The Palazzo Ca'Bragadin where Casanova, owned by Pierre Cardin, stayed, will host a retrospective of his futuristic pieces on Saturday and a new eco-responsible collection, made by his studios.

The couturier, who died at the end of 2020 at the age of 98, did not like "being wished a happy birthday", but wanted to celebrate his 100th birthday, tells AFP Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, his grandson. nephew and Managing Director of the Management Company.

No celebrities at the show, but 120 of the 300 guests are licensees who produce in the four corners of the world, under the Pierre Cardin brand.

Like the model built by the couturier who had, from the 1960s, excessively multiplied licensing contracts, which his heir wants to preserve, by trying to better control them.

- Podiums in 2023-

"It's still a small economic empire with these licenses which still manage to work", but "Cardin, it's a name which has been marginalized", declares to AFP Arnaud Cadart, portfolio manager at Flornoy Ferri.

"It still sells, but rather in emerging countries and to customers with little education in luxury," he adds.

In Paris, "it's nothing compared to Louis Vuitton or Saint Laurent. It's abysmal in terms of reputation and commercial dynamics".

After the tribute parade at the foot of a rocket at Le Bourget, near Paris in January and that of Venice on Saturday, the house will officially join Paris Fashion Week in February-March 2023, 25 years after Pierre Cardin has left.

Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin is counting on the studio's "close-knit" team to take up this new challenge.

Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, nephew and heir of Pierre Cardin who runs his house in Paris, January 11, 2022 JOEL SAGET AFP / Archives

"It's my job to make sure we don't go off the rails," he says.

He has no intention of inviting an outside stylist so as not to "distort Pierre Cardin".

However, "we need an artistic director today, a personality. It is by taking this risk that we can amplify the potential" of relaunching the brand, believes Olivier Gabet, director of the Museum of Decorative Arts on the sidelines a retrospective on designer Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) whose house enjoyed great success with artistic director Daniel Roseberry whose pieces were worn by Beyoncé and Lady Gaga.

The design of Pierre Cardin, which "was based on a vision of the future which was cosmic at the time", could be translated today into "intelligent materials, which recharge the batteries of the telephones, make it possible to regulate the temperature of the body or self-cleaning", anticipates Ariane Bigot, assistant to the fashion direction of the Salon Première vision.

"not here to be modern"

"A DNA and a strong name" could allow the house to reinvent itself," she told AFP.

Arnaud Cadart, he has doubts.

"There is no creative legacy from the last 30 years. Pierre Cardin signed licensing contracts, bought houses, sometimes entire villages (...) There is no relay, unless really the nephew's pencil stroke is incredible", he says, scathingly.

The same concern for preserving tradition reigns at the Maxim's restaurant in Paris, a jewel of Art Nouveau bought by Cardin in 1981 and which has never regained its former glory.

The Maxim's restaurant in Pris is part of the PIerre Cardin empire JACQUES DEMARTHON AFP/Archives

"It's like an old vintage car, you shouldn't jostle it. Here it's the restaurant that tames you, not the other way around," recently appointed chef Nicolas Castelet told AFP.

He believes putting more vegetables on the plate is "not right" for Maxim's and wears a chef's hat that chefs have massively abandoned.

"We are not there to be modern. We give way to the name".

© 2022 AFP