Pierre Cardin: Surprise Myself Constantly

Pierre Cardin， the French famous designer， is not only the first European designer to hold a fashion show in China， but also the first one to educate the Chinese on fashion. Three decades ago he had predicted the commercial potentials of this ancient civilization and China， in his opinion， would become a competition arena featuring various international brands.

Some people say that every fashion show by Pierre Cardin is like an international tour that brings people to different sceneries of every corner of the world; other people say that the fashion show by Pierre Cardin is like a great feast where people will enjoy the legendary lives of creativity. In early April， 2012， which was also the 33rd year since Pierre Cardin’s fashion show entered China， he hosted at Water Cube in Beijing a new fashion show called “City of Light”， where he designed by himself all the garments for the show， including 120 female and 60 male dresses. Prior to the press conference， the reporter was lucky to interview Mr. Pierre Cardin， who shared his thoughts in a wide range of aspects including the theme of show， his design history， Chinese fashion show development and the relationship between design and commerce.

Q: what is special about this “City of Light” show at Water Cube?

Pierre Cardin: Well， the theme of this fashion show is to combine life and nature with people’s feelings and create wonderful scenes.

The first series would be “invisible dress”. When all the lights went out， the models will step on the catwalk wearing“dress of light”. The audience would only see the moving of five-color lights， which sketch the flower-shape patterns on the dresses; the second series would feature“Pierre Cardin Classics” daily dresses， which use classic but newly-designed geometrical patterns. The last two series include little black dress and evening gown， to bring out the sculpture modeling of the skirt dresses. I have integrated architectural materials into the fashion design and included the heat-preserving sponge， a normal material in interior decoration， with the elastic fabrics in the design of the bottom of the skirt. As the model walks， a three-dimensional effect will be created， featuring the dynamic shape of sculpture.

Most of the clothes for the fashion show use lycra material， which have rich and shining color and creates eyecatching effects with the lights.

Q: You mentioned the “City of Light” is not just a fashion show. In what way do you mean this?

Pierre Cardin: I am not just a fashion designer. I have a wide range interests in movie and drama， but these items account for different proportions of my life. I am very fond of architecture， and I have planned many projects in the Drama Theater， ancient castle and sphere architectures. The “City of Light”not only serves as background of the show， but a comprehensive building featuring the functions of hotel， apartment， shopping mall， entertainment and villa. The underground construction has 240 meters in deep and the part on the floor has 250 meters in height. The whole building is equipped with the solar energy system， and it is a revolutionary breakthrough in the construction of ecological buildings featuring energy saving and low-carbon environmental protection. This is the first-of-its-kind building in the world that uses solar power as its energy. The 1/5 of all the energy used by“the City of Light” will come from the sun， while the rest 4/5 will derive from the wind power. I intend to bring the city of light projects into Hainan， Qingdao and Xiamen， and I am talking about this with local authorities.

Q : You are 90-yearold this year. How do you sustain your interests into work?

Pier re Cardin: I have a lot of interests， but my job is still focused on fashion design. Some people say that I am old， or even dead， but I am still alive in the fashion circle. I am one of the youngest designers when I entered the fashion field， and many of my contemporaries have passed away. So I become one of the oldest in the circle. I have been working for 70 years， and please don’t worry about my old age， because I have a very young and excellent design team. The “City of Light” project is run by my nephew. My motto is “always create surprises”， and I am aware that I will do something to make my life full of vigor and vitality.

Q: Do you think the Pierre Cardin brand will win the heart of young people?

Pierre Cardin: I visited Beijing 30 years ago to host a fashion show， and that was my first visit here. China then had experienced great transformations， but it was rather difficult for me to bring my brand into the Chinese market. Now P ie r r e Cardin has been undergoing steady growth in China and the rest of the world. The fashion clothing market is highly competitive， but I think I am still capable of those things difficult for others. Many of my design work was so creative that many of the concepts were hard to understand then. I am not the type of person copycatting other people or themselves. I know much better about the past and present of the fashion industry than most designers. They think their wearing represents the fashion and I appear quite old-fashioned in their eyes. I don’t know how social culture becomes this and I feel responsible for awakening the public consciousness.

Q: How do you evaluate Chinese fashion designers?

Pierre Cardin: China is a very large country and I am happy to see so many young designers are growing. I believe you Chinese people are also proud of this， and in the future the Chinese designers will achieve high accomplishments in the world. I am also an longtime admirer of Chinese people’s courage and capability， and also China the great nation. The new generation of designers represents the hope of China’s fashion industry’s future. 32 years ago when I came to China for the first time， the Chinese market was like a grain of sand in my eye， but now it is a huge pie for almost every brand.

Q: How do you achieve balance between design and commercial business?

Pierre Cardin: I have been involved in various industry plans associated with fashion， and accumulated rich working experiences in a wide range of areas. I use more of my capability and power to chase my dream， not the help from others. I need more time to be alone. As master of the Pierre Cardin brand， I work for myself and this is not like other luxury brands， whose creator has sold out the brands to other people. I am different from other designers in the way that I not only do the designing， but also have certain knowledge of many technical fields. For example， I have tried to make buttons before. Every day during the past 70 years I have always been working， and work is the largest happiness of my life. I never feel tired for work and on the contrary， I will feel very exhausted to travel or be involved in so-called entertainments.