For Pierre Cardin, fashion never really existed in the past or the present, for which he is always drawn to design for an imaginary, future world. This tomorrow’s world which Cardin dreamt of is inspired greatly by the space or the universe, and this fascination of cosmos led to his geometric exploration of circles in most of his designs. Explained by Cardin himself, “I am fascinated by the circle – to me it represents the moon, the bosom, life – and I am irresistibly attracted to it because it is infinite; I associate it with the cosmos. The infinity of space is more inspiring than anything else.”[1] To show Cardin’s love for circles and cosmos, I have chosen the dress with “Parabolic” shoulders and hat – also named Evening Ensemble – that Cardin constructed in 1991 with black synthetic jersey.
Fig.1 The dress with parabolic hat and shoulders closed up look
Fig. 2 Museum description of the dress
Just like how it is stated in the New York Times Fashion for the Future article, “FASHION IS A TERRIFIC time-travel machine. There is a kind of optimism built into the industry that makes the future a recurring theme,”[2] Cardin is as well using this dress to taking us to a space age future. His vision of future – explained and curated by the Brooklyn Museum – is heavely inspired by the Space Race and fulfilled with space travel experiences.[3] By imagining to design for future customers whom live and travel freely in space, Cardin uses the prominent parabolas to represent a cosmological lifestyle. The parabolic features – of hat and of shoulder – reminds me of galaxies and planet orbitals, which at the same time would also considered to be a silhouette design that was really bold and futuristic for people living in the 90s. The materiality of stretched jersey over a geometric structural form creates a unique weightless and floating effect of the parabolas, which reinforce their visual representation as the mysterious cosmos. The dress impressed me even more after I try to relate Cardin’s vision of future to present context. I realized what Cardin has imagined – a space age future – is not yet realistic but still sounds relative and promising. Although among the many guesses of future some may have come true and some may have not, yet, Cardin offers me an insight into what his dress or fashion in general can mean – a future possibility. The world of fashion is free in terms of imagination, and is always future oriented as designers are striving to predict or shape what their customers will wear in future. So yes, fashion is making future in a way by shaping people’s mind and reminding us what can come ahead. Maybe in 50 years or sooner, we will indeed be wearing Cardin’s signature parabolic design and living on another planet like how Cardin has dreamt about? And then it would be the time to talk about the coming back of fashion – or “vintage” some may call – from past designers like Pierre Cardin.
[1] “Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion,” Brooklyn Museum: Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion (Bloomberg Philanthropies), accessed November 17, 2019, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/ask/pierre_cardin)
[2] Megan O’grady, “Fashions for the Future,” The New York Times (The New York Times, March 21, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/21/t-magazine/fashion-future-history.html)
[3] “Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion,” Brooklyn Museum (Bloomberg Philanthropies)
O’grady, Megan. “Fashions for the Future.” The New York Times. The New York Times, March 21, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/21/t-magazine/fashion-future-history.html.
“Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion.” Brooklyn Museum: Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion. Bloomberg Philanthropies. Accessed November 17, 2019. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/ask/pierre_cardin.
