Ensembles from Pierre Cardin’s “Cosmocorps” collections of 1966 and 1967. CreditJonathan Dorado/Brooklyn Museum
Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion traces the legendary career of one of the fashion world’s most innovative designers, one whose futuristic designs and trailblazing efforts to democratize high fashion for the masses pushed the boundaries of the industry for more than seven decades. The retrospective exhibition features over 170 objects that date from the 1950s to the present, including haute couture and ready-to-wear garments, accessories, photographs, film, and other materials drawn primarily from the Pierre Cardin archive. Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion, curated by Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture, Brooklyn Museum, will reveal how the designer’s bold, futuristic aesthetic had a pervasive influence not only on fashion, but on other forms of design that extended beyond clothing to furniture, industrial design, and more.
Pierre Cardin (French, b. 1922) is best known for his avant-garde Space Age designs and pioneering advances in ready-to-wear and unisex fashion. Cardin’s fascination with new technologies and the international fervor of the 1960s Space Race visibly influenced his couture apparel, which subsequently became emblematic of the era. His clothing designs, which featured geometric silhouettes and were often made from unconventional materials, were worn by international models and film stars from Brigitte Bardot and Lauren Bacall to Alain Delon, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Raquel Welch. Fueled by an appetite for experimentation and “breaking the mold,” he was one of the first European designers to show in Japan, China, and Vietnam and license his name, using it to brand an expansive line of products on a global scale.
“At the Brooklyn Museum, we’re dedicated to telling the stories of trailblazers from across the art world, and that’s exactly what Pierre Cardin is,” says Anne Pasternak, Shelby White and Leon Levy Director, Brooklyn Museum. “The storied French couturier has built a name for himself through his futuristic designs. His forward-thinking approaches to fashion and business have consistently established trends and practices in his field, making him one of the most influential designers of this generation.”
“Throughout his decades-long career, Pierre Cardin has proved to be a master tailor and designer, as well as an intuitive businessman,” says Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture, Brooklyn Museum. “He truly is a twentieth-century renaissance man whose work has advanced fashion and design while continuously giving society a new and breathtaking vision of what the future might look like.”
The exhibition is organized chronologically, surveying pivotal moments throughout Cardin’s career. Included are recognizable pieces like the designer’s “target dress,” from his 1960s “Cosmocorps” collection; his investigations into unisex garment design and trendsetting menswear, such as the collarless suit jacket with slender “cylinder” pants; and clothing made for film and theater, such as the costumes worn by Mia Farrow in A Dandy in Aspic (1968) and by the iconic French actress Jeanne Moreau in Bay of Angels (La baie des anges) (1963). Film clips from his famous fashion shows at Espace Pierre Cardin (1970 onward), the Great Wall of China (1979), and Moscow’s Red Square (1991) are also featured.
While Cardin was one of the few couturiers who was able to draw, cut, sew, fit, and finish his own clothing, his designs went far beyond garments; he also designed furniture, lighting, and automobile interiors. Rarely seen “couture” furniture and home decor, as well as custom accessories including hats, jewelry, shoes, and sunglasses will be shown alongside archival photographs and excerpts from television, documentaries, and feature films. To put Cardin’s work in a larger historical context, scenes from early films that attempted to anticipate what the future would look like will also be on view. These include such films as A Trip to the Moon (1903), by French magician Georges Méliès, and Things to Come (1936), by visionary filmmaker William Cameron Menzies. The costume, set, and lighting designs for these films compliment Cardin’s futuristic fashions, providing a fuller picture of the fascination with outer space that dominated popular culture during the period.
