Pierre Cardin was born in Sant’Andrea di Barbarana, a village of the municipality of San Biagio di Callalta, in the province of Treviso, Veneto, to a family of wealthy farmers, who ended up in poverty after the First World War, but France was his homeland since they moved there after the war.
Here the 14 years old Pierre Cardin begins his apprenticeship as a tailor, the beginning of a road that led him to the top of haute couture. His commitment does not end in the strictly stylistic field. He becomes a designer and patron, a cultural promoter, and a luxury entrepreneur. Fashion, design, arts, hotels, restaurants, porcelain, perfumes—Pierre Cardin, more than any other designer—has been able to tie his name and style to a legendary brand known and applied in many objects and many fields.
We all know his fashion has always been pure avant-garde, but it is Cardin’s furniture light sculptures, as well as his inventive architectural and interior works, that are deserving of a closer look.
Pierre Cardin Iconic Products:
1. Palais Bulles
Palais Bulles is Pierre Cardin’s first and most famous architecture designed in collaboration with Hungarian architect Antti Lovag. It is located in front of the bay of Cannes in the rocky massif of the Esterel. Its composition is a sum of curved and spherical modules interspersed with terraces and pools, it seems suspended between sea and sky, in front of the Mediterranean Sea. The building’s circular labyrinth was built in the spirit of the Hungarian architect’s “habitology”, which prohibits the use of right angles and straight lines.
The interior spaces flow sinuously into each other and are enhanced by the furniture composed of custom-made furniture designed by Cardin himself and contemporary artists to blend harmoniously with the numerous spaces.
This modern and futuristic labyrinth is illuminated by sunlight filtering through the large rounded openings, which frame beautiful views of the Mediterranean.
2. Palais Lumière
An architectural work designed entirely by Pierre Cardin, a 245-meter-high skyscraper, “habitable sculpture” located, according to the artist’s intention, in Venice, but never realized because of the landscape constraints of the lagoon.
The project consists of three oval-shaped towers and different heights, connected by six disc-shaped structures. The 60 floors would be hosting: offices, apartments, a theater, research centers, and a panoramic restaurant; all served by 72 elevators, 21 of them panoramic.
An important note of the project is that the structure, despite being designed over 20 years ago, is designed to be incredibly ecological, ergonomically sound, and autonomous: six wind turbines under each disc would be powered even by the minimum wind breeze and would create two-thirds of the energy needed to power the building; the rest will come from the solar panels.
3. Eclipse Bar Cabinet _ 2007 | Pierre Cardin
Sculptures such as clothes and dresses as sculptures, this is one of Pierre Cardin’s motets, this piece of furniture, eclipse sculpture, recalls one of his sartorial creations and is a stylized reinterpretation of the famous motif in the 1970s.
It is a very versatile piece, born as bar furniture can be easily converted and customized to meet the needs of the customer.
4. Cobra Table _ 2007
This piece of art by Pierre Cardin has sinuous lines reminiscent of those of a snake, the cobra, hence the name of the object. The cobra, historically an attribute of the god Shiva, represents dormant energy, which is the idea that inspired the design of this piece.
The furniture consists of a handcrafted wooden structure consisting of two symmetrical halves separated by a sheet of plexiglass illuminated with LED lights whose color can be changed as desired. This detail makes the sculpture a piece of decisive effect, especially in environments with poor lighting.
5. Cubes Tea Table | Pierre Cardin
The Table is a sculpture that aims to create a feeling of lightness. To pursue this goal, the Cubes Tea Table presents a game of squares, one of the most characteristic forms of Pierre Cardin’s creative poetry. These simple elements, which make up the furniture, are basic, but with bright colors and follow each other on the aluminum support.
On request, you can equip this tea table with a special feature: an illuminated cube held in stable magnetic suspension.
6. Éclair Lamp _ 1978
This lamp by Pierre Carin is a piece from the early years of Sculptures Utilities. The Eclair line makes them ideal for elegantly illuminating a study or living room.
The Eclair line makes them ideal for elegantly illuminating a study or living room. This is the smallest version of the series of Lacquering wood Eclair lamps designed by the Studio that recall the triangular shape typical of the fashion design creations signed in those years by Pierre Cardin.
7. Equilibre Chest of Drawers | Pierre Cardin
A piece of furniture, part of the Balance series, perfectly balanced as the name itself recalls, a circular chromed tubular structure perfectly supports and frames the modular drawers in lacquered wood of different shades of the same color anchored to it.
Thanks to the “random” arrangement of the drawers in the structure, shelves are also created inside the piece that makes it even more usable.
8. Flottant Tea Table
This sculpture has three elements with triangular transverse sections that move in front of each other within the structure, allowing you to change the shape of the furniture as desired. This movement vaguely resembles Japanese tables and makes dishes easily available to all diners.
Its uniqueness and strong personality make it a decorative sculpture of great thickness. It is produced with a black or white structure with triangular sections of three bright shades of color.
9. Ligne Bed
This object has clean and square lines that are both surprising and bold. The two bedside tables, consisting of two small but comfortable drawers, placed on top of each other are incorporated into the structure of the bed. This composition is extremely simple and linear.
The aluminum structure supports the base of the bed, the back feet help to create a suspended effect. The sculpture is embellished with two close stripes with different widths and colors: one in mirror-polished stainless steel, while the other is an Alcantara fabric insert that is taken from inserts in the fabric of the bedspread.
10. Triangles Writing Table | Pierre Cardin
This sculpture, with a surprising visual impact, consists of two intersecting triangles that support each other as if in an embrace and, in their union, create a working surface on two different levels.
The Triangles desk is part of a series, and with the other piece of the line, they create a complete décor for a simple and elegant studio.
