Designer Rajeev Sethi, December: The death of the Italian-French veteran fashion designer Pierre Cardin hit like a shock to everyone as he brought a revolution in the fashion industry. From designers to audience everyone drop-dead shocked on the demise of the designer at the age of 98. Cardin was the first international designer who had held a fashion in India and it was him only who brought many international designers in India to give a new identity to the fashion.
This fashion show was organised back in 1967 and was appreciated by the presence of former late prime minister Indira Gandhi. Hindustan Times spoke to Rajeev Sethi who is himself a designer and founder at Asian Heritage Foundation to relive his meeting and interaction with the late designer. They both had worked alongside for almost three years between 1969-71.
Sethi shared about the work both the designers shared with each other. He quoted, “I got a scholarship from the French government to go to France, and since I had met Cardin earlier, I went to see him. I ended up working with him all of 1969, ’70 and ’71. I helped his atelier to set up his laboratoire d’idees or laboratory of ideas, where we were going into trans-disciplinary experiments and experiences and do (a lot in) theatre, culinary art, experiential exhibitions. It was like a circus. But this was before he bought the Theatre des Ambassadeurs on Avenue Gabriel and renamed it Espace Cardin (it opened in 1971 complete with a full-fledged theatre). He believed in the synergy of art, fashion and theatre. It had more to do with the lifestyle beyond the haute couture that Paris was known for. In 1970, he sent me back to India to collect items for an exhibition on India at Espace Cardin, called Des Indes Moderne. Eventually, the exhibition had works designed by me, including items of furniture.”
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On being asked about his first meeting or interaction with Cardin, Sethi shared that India must be aware of this fact that the journey of international fashion began in the country because of Pierre Cardin himself. He mentioned that Cardin had introduced many opportunities in the market and he also brought the Handicrafts and Handlooms Export Corporation of India Ltd back in 1967.He further quoted to HT, “Pupul Jayakar, who was heading the HHEC at the time, invited him to the country. I went to audition as a model for a fashion show that he was doing at the Ashoka hotel, but that was just ostensibly because I carried with me all my sketches and paintings to show him. I didn’t model but he liked the drawings very much and asked me to work for him in Paris. That was a seminal show, and it was the first time we saw international fashion.”
HT asked Rajeev Sethi about Cardin and his contribution remembered by masses in the coming times. On this, Sethi expressed, “By the time I got to Paris and joined him, he was already a global brand. What attracted me was that he was moving beyond fashion into things that touched life as a whole. He could link this kind of trans-disciplinary market with commerce. Of course, people had made perfumes but no one had made it at a scale that Cardin did. Branding idea is not new, but what you can do with branding, from the glamour industry, and take it to a more prêt-a-poter line, is his innovation. He said you could do all the things that Haute Couture does, and you could do it so bespoke that it could become even ready-to-wear. He was the first to break the dichotomy between the two, and he made high fashion think seriously about the fashion that goes out to more people.”
