Pierre Cardin Revamps Historical Paris Flagship
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PARIS — The first home and flagship of Pierre Cardin has been revamped in Space Age style, adding a few futuristic touches.
Gone are the original windows — though it has kept its curved corner shape — which are now filled with large LED screens that can project fashion shows, or show models walking in far-flung locales in front of world landmarks.
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Inside, the landmark shop has received a polish. Floors have been refinished, while the displays have grown to outsized racks in black V shapes with silver inlays inspired by Cardin’s pyramid-shaped designs.
“I made it a bit more discreet,” said president Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, noting the display-style windows don’t allow for direct visibility into the store.
The brand, which opened a temporary boutique just a few blocks away during the renovations, has decided to keep both locations open. While they carry the same collections, Basilicati-Cardin said the spot on the other side of the country’s presidential residence Élysée Palace has attracted a different client mix.
Basilicati-Cardin said he hopes the revamp of the original will help appeal to younger clients. The average demographic ranges between 55 and 60 years, while he is hoping the flagship’s new shine will attract shoppers between 40 and 45. The designs are still in the Space Age style of Cardin, rooted in the late designer’s ’60s heyday.
A version of the halo-backed dress Beyoncé wore to open her “Renaissance World Tour” sits in the corner of the boutique. Basilicati-Cardin pointed to this, as well as Madonna sporting the brand on stage during her “Celebration” tour, as recent successes. He believes the brand is going in the right direction by staying the course.
“It is not necessary to do [anything], just to show our products and our creations, to show that we are loyal to the character of the brand Pierre Cardin,” he said. Basilicati-Cardin sits at the head of a five-person design team, including three designers that have been with the house for decades and one younger designer that joined Nov. 1 after winning a contest in Mexico. He plans to add up to three more designers in 2024.
The flagship carries Cardin couture items. The expanded design team, which will be housed in a doubled studio space above the flagship, will also work on new items for a women’s capsule collection that Basilicati-Cardin hopes to make available in some boutiques in Europe, then the U.S., for the first time.
He hopes that the brands’ many global licensees will adopt the new store design elements as well to create global cohesion. What he is not planning to do is roll out the concept at wholly owned stores. Pierre Cardin was the original licensing pioneer and Basilicati-Cardin believes that strategy is still working well.
He added that he is looking for “one total licensor” for Pierre Cardin’s perfumes that will distribute at accessible prices, around 20 to 30 euros. “For me it’s not important to stay in the total luxury [price point], it’s better to draw more at the center Pierre Cardin style, because I think it is not necessary to pay a lot,” he said of mass market licensing. “Pierre Cardin was the first to do it and I still believe in it.”
Consolidating that business would likely be on a three-year timescale, he said.
Basilicati-Cardin, the great-nephew of Pierre Cardin, became president of the company before Cardin’s death, and subsequently took over running the house following the designer’s passing in 2020 at the age of 98.
The brand has been at the center of a succession battle to rival HBO, with other family members seeking a sale of the fashion house and its assets. Basilicati-Cardin plans to stay the course.
“I say my uncle chose me to do it, so why choose somebody else? It means that he believed in me,” he said.
“We don’t need to sell,” he said of those that want to offload the company for cash. “There is a testament, a clear intention from my uncle, so it’s better to work. To pay the rights for the succession maybe I will need to sell some houses in the south of France — not the Bubble House — but some other little things that do not have a real sense [of history] in our house. We can do it and it is sufficient. You know, like my uncle I do not like banks so if I can avoid, I will do it.”
Through its licensee, Pierre Cardin beauty launched in China in the second half of 2023 with big expansion plans for the category set for 2024. Basilicati-Cardin is also planning a runway show there in the fall to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the renewal of France-China diplomatic relations.
The ecologically minded Basilicati-Cardin noted that the company is going to great efforts on sustainability, using at least 55 percent recycled materials in its collections, up to 90 percent. When the brand cannot source recycled materials it digs into its warehouse of deadstock for new creations. Sunglasses are a combination of recycled and bio-based materials.
Basilicati-Cardin also took care to install energy upgrades into the store, including a special air filtering system.
To further that work, he will also host his environmental prize event at the Bubble House outside of Cannes on May 17.
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