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His public appearances have been rare recently.
Most recently at the end of September 2020 at an event on the occasion of his 70th anniversary in the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the dark blue jacket almost seemed to swallow him, he was so narrow and frail.
Unbroken, however, his will and his biting wit.
During a visit to “Maxim's”, the legendary Parisian restaurant that belonged to him, the city-famous fashion blogger Diane Pernet asked him for a photo.
"Non - definitely not," he replied.
The American, who always portrays herself as an “Andalusian widow” - all in black, with a tower of hair and a veil - would look like death.
For more than 60 years, Pierre Cardin helped write the fashion history of the 20th century.
In Germany one might not associate his name so much with high-priced haute couture and epoch-defining, futuristic space fashion as with cheap products that we encounter in department stores, drug stores or discounters like Lidl: His name adorned dishes, underpants, socks, jeans, even frying pans and Umbrellas.
Pierre Cardin was the king of licenses, he is said to have awarded around 850 times of his life.
His largest and most important partner since 1992 has been Ahlers AG from Herford, the second largest listed men's fashion manufacturer in Europe.
Space outfits made of silver vinyl - Pierre Cardin showed these designs at the Paris Fashion Week in 1968
Source: Getty Images / Keystone
He was not only a visionary fashion designer, but above all a shrewd entrepreneur who anticipated many developments in the fashion market.
A business pioneer with no arrogance.
“I am the greatest socialist among the capitalists,” he said to me during our last personal interview in Lacoste in the south of France.
"What I always wanted is to make design affordable for the people on the street, to democratize design."
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The whole distinction between luxury and mass products is completely incomprehensible to him anyway, he said coquettishly: “Why should a perfume be a luxury and not a frying pan in which you can produce wonderfully fragrant and tasty dishes?
It's all just a question of psychology.
Caviar is no better than leeks.
Why should something be more valuable just because it is more expensive?
It's all about creativity. "
While most creatives tend to be bad entrepreneurs, Pierre Cardin combined both talent and business acumen.
He was a self-made billionaire whose company allegedly never went into debt and never belonged to a holding company.
Born on July 2, 1922 as Pietro Costante Cardin in Italy, the son of a wine merchant came to France at the age of two.
At the age of 24, Pierre Cardin worked for Elsa Schiaparelli, where in 1946 he designed the costumes for the Jean Cocteau film "Beauty and the Beast".
Theater, film and dance, he told me in Lacoste, were actually his true passions.
That is why he has always bought, supported or played on theater and concert stages - like the former castle of the notorious Marquis de Sade there in Lacoste.
In 1973 Marlene Dietrich gave one of her last concert series in the Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris.
The man, who was otherwise bursting with self-confidence, was also a realist: “It wasn't the actor or dancer Pierre Cardin who could have bought the castle from the Marquis de Sade, but the fashion designer.
I wouldn't be here without fashion. "
Always a bit strange, but with a wink - a design from 1970
Source: AFP via Getty Images / STAFF
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In 1946 he hired Christian Dior as a designer, was responsible for the coats and costumes for three years - and helped shape the “New Look” for which Dior became so famous.
When asked to whom the authorship is due, he replied ambiguously: "Of course Mr. Dior - just as you write the article and not the newspaper."
Shortly afterwards, he founded his own haute couture house.
When he showed the first men's fashion show in Paris in 1958, he had to hire students - there were no male models yet.
In 1958 Cardin opted for empire waists and puffy skirts
Source: Getty Images
A year later, he shocked the elite industry when he was the first to design a ready-to-wear collection for the Printemps department store - 45 years before Karl Lagerfeld and his H&M coup.
"I was told my couture house would be history in a year," he smiled.
"Lo and behold: I'm the only one who's still there and still my own boss."
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In 1964 he invented the Beatles' look and outfitted the television series “Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone” with Patrick MacNee as John Steed and Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in the leading roles.
The Swinging Sixties loved his futuristic style, to which he has remained true to this day: Until recently, he designed two collections each year that are still sold in his two Parisian boutiques.
Anchored forever in fashion history: Cardin's pagoda shoulder jackets - as wore the designer (left) himself in the late 1970s
Source: Getty Images / Wojtek Laski
The only thing he regretted in his life, he once revealed to a French newspaper, was that he had not had children with his adored actress and girlfriend Jeanne Moreau.
Pierre Cardin is now leaving behind no offspring, but a gigantic fortune from restaurants, hotels, licensed businesses and top-class real estate - from the Palazzo Casanovas in Venice to the castle in Lacoste to the futuristic Palais Bulles on the Côte d'Azur - and his museum in Paris Marais, which he set up while he was still alive.
What should be done with it?
Pierre Cardin once dreamed of a foundation that would build hospitals to alleviate the suffering of the world.
The one who was the first in so many things left the stage on December 29, 2020 as one of the last big names in modern fashion history.
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