Legendary French designer Pierre Cardin dies at 98

The designer who was known for his geometric shapes and motifs, breathed his last in a hospital in Neuilly in the west of Paris, said his family sources.

Cardin was born in Italy but migrated to France as a small child and settled in Paris.

He began his career in 1945, after studying architecture and working with the fashion house of Paquin after World War II. He went onto working with Elsa Schiaparelli and eventually became the head of Christian Dior’s tailleure atelier in 1947. After being rejected by Balenciaga, he founded his iconic fashion house in 1950 and hit headlines for a ‘bubble dress’ he designed in 1954.

It was Cardin, who first launched a collection with the designer’s logo on the garments for way back in 1960s.

In mid 1970s, Cardin set a new trend ‘mod chic’. This trend was a combination of forms, which did not exist at the time. He was the first to combine extremely short and ankle-length pieces. He made dresses with slits and batwing sleeves with dimensions and mixed circular movement and gypsy skirts with structured tops.

He was hugely inspired by space travel. In fact, Cardin created a designer spacesuit for NASA in 1970.

Later, he dabbled into many businesses like furniture, automobile and other things