Pierre Cardin: "My favorite life is to create the first!"

Pierre Cardin's global headquarters is located in the heart of Paris. This seemingly insignificant gray-green palsy is opposite the main entrance to the French Presidential Palace Elysée Palace. The distance between them is less than 20 meters. The left side of the “Pierre Cardin” corporate headquarters is separated from the “Government Hotel” of the French government.
When the 23-year-old Pierre Cardin, a 23-year-old Italian from Italy, broke into the “Fashion City of the World” in Paris, he once lingered in front of the Elysée Palace; today, this world-famous fashion master has himself The corporate kingdom is located on the side of the Elysee Palace. In the three directions opposite the Presidential Palace, the global headquarters of “Pierre Cardin” and the supermarket opened by “Pierre Cardin” are standing, and Pierre Cardin himself lives. Decades of private homes.

Pierre Cardin’s global headquarters resembles Pierre Cardin’s private museum. The portraits and photographs of Pierre Cardin’s different periods hanging from the corridor and the various trophies he’s received show signs of years and are awe-inspiring. Respect.

In Pierre Cardinâ€TMs spacious office painted in pale green, I heard Peel Cardin heartily laugh. The eighty-year-old man sitting across from the large desk was awkward, but his face was slightly relaxed and his back was covered with brown patches. He put his two hands across the middle of the table and smiled at me. The old silver-haired man corrected his reading glasses with his right hand and said: “I’ve been to China for 15 times and was the first western fashion designer to break into China. Now I have more than 30 projects in China. My favorite in my life, It is the first!"

"Peace Ambassador" 42 flights around the world

Pierre Cardin was very cooperative with my interview with a junior from China. He often does not wait for me to ask a question and the tone falls. Sometimes, my question has just begun. He thinks that he has figured out what he meant and started answering. Most of the 11 questions I prepared were interrupted when the headlines started.

Pierre Cardin also had a special feature when he talked: He did not get up for two minutes. In order to corroborate the incidents and viewpoints, the old man skilfully read a variety of newspapers from the huge filing cabinets occupying the three walls of the office. magazine. For example, when he introduced himself as a "peace ambassador" of UNESCO and used 42 flights around the world to promote peace and diplomacy, he actually opened various drawers like magic and quickly took out one by one his hands and feet. Photographs with leaders of multiple countries. When he discovered that I was shooting with a digital video camera, I quietly adjusted the printed material in my hand to the best angle for shooting.

Suddenly, I noticed that the office was facing the floor-to-ceiling window in the Presidential Palace. The sun was shining through a thin window screen onto a huge globe. A photographic composition came to my mind: The name “Pier Cardin” has become known to the world, and the peace ambassador had once again worked tirelessly around the earth for 42 laps. If he took a photo of him standing by a globe, Not very meaningful?

I said this intention to Pierre Cardin. Before I finished, he got up and hugged his body behind the globe, carefully revealing his head and shoulders. He gently turned the globe with both hands and stared at me with his eyes. Or, I think his hands or head need to be adjusted, they often reach out to play. The old man is like an obedient child and patiently changes his movements.

"Great Wall" Tapestry Makes Pierre Cardin Appeal

Pierre Cardin’s friendship with China stems from a tapestry.

In 1976, the China Light Industry Products Fair was held in Paris. Hand-woven tapestry “Great Wall” made Pierre Cardin feel fascinated. He spent huge sums of money to buy this tapestry. Since then, Pierre Cardin has begun the operation of entering the Chinese market. At that time, China hadn’t really opened its doors yet. Pierre Cardin’s idea of ​​entering the Chinese market was constantly being “splashed” by friends: “China has no fashion, and the Chinese will not give you a penny!”

In November 1981, “Pierre Cardin” brand fashion officially entered the Chinese market. In September 1983, Maxim Restaurant opened by Pierre Cardin opened in Beijing. Since then, Pierre Cardin has successively opened more than 100 "Pierre Cardin" stores in China and directly engaged in more than 300 companies in the production of "Pierre Cardin".

"Everything of the 'Pier Cardin' brand belongs to me"

For most Chinese people, Pierre Cardin is still just an internationally renowned fashion designer. People's understanding of him is almost limited to the suits of the "Pireer Cardin" brand. Pierre Cardin is indeed a brand of suits as a "door-to-door". In this sense, he is known for his "tailor" image in people's minds.

Today's Pierre Cardin, however, was not the tailor who had been wearing scissors all day long ago. His creations ranged from men's wear, women's wear, children's wear and accessories, to automobiles and airplanes. The industries under his name range from boutiques to hotels. Today, the "king" of the fashion empire has more than 600 kinds of products. The number of people who work for him is 170,000, and it is distributed in nearly 100 countries and regions. His brand spans five continents. Every day about 600 companies produce “Pierre Cardin” and “MAXIMS” brands of clothing, fragrances, furniture, food, and utensils. Even toilet paper has “Pierre Cardin”. Hehe is famous.

Pierre Cardin once proudly said: "All of the branding with 'Pier Cardin' belongs to me. I can sleep on Cardin's bed, sit on Cardin's soft chair, dine in the restaurant I designed, use me The brand's lamp lighting ... to go to the theater to visit the exhibition hall, you can not go out of my 'empire'."

Pierre Cardin has won the top prize for the French costume design “Golden Thimble Award” three times. No one has achieved such success so far.

In 1992, Pierre Cardin was accepted as a Fellow by the famous French Academy of Arts and became the only master of fashion design. At the academician award ceremony, he was awarded an academician who symbolized this highest honor. Pierre Cardin once excitedly explained his feelings about this sword: "This sword took 500 hours to artificially cast, and my life and life are on this sword."

The old man was very happy when he talked about his life: “I work more than 18 hours a day and eat very simply. I have 3 homes in France and have 400 birds, 25 dogs and 1 cat.”