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Pierre Cardin's Iconic 'Future Fashion' Exhibit to Open at Brooklyn Museum

The pioneering designer is best known for his avant-garde Space Age designs, an affinity for geometric shapes and ready-to-wear, unisex fashion
Pierre Cardin, BK Reader
Photo courtesy Brooklyn Museum

Just in time for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, Brooklyn Museum will unveil its newest exhibit, a retrospective exploration of Pierre Cardin, one of the fashion world's most innovative designers.

The exhibit Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion, set to open Saturday, July 20, traces the iconic designer's seven decade-spanning career, his efforts to pushed the boundaries of the industry and democratize high fashion for the masses.

Cardin is best known for his avant-garde Space Age designs, inspired by the 1960s space race, as well as his affinity for geometric shapes and ready-to-wear, unisex fashion which he presented as one of the first European designers in Japan, China and Vietnam. The French designer was also among the first to license his name to brand his couture on a global scale.

ust in time for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, Brooklyn Museum will unveil its newest exhibit, a retrospective on Pierre Cardin, one of the fashion world's most innovative designers.
Pierre Cardin is best known for his avant-garde Space Age designs, his affinity for geometric shapes and motifs and ready-to-wear, unisex fashion. Photo credit: www.pierrecardin.com

"At the Brooklyn Museum, we're dedicated to telling the stories of trailblazers from across the art world, and that's exactly what Pierre Cardin is," said Anne Pasternak, Shelby White and Leon Levy Director at the Brooklyn Museum. "His forward-thinking approaches to fashion and business have consistently established trends and practices in his field, making him one of the most influential designers of this generation."

With over 170 objects that date from the 1950s to the present, including haute couture and ready-to-wear garments, accessories, photographs and film, the exhibit shows how the designer's bold aesthetic had an influence that extended beyond fashion to furniture, industrial design and other spheres.

Included in the exhibition are iconic creations like the designer's "target dress" from his 1960s Cosmocorps collection; trendsetting menswear pieces such as the collarless suit jacket with slender "cylinder" pants; as well as film costumes worn by Mia Farrow in A Dandy in Aspic and by the iconic French actress Jeanne Moreau in Bay of Angels. Film clips from his famous fashion shows at Espace Pierre Cardin, the Great Wall of China and Moscow's Red Square are also on view.

Custom accessories including hats, jewelry, shoes and sunglasses will be shown alongside archival photographs and excerpts from television, documentaries and feature films. Cardin also designed furniture, lighting and automobile interiors, as the exhibit will showcase through rarely seen "couture" furniture and home decor pieces.

"Throughout his decades-long career, Pierre Cardin has proved to be a master tailor and designer, as well as an intuitive businessman," said Matthew Yokobosky, senior curator of Fashion and Material Culture at the Brooklyn Museum. "He truly is a twentieth-century renaissance man whose work has advanced fashion and design while continuously giving society a new and breathtaking vision of what the future might look like."

Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion will be on view from Saturday, July 20 through Sunday, January 5, 2020. Tickets for this timed exhibition are $20 and available here.




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