— Pierre Cardin wants a higher profile in the U.S.
On Nov. 20 in Dallas, the Paris house will launch the sale of about 600 styles from its extensive archive at Martini Consignment and also stage the fifth annual Pierre Cardin Young Designer Award competition at the Hall of State in Fair Park.
The brand also plans to open a New York showroom next year to stage events and showcase a new high-end ready-to-wear label called “Selection.”
Artistic director Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, who is Pierre Cardin’s great nephew, said Selection will debut this fall, probably in Paris or Venice, offering simplified cuts and fabrications of the couture collection with only six pieces produced in each size.
In addition, the company has inked a worldwide fragrance license with Desire Fragrances, a subsidiary of Fragrantica, with new scents potentially landing late this year. The new deal marks the end of previous fragrance licensees, said U.S. and Canada licensing agent Matthew Gonder.
The archive sale and New York showroom are intended to raise awareness of Pierre Cardin’s original designs.
“We will definitely build a showroom and with the events that we plan to host, I think that will open up the market a lot next year,” Gonder said.
Discussing the archive sale, Basilicati-Cardin said the late legendary designer Cardin always kept past collections and overstock tucked away, and the house maintains a climate-controlled warehouse in Paris packed with some 21,000 styles dating from the 1960s through 2010.
“My uncle wouldn’t show the world what he did before — he always spoke about the future,” Basilicati-Cardin said. “I have a duty to inform people about what was Pierre Cardin. What better way to show his work?”
Every item in the archive was photographed and catalogued over the past three years, he noted, and each piece to be offered for sale is being cleaned and restored.
The house contracted Ken Weber, co-owner of Martini Consignment, as the exclusive distributor of archival styles. Each will bear a sewn-in “Heritage” label to authenticate that it is an original Cardin design and not the product of a licensee.
Weber edited the initial offering of mindresses and maxidresses, sportswear, hats and accessories last month over a frenetic three-day period in Paris. They represent all seasons, including coats and hats, and a range of sizes, he said.
“I was pulling things that probably never even hit the U.S. market — things with big rings and spirals,” Weber said. “Most are haute couture and ‘demi-couture’ — limited run pieces that were sold out of the boutique in Paris and fell between haute couture and ready to wear. You got it off the rack and it would be fitted to you, but with fewer fittings than couture.”
He expects Heritage collection items to span in price from $300 to $5,000. If the sale goes well, he’ll return to pull additional inventory.
Basilicati-Cardin said they chose Weber to offer the Heritage collection after getting to know him when the house of Cardin was honored in 2022 by the Dallas chapter of Fashion Group International, where Weber served as director and board chair.
Coinciding with the archival sale launch, Cardin will host the finals of its fifth annual Pierre Cardin Young Designer Award competition following a series of international semifinals.
“Rodrigo asks the students to inspire themselves by Pierre Cardin and to give a vision of what it should be in the future,” Gonder explained. “He really wants to pull his uncle’s business into the new millennium and to do it with young, talented people.”
This year, there will be three first-prize winners who each earn a three-month paid internship in Paris to collaborate on the house’s fashion, handbags, accessories, shoes and furniture, Basilicati-Cardin said.
So far, two of the past winners have been hired to work full time at the company.
Basilicati-Cardin is general manager of Pierre Cardin Evolution, the holding company. His claim to the house following the designer’s death in 2020 is being contested by other family members in French courts.
