9 November/10 November 2019 ★ FTWeekend 15
expelled from the Fédération de la
Haute Couture et de la Mode. In the
1960s he pioneered a system of licences
that went on to lend his name to every-
thing from key chains to pencil holders,
and around this time he began display-
inghislogoongarments.
“I did not wantonly rich people
to be entitled to fashionable clothes,”
says Cardin. “Instead of being copied, I
preferred to copy myself.” On the now
ubiquitous initials: “People said what
vulgarity... And yet afterwards every-
onehascopied.”
The palace is abuzz with Cardin’s
entourage who, like him, are in Venice
for the premiere of theHouse of Cardin, a
documentary about his life directed
by two self-described “Cardinophiles”.
It will be screened at the Venice Film
Festivalthedayafterwemeet.
The biopic seeks to untangle Pierre
Cardin the brand from Pierre Cardin
the man, and in doing so explores
some riveting dynamics, like the love
triangle between Cardin, his protégé
Andre Oliver and the actressJeanne
Moreau,whodiedtwoyearsagoaged89.
Cardin had not yet seen the film. “I do
not like to see myself on screen, it’s
embarrassing,”hesays.
There is a certain serendipity to the
fact that we are meeting in Venice.
While Cardin lives in Paris and is one
of France’s best-known designers, he
was born Pietro Cardin 20km from Ven-
ice near Treviso. When Cardin was two,
his parents fled to France with him and
his nine siblings to escape Mussolini’s
fascistItaly.
It was Venice where Cardin landed his
lucky break. He had just founded his
own company after working as a tailor
with Christian Dior on the French
designer’s pioneering New Look collec-
tion. Before that he had cut his teeth
withcouturiersPaquinandSchiaparelli.
On September 3 951 Carlos de 1
Beistegui, the enigmatic heir to an agri-
cultural fortune,held a spectacular
masked costume ballat the Palazzo
Labia,oneofthegreatVenetianbaroque
palaces. “I dressed almost all the ball,”
Cardin recalls. “Carmel Snow [editor-in
chief of theUS edition of Harper’s
Bazaar]; the ambassador of England, a
lot of important people. Christian Dior
could not do the costumes because he
hadalotofwork,sohetoldme,‘Canyou
takethem,Pierre?’Andhegavemeallof
his clients. It was an extraordinary
launch. Suddenly I had all of the cus-
tomersofDiorwhocametome.”
Cardin dressed about 30 of thedolce
ace, respecting the original style
because of Venice’s strict planning regu-
lations. He came up against these a few
years ago when he harboured ambitions
to build the Palais Lumiere in Venice, a
futuristic skyscraper 250m high. The
project was axed in 2013 after public
andgovernmentopposition.
Two glasses of water are brought over
on a tray. Both the glasses and the tray
are branded with the logo of Maxim’s,
the art nouveau restaurant in Paris that
Cardin bought in 1981. He has since
takenthebrandtoChina.
Cardin likes to call himself the first
socialist in fashion — by democratising
access to it — yet his business approach
is unashamedly capitalist. His strategy
was driven by licensing and at its peak
there were 800 licences in his name
(therearenowabout350).
He is proud that his business has
never borrowed money from the bank,but he has been trying unsuccessfully to
sell it for the past decade or so. Bankers
say that the €1bn price tag is a stretch,
and caution that the main issue is that
noone—includingCardinhimself—has
propervisibilityonhowmuchthebrand
brings in each year. Cardin says that it
washewhofixedthepriceandaddsthat
hewillselltothehighestbidder.
He issotto voce n today’s fashiono
industry: “There is no more personal-
ity.” And he cannot resist a subtle dig at
his old rival, Yves Saint Laurent, who
took most of the credit for the rise of
ready-to-wearfashioninthe1960s.
“A woman dressed by Saint Laurent,
how is she? She is elegant, but I am
speaking about creation. Creation can
disturb,provoke.Thatistruecreation.”
When he is in Paris, the indefatigable
Cardin still goes to work every day at his
workshops on Rue du Faubourg Saint-
Honoré nd so I ask him about his cur-a
rent projects. “Living,” he says. He has
in mind his 100th birthday. Reflecting
on his life, he says: “I had everything I
wanted, in love, in work, in creation, in
travel, in knowledge, in relationships. I
knew Fidel Castro, Gandhi, all the great
ones of the world, wealth, work, happi-
ness, love, everything, recognition too. I
donotregretanything.”‘This palace was different
from all the others. There
is a myth that it is whereCasanova stayed’
(Top left) 17th-century
marble statue in the
garden; (top right) grand
piano in the main salon;
(above) Murano glass
sculpture
Photographs by Alessandro Furchino Capria for
the FTHouse Home
Favourite thing
Cardin ventures out of his
armchair to show me his
treasured André Charles Boulle
furniture. I take one arm and his
nephew Rodrigo the other, and
we walk slowly through to the
hall. “This 17th-century furniture
by André-Charles Boulle was
brought from Paris. It is of
extraordinary beauty,” saysvita rowd, his costumes immortalisedc
in portraits by Cecil Beaton. “It really
was the ball of the century,” adds Car-
din.“AndnowI’mbarelywalking.”
Palazzo Bragadin has also known
parties. When Cardin first encountered
it, he experienced acoup de foudre. “This
palacewasdifferentfromalltheothers,”
he says. “There is a myth that it is
where Casanova stayed; it’s rather fun.I
visited it and when I saw the gardens,
the size of the house and the rooms, and
atthesametimeinaveryyoungdistrict,
I bought it in a day. And that was 40
yearsago.”
To say that Cardin has a penchant for
Giacomo Casanova — the 16th-century
Italian adventurer, whose “subversive
spirit” he admires — is an understate-
ment. He created an annual literary
prize for European writers called the
Casanova Award and produced a musi-
cal comedy about Casanova’s life, which
premiered in Piazza San Marco in Ven-
iceandtouredglobally.
From where he is sitting, Cardin ges-
turesatadiscreetdoorthatopensouton
to a hidden staircase leading downto a
canal. “When Casanova was tired of
balls,heleftbythedoorthere,”hesays.
Cardin employed an architect,
Pier Giorgio Rizzo, to renovate the pal-Cardin, admiring the two dressers
with marquetry of tortoiseshell,
brass and pewter into ebony.
“This furniture is very rare and
nobody wanted it 50 years ago. It
was a bit of a gamble at the time
but I bought a lot because it’s
creation.”He adds happily: “It was
worth nothing, and now it’s worth
around €300,000.”NOVEMBER 9 2019 Section:Weekend Time: 11/20196/ - 17:29 User:elizabeth.robinson Page Name:RES15, Part,Page,Edition:RES, 15, 1