986 Women's Wear Daily article, he was dubbed, “probably Europe’s wealthiest designer,” with an estimated total sales of more than $1 billion (in 1986) and some 160,000 employees around the world. But by 1995, he was known derisively as "the licensing king," a designer who would sign his name to toilet paper for the right price.
In 1992, the late Pierre Berge, then chairman of Yves Saint Laurent, told Women's Wear Daily that Cardin was the "worst example" of indiscriminate licensing.
“You can’t continue just sticking your name on a product and expecting people to buy it," Berge said. "The strategy of ‘I’ll give you my name if you’ll give me your money’ is simply not legitimate.”
In 2011, Cardin attempted to sell his business and failed. He valued it at over $1 billion when it may have been worth only one-fifth of that, according to The Wall Street Journal. In an interview, Cardin said then he wanted to sell because he wanted the business to continue and he anticipated not being around in a "a few years."
He also defended his zeal for licensing: “I don’t want to end up like Balenciaga and die without a nickel – then, 20 years after I’m dead, see others make a fortune from my name.”
Pierre Cardin fragrance
But Cardin may be best remembered for his business strategy of licensing his name to a dizzying array of products, starting first with fashion, perfume and cosmetics. Those items were in keeping with an haute-couture brand but starting in the 1980s, the signature of Pierre Cardin appeared on up to 1,000 other items, most of them much cheaper, such as boxer shorts and baseball caps, cigarettes, pencil holders and pens and key chains.
The concept diluted the brand's cachet, but made Cardin extremely wealthy. In a 1986 Women's Wear Daily article, he was dubbed, “probably Europe’s wealthiest designer,” with an estimated total sales of more than $1 billion (in 1986) and some 160,000 employees around the world. But by 1995, he was known derisively as "the licensing king," a designer who would sign his name to toilet paper for the right price.
In 1992, the late Pierre Berge, then chairman of Yves Saint Laurent, told Women's Wear Daily that Cardin was the "worst example" of indiscriminate licensing.
“You can’t continue just sticking your name on a product and expecting people to buy it," Berge said. "The strategy of ‘I’ll give you my name if you’ll give me your money’ is simply not legitimate.”
In 2011, Cardin attempted to sell his business and failed. He valued it at over $1 billion when it may have been worth only one-fifth of that, according to The Wall Street Journal. In an interview, Cardin said then he wanted to sell because he wanted the business to continue and he anticipated not being around in a "a few years."
He also defended his zeal for licensing: “I don’t want to end up like Balenciaga and die without a nickel – then, 20 years after I’m dead, see others make a fortune from my name.”
