Dress

Pierre Cardin

1962 · wool, silk, metal · Costume Institute

Pierre Cardin created this precursor to his "Car Wash" dress (1969) in 1962. Its three-tiered, fringed and aerodynamic skirt attests to the architectural vision of the French designer. The fringes symbolize the thrill and youthful pace of the swinging sixties, twirling around the body in a playful 'car wash' mode. In full swing, the flared shape widens at the bottom into a babydoll-like trapeze, a popular 1960s volume. In this long-sleeved item, the wearer remains more covered up than in its later, fully-fringed iterations. Italian-born Pierre Cardin is known for his boldly innovative geometric shapes, novel use of materials and an architectural approach to fashion. As an architecture graduate and apprentice to Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior, he mastered couture skills, which he then applied towards creating fashions for the Youthquake and Space Age generation of the 1960s. He was one of the creators of the 'mod chic' look championed by Diana Vreeland, which was characterized by short dresses with attached circular and rectangular shapes, often presented on androgynous body types like those of Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton.

Artist

Pierre Cardin

Date

1962

Medium

wool, silk, metal

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Purchase, Gould Family Foundation Gift, in memory of Jo Copeland, 2018