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Video: Why Pierre Cardin was called "the red couturier", and What connected the great French fashion designer with Russia
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
On December 29, 2020, the greatest couturier Pierre Cardin, whose creative ideas at one time made a real revolution in the fashion world, passed away. It was he who became the founder of the "ready-to-wear" concept and the founder of the "unisex" style. The French fashion designer of Italian origin was loved all over the world, but many years ago he was called the “red couturier” for his special relationship with the USSR and Russia.
The youngest and the oldest
Pierre Cardin was incredibly fond of life and knew how to see only good around him. He himself said that at the beginning of his career he was the youngest couturier in Paris, and at the end he became the oldest couturier. And he never tired of enjoying every moment of life.
He designed costumes for the film by Jean Cocteau, worked for Christian Dior and opened his own Fashion House at the age of 28. His models were extraordinary and bright, they attracted attention with their originality and boldness. And the fashion designer did not even hide: he is interested in the clothes of "tomorrow".
However, it was Pierre Cardin who made haute couture accessible. He was the first to sell dresses and suits in an ordinary department store, strictly making sure that the price of his clothes was not overpriced.
Pierre Cardin and the ballerina
The fashion designer and Maya Plisetskaya were linked by a long-term friendship, which began thanks to the participation of Ekaterina Furtseva, the Minister of Culture of the USSR. It was she who introduced the ballerina and the fashion designer during the festival in Avignon, Maya Plisetskaya danced "Carmen Suite". When Cardin first saw the performance of Plisetskaya, at first he could not believe that this was a Russian ballerina. On stage, she struck with a truly Spanish passion and temperament. In life, Maya Plisetskaya, to the surprise of the couturier, was a rather modest person, completely devoid of conceit and not suffering from star fever.
For the second time, the couturier and the Soviet ballerina met at the hotel, before Plisetskaya's performance at the Grand Opera. After the performance, she was to appear at the reception, and it was he who caused difficulties. The prima of the Bolshoi Theater had no idea what it was customary to wear at such events. Pierre Cardin volunteered to help the confused prima and chose an outfit for her himself. That evening Maya Plisetskaya had no equal.
This is how the friendship between the fashion designer and the ballerina began, which lasted until the last days of Maya Plisetskaya. Pierre Cardin created dresses especially for her and was happy when she accepted them as a gift. Usually, cooperation between two people develops into friendship, but in this case it turned out exactly the opposite.
Once Maya Plisetskaya complained to a couturier about the impossibility of dancing in a costume corresponding to the era of the novel "Anna Karenina", the premiere of the ballet for which she was preparing at the Bolshoi Theater. And she joked: I would have taken Cardin, and created decent costumes. She could not even imagine that a world-famous fashion designer would agree to create stage costumes for the Bolshoi Theater.
And he suddenly caught fire with the idea to create something incredible. And a week after the conversation, he invited the ballerina to the first fitting. Then he created costumes for "The Seagull" and "The Lady with the Dog", however, the name of the French couturier was not indicated on a single poster, it appeared there much later.
With love for Russia
The fashion designer was connected with Russia not only by friendship with the great ballerina. As Pierre Cardin himself said, his acquaintance with Yuri Gagarin was a real discovery for him. The fashion designer was delighted with the stories of the first cosmonaut about the endless space and conquered "as a person and as an artist." Communication with Yuri Gagarin inspired Pierre Cardin to create the Space collection, which made a splash and went down in history.
The designer's first visit to the USSR took place in 1963. On the eve of the trip, Pierre Cardin met with the Soviet ambassador and categorically declared his unwillingness to have anything to do with communist ideas. Then he could not even imagine that the Soviet Union would conquer him at first sight and forever.
Well, where else would a fashion designer who left the hotel room at night be picked up and put back into the apartment by a simple floor attendant ?! However, she can be understood: she wore Pierre Cardin in her arms not at all from an excess of feelings, but simply because the fashion designer appeared in front of her without any hint of clothes. He was used to sleeping naked and did not think to put on a bathrobe before leaving the room. True, he never found out what this Russian woman was thinking as she slammed the door.
Pierre Cardin gladly gave interviews to Soviet newspapers, and once the first lady of France complained to him: the visit of her husband to the USSR arouses much less interest than the arrival of a fashion designer.
Later, the fashion designer visited the Soviet Union several times, including as a UNESCO ambassador in 1991 in the villages located in the Chernobyl zone. And Pierre Cardin's show in the very heart of the Soviet Union - on Red Square in the same 1991 became a real event. Even Maya Plisetskaya could not believe that it really happened, and graceful models in dresses from the most stylish fashion designer in the world are strolling along the central square.
Pierre Cardin made his last visit to our country in 2013 to receive the Order of Friendship. Then, in an interview, he confessed his love for Russia and expressed his admiration for the bravery of the Russian people.
He always considered himself an apolitical person, but for his love for our country they began to call him “the red couturier”. However, he can rightfully be called a citizen of the world. After the death of Maya Plisetskaya, Pierre Cardin said more than once that he really missed a Russian girlfriend. Now the whole world will miss Pierre Cardin, a genius from the fashion world, a great master and a great friend of Russia.
Pierre Cardin dressed the world's first beauties and the most popular performers. It is difficult even to imagine how famous personalities he dressed. They fell in love with him, they worshiped him. But there were only a few women who left the brightest mark on his soul.
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