Pierre Cardin’s Space-Age Fashion Takes Us Back to the Future

Our museums, movies and magazines have been on a yearslong binge of ’60s nostalgia, pegged to a rolling sequence of 50th anniversaries: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Neil Armstrong, Woodstock and the Manson murders. It seems Americans can’t get enough of the era, and the optimism that percolated amid great social upheaval. But well beyond our borders, before the 1973 oil crisis tanked the global economy, other countries were partying and protesting just as hard, and a youth culture of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll spanned the globe. This country had no monopoly on grooviness.

“Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion,” now on view at the Brooklyn Museum, offers a swinging reintroduction to Parisian style in the 1960s and 1970s, when the New Look gave way to thigh-high boots and dresses of heat-molded synthetics. The Concorde was flying, Françoise Hardy and Joe Dassin were singing and women (and men) cruised the Left Bank in Mr. Cardin’s stretchy knits and swooping miniskirts.

With 85 ensembles, the earliest dating from 1953 and the most recent from this decade, “Future Fashion” is not, strictly speaking, another ’60s show. But its core are the space-age outfits that Mr. Cardin designed in a young, newly prosperous Paris, seen here on mannequins as well as in photographs and films of Jeanne Moreau, Mia Farrow and the cast of “Star Trek.” Some are chic, many are risible; all of it has an exuberant view of the future that marks it as decidedly from the past.

Mr. Cardin, one of the most commercially successful of all French designers (and still working at 97), was never a great artist in the manner of Christian Dior, Cristóbal Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent. Born Pietro Cardin in 1922, he fled with his family from fascist Italy to Vichy, which would become the seat of France’s nominal government in 1940. After the liberation of France, he moved to Paris and apprenticed with the couturier Jeanne Paquin. Later he worked in the studios of Elsa Schiaparelli and Dior, went into costuming and presented his first couture collection in 1953. He won acclaim for his “bubble dresses” (disappointingly absent from this show), cinched at the waist and hem. Here are a beige coatdress of beige bouclé wool, plus a fitted day suit worn by Jackie Kennedy; both have thick roll collars that would become a Cardin signature.

Source: The New York Times

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Pierre Cardin • Space Age • Back to the Future • Nostalgia • Martin Luther King Jr. • Neil Armstrong • Woodstock • Charles Manson • Can't Get Enough (Barry White album) • 1973 oil crisis • Globalization • Nation • Youth culture • Wine, women and song • Monopoly • Pierre Cardin • Fashion • Brooklyn Museum • Fashion • 1960s in Western fashion • 1970s in Western fashion • Christian Dior SE • Thigh-high boots • Dress • Concorde (Paris Métro) • Françoise Hardy • Joe Dassin • Miniskirt • Fashion • Space Age • Pierre Cardin • Paris • Jeanne Moreau • Mia Farrow • Star Trek • Chic (band) • Pierre Cardin • French language • Christian Dior • Cristóbal Balenciaga • Yves Saint Laurent (brand) • Kingdom of Italy • Vichy France • Free France • Paris • Jeanne Paquin • Elsa Schiaparelli • Christian Dior SE • Costume • Haute couture • Dress • Hem • Coatdress • Wool • Suit (clothing) • Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis • Collar (clothing) • Pierre Cardin •