"Pierre Cardin: The Man Who Became a Label" by Richard Morais

 

First, a couple of disclaimers about what this book is not.

Firstly this isn't a recent book.  Published in 1991, it only covers Cardin's life and career to a certain point.  If you want to find out more about these topics after 1991, you'll have to look elsewhere.

The second thing to note about Pierre Cardin: the man who became a label is that it isn't a conventional fashion biography.  The author was a business journalist, and he barely touches on Cardin's designs.   Instead he is mainly interested in Cardin's business—and, as the title implies, Cardin's "label".  Cardin was an innovator in licensing in the fashion industry.  Traditionally, fashion designers put their name on fashion accessories such as perfumes and stockings, but Cardin moved beyond that to put his label on... well, almost everything!  To give just a few examples, the PC label appeared on furniture, car interiors and and kitchenware.  (Indeed, Morais argues that Cardin's label became so diffuse that he devalued it.)

Interestingly, Pierre Cardin established his own label at a time when the traditional business model of Paris haute couture was struggling—though culturally it was still riding high.  A large part of this book concerns the struggles of the high fashion industry to remain viable in the face of rising costs and the growth of ready-to-wear.

What of the man himself?  Richard Morais obtained a lot of his material from people who knew Cardin or had worked for him in the past.  The impression I got was of a chaotic, difficult individual, a talented designer who was a born publicist, and a tight-fisted micro-manager who nonetheless could be very generous.  Biography or backstairs gossip?  I think only time, and the perspective it brings, will tell.

Pierre Cardin : the man who became a label / Richard Morais
ISBN: 0593018001

• London : Bantam Press, 1991.