At the foot of a rocket, parade tribute to Pierre Cardin<

The "Cosmocorps 3022" collection at the foot of a real rocket: new dresses designed by Pierre Cardin were unveiled on Friday at Le Bourget, near Paris, in a parade tribute to the pioneer designer of "space" fashion " in the 60s, died a year ago.

Several hundred guests gathered on the tarmac of the Air and Space Museum, around a podium installed at the foot of an Ariane 5 which took off in a play of lights.

The countdown starts half an hour before the show, which starts on time - something impossible in fashion today - and which is followed in cinemas in Moscow, Mexico City, Dallas and Tirana .

Images of young Pierre Cardin and pieces from his collections from the 1960s and 1970s are projected onto two giant screens framing the rocket.

"We wanted to do it on the theme of space to evoke the 1960s, when Pierre Cardin wanted to dress the man who goes into spaceships," his nephew, Rodrigo Basilicati, told AFP. Cardin, CEO of the brand.

"He was the first, with André Courrèges, to dare to do that, criticized by everyone at the time".

- Excessiveness -

A-line dresses, little black dresses or long straight dresses with geometric ornaments, dresses draped in bright colors: the first part of this 50-minute show is devoted to the creations that Pierre Cardin had designed before his death on December 29, 2020.

Next, the outfits designed by the Pierre Cardin design studio follow the cuts of Pierre Cardin, slightly accentuating the line of the shoulders and in the pop colors of the 80s.

The show ends with a dancer in a long white dress spinning around like a dervish against a backdrop of outfits from the collection.

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The parade is in the excessiveness loved by Pierre Cardin, who had created the last 25 years in free spirit, refusing to follow the calendar of Fashion weeks of the Fashion Federation.

Karl Lagerfeld had also launched a rocket for Chanel, but his was fake, under the glass roof of the Grand Palais.

Parades on the Great Wall in China in 2018, in Moscow in 2016, in Astana (Kazakhstan) in 2017, at the Palais Bulles in Provence -the designer's favorite residence-, presentation of models at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris at the occasion of the screening of a film devoted to the couturier in 2020... Improbable shows were not lacking during Pierre Cardin's lifetime.

- "Rejuvenating" the brand -

"Pierre wanted to be free. As he approached his 80th birthday, he said that there were plenty of young designers who (needed) to integrate this Fashion Week" and that he did not want not take their place, remembers Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin.

"He dedicated the last part of his life to creativity, not distribution," he adds.

He wants to "relaunch" and "rejuvenate" the brand, taking advantage of the official framework of the Haute Couture and Fashion Federation and integrating Fashion Week.

Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, who also fulfills the functions of artistic director of the house, draws for the moment on the creativity of the Studio, but is nevertheless considering "assembling a group of designers" from outside to bring a new breath to the brand.

He also plans to organize an event on July 2 for the 100th anniversary of Pierre Cardin, "which may take place in Venice", the couturier's birthplace.