The name of Pierre Cardin is perhaps the most instantly recognisable of the elite French couturiers but with 840 licenses around the world sporting his name on everything from bidets to caviar, his fashion is now but one of many divisions in his vast global empire. Cardin has taken many risks throughout his colourful career from scandalising Paris with the introduction to transforming France's bastion of elegance, Maxim's into a trademark bringing in a name, the essence of Paris to hotels, foodstuffs, perfumes even a yacht. 

Few of his ventures have failed and of these he is philosophical as he is of his garage of purist critics, but with a business empire that takes over $2 billion dollars annually in sales, agreements with Moscow to establish Soviet chic through 32 factories producing his clothes, groundbreaking forays into China, criticism nary ruffles the suave French facade.

VIVE la Vie speaks with Pierre Cardin in the Paris headquarters of design's most successful businessman.

VIVE: Monsieur Cardin, you have had such a remarkable and successful life, what originally inspired you to embark on a career in design?

CARDIN: I was very young when I first set out in the fashion industry, trying to understand sketches, interpreting the use of colours... But when I first left Venice for France in 1940, the war broke out and I spent the war years in Vichy working with the Red Cross because the situation in Paris was very flammable at the time. When the war was over, I came to Paris and found a job working with Paquin which was one of the first true fashion houses in France. I stayed there for a year and then I became involved with theatre design and movie costuming working on Jean Cocteau's classic film La Belle et La bete. These people, like Cocteau and Jean Maret and Christian Berard became my friends and I learned a good deal from them by absorbing the styles and the atmosphere although I never deliberately set out to be taught by them directly. The life of the theatre and the creative arts has always been fascinating to me. I began working at Christian Dior in 1946 during the 'New Look' period and I stayed there for three years but left because I wanted to continue working in fashion for those people who were associated with the arts and the film industry so I opened my first house not too far from where we are now and I started creating fashion with this slant.

Unfortunately making clothes exclusively for these people was not sufficient to keep me busy throughout the year, so I decided to establish Pierre Cardin as a Couture fashion house and I presented my first couture showing in 1953. I started with 50 dresses and I was an immediate success, receiving a lot of publicity both in Europe and America. The following year the business grew and just continued to grow at a very fast pace. Within three years, I was employing 400 people. We not only made clothes for women but we diversified and made men's apparel and children's clothing which was a very big step at this time. In the late 1950s, it was not usual for a fashion house to make clothes for men they preferred to concentrate exclusively on women's haute couture, but I attempted it and it became a resounding success. The clothes became well accepted in the U.S., Italy, Spain, Japan, everywhere and this was the first time that I decided to license my name overseas.

The most important step I took was in 1959-60 when I decided to introduce the Ready-to-Wear fashion area for women. To do this I decided to work in conjunction with the big department stores. This created a big scandal because no designer had ever produced a private label of ready-to-wear fashion before and the Chambre Syndiccale de la Haute Couture, which is the association that represents Paris top designers gave me an ultimatum - if I continued to produce ready-to-wear, I had to leave the council because such a line of clothes was not of the same stature as Haute Couture.

What I had done was to create an enormous transition period because couture fashion was considered the only fashion then - I did not simply want to create one piece of clothing for one person.

VIVE: What prompted you to design the ready-to-wear collections given that it was such a shocking concept at the time?

CARDIN: At the time I know that I shocked the Haute Couture scene but I was very young. I enjoyed being on the Chambre Syndicale council because my clientele was of the highest stature and my clothes were worn by some of the most important women in the world but I wanted my designs to be available for the everyday people in the streets. Perhaps it was my interpretation of socialism but in reality you know, I am a capitalist but I think that my mentality was more egalitarian in this way than many of the other couturiers at the time. The ready-to-wear took off all over the world; Italy, France, America, Spain, Germany, Japan.... but then we began to deviate from fashion and enter the area of accessories. The world of Haute Couture is not a money-making venture: in the time that you spend designing, making and choosing the best fabrics, etcetera... the end result is that you have a name but not money. So, after ten years of haute couture, I decided that I wanted not only to have my fashions available to the everyday person at inexpensive prices compared to regular haute couture, I also wanted to build upon my achievements and make an empire.

VIVE: So, you began marketing and licensing your name - a Pierre Cardin style. How did you first introduce the concept overseas and how do you respond to criticism of the ventures?

CARDIN: Well, I wanted to create a trademark more than anything: more than 'by the book marketing' and in fact I export very little from France but I have factories under licence in America and all over the world that produce items from sketches and directions.

Initially, when the buyers were coming to Paris for the haute couture shows, they would look at the items, buy the pattern and then produce the clothes in the United States. They only paid the designer for the pattern. But I thought why should I only make the money from the pattern, I will go to the United States find a factory that will make my patterns and make money from each item sold. If the clothes were a success then it would be a total success for us.

Today it is very different from times gone by. I like to be popular today but it is very different. These days, if you want, you can see the Queen of England sitting near normal people in the theatre. The Princess of Monaco is in love with a very ordinary man - today you must have respect for honesty and with the right people. To say that you are a king because you are in haute couture is not important any more today - the time is important - now is the time for everyone not just for a few people. It is the same with books and movies - you can make them for yourself and please just a handful of people or you can please millions of people around the world and become very strong. If you have talent why not make it available for many people, not only for small numbers but for the masses. I like to be popular, I like to sell sardines, chocolate, vodka... whereas if you ask some people who are ridiculously snobby how they got their money, you would very often be surprised, believe me. With myself, my money, is clean there is a big difference.

VIVE: There is a famous advertisement featuring the same picture of you repeated throughout the page with a different caption under each picture - Pierre Cardin the architect, the designer, the accountant... How much is this campaign a reflection of Pierre Cardin the man?

CARDIN: There is a simple answer to that - I like to do everything. When I started my professional life I was very interested in Architecture so I studied myself in this way, the same way I perceived myself as a businessman, I looked at myself as an accountant. I studied furniture because I had a friend whose parents owned a furniture factory and on Thursdays when it was a day off from school, they spent their time in the factory making furniture, so I would go there and learn from them. I started at a young age to work with my hands and not only with my brain. I do not limit myself - I like to be involved with restaurants, interiors, furniture, I like to make porcelain, travel around the world, perfume - I have many interests in many fields and I like to be there, where the work is being done not just to see it on the paper. Maybe if I worked for VIVE LA VIE I could write because I enjoy writing and I am a very good photographer - I have done photographs which I think are superb - there is a big difference, you know, it is my concept of good and bad.

VIVE: Do you still enjoy challenges or are you content to sit back and enjoy your success more passively now?

CARDIN: I do things now because I want to do something even though in reality I do not need to do anything any more. I like to do things if I know that they can succeed because you know my name is a symbol of things that are new - of course it was different with Maxim's because Maxim's is tradition of the past. But you can always expect to see something new and different in my house. for example there is always my style - the Pierre Cardin style - but my fashion is constantly on the move. I move with the times, every time. My fashion changes for the today and does not remain stagnant.

There is more architecture in the design that just dresses; the lines are strong and have character. Even the first dresses that I designed can be fashionable today, do not look behind for my fashion creations, I do not look to the history of other countries, I look forward for the designs of my garments. That is why 20 years ago when I designed dresses, I looked for the influence from space, the age of exploration, not from 16th, 17th or 18th century fashion. The strongest influence on me is forms, and forms change with the times. I put the body inside the dress: I do not dress the body - it is a very different concept.

VIVE: What have been some of your influences and inspirations over the years?

CARDIN: I have visited many, many museums and seen a wide variety of exhibitions of various painters and styles, there has not been simply one influence. Every time I travelled, I visited many museums not for inspiration but for cultural background to assist me in my own stores of knowledge. The organic approaches - man and woman, woman and child, they were influences as well as notions in art of sexuality and conception.

When I initially arrived in Paris, I met with people in all the different areas of writing, painting, music - people like Cocteau and Maret. It was 1948 when I arrived and I learned much from them. I never pushed these people to teach me, it was sympathetique, I learned from respecting them, hearing them, observing them, learning from them in this way, absorbing their information and ideas.

VIVE: Had you not turned your hand to fashion design, in what other career could you perceive yourself as having success?

CARDIN: I believe that I would have become a dancer or an actor. When I was nine years old through to the age of twelve, I used to visit some artists who were involved with theatre and we acted out stories. I played all the child roles and had there not been a war and had I come directly to Paris, I would surely have been an actor or dancer if I was not a designer; but then again at sixteen, who doesn't dream of becoming an actor or a dancer?

VIVE: You obviously have a tendency to provoke people a little with your innovative concepts and ideas. After you had established yourself and overcome the initial criticisms, did you find it difficult to have relationships with the other fashion houses?

CARDIN: Yes, they all used to say I was crazy. Everytime I started to do something different - everything that I did that was innovative - from men's wear to ready-to-wear, to accessories, designing for the theatre, Maxim's, furniture design... they told me I was insane and then they followed about 3 years later. So I might be crazy but everyone became crazy after me.

I was initially criticised a good deal because I had immediate success in fashion when I was only 24 years of age. I had energy and wanted to try and in trying I succeeded. In 1958/9 when I wanted to buy this building that we are sitting in now for men's clothing I had nothing in the area besides the tie business, everyone told me that I was crazy - 'You are buying a 7 storey building just to sell ties!' But I knew that I had other plans. I liked to provoke people to make them think, perhaps it is the theatre in me.

I have been in fashion for over 40 years and it is impossible to stay in the front pages for that amount of time unless you have creativity and talent or lots of money like Coca Cola to keep you in the news. Fashion is very different especially in Haute Couture. The young designers like Montana, Thierry Mugler have been in Paris for 20 or so years and they do not have established houses. You can always find someone who will put up the money for you - Christian Dior was the designer but it was another man who put the money up to create the house. The same thing is happening with Christian Lacroix, with Bernard Arnaud. Only one man who just arrived because of his creation and earned his money this is very unusual now. I knew how to liaise with accountants and financial people but the designers now are not interested or do not know how, they are only interested in creation. But you must have respect for money because it is so hard to earn and so easy to lose.

VIVE: How do you perceive the Italians in the fashion forum?

CARDIN: The Italians have always had the talent for fabric and also for design. Most of the materials used in the world; whether it be France, the U.S. or U.K., are mostly Italian. They are the most creative people in the world.

Capoucci was the only person who I think had a great talent even though many did not understand his fashion. Armani is a little different because he started with men's clothing first and then branched out into women's clothing, but he does not have a 'look'. If you evaluate Armani simply with your eyes, you see men's-style clothing with nice materials but there is no 'look' as such.

VIVE: What made you decide to branch out into restaurants?

CARDIN: I bought Maxim's because I was good friends with the proprietors and I love Maxim's - it exudes a philosophy. Of course the restaurant is very important but I also wanted to use the name as a trademark for many other things because Maxim's is Paris. When people go out to Maxim's, they wear their most beautiful clothes to go out but to go to a place that is truly beautiful you dress up for it and in Paris when you do this you go to Maxim's. There are not many places like this to go to, not even in Paris. When you go to a regular restaurant, your wife may not go to the hairdresser or wear beautiful clothes and wonderful jewellery but when you go to Maxim's this is what you do. You can have good food at many places but at Maxim's you will get both the food and the style.

VIVE: You seem to enjoy interviews and talking to the press from around the world. Do you find that people are often surprised when they meet you, perhaps expecting a very egotistical Pierre Cardin?

CARDIN: To be honest, I do not care what people think of me. I am very well respected by the masses as well as those in positions of high places because I have achieved and I am one of the most respected people in France. I am often asked to parties where there are very important people, international dignitaries - for instance, I went to dinner yesterday where the President had asked me as a guest. They like to present France's important people and I am happy to represent my country. Some of my friends have suggested that I take up a career in politics but I have enough business to take care of on my own than to look after everybody's. I was asked to go to Russia as part of a delegation, but I am a very private person and I don't particularly enjoy having a very high public profile.

VIVE: What do you think of contemporary France compared to the France of your early years in the industry?

CARDIN: I like today's France: I have lived in the same place for forty-three years, I have seen seven presidents come and go and I am still here.

VIVE: What is your next challenge?

CARDIN: I want to continue successfully in what I do because I have a great deal of responsibility around the world in my businesses and I am keenly aware that if my companies were not there, many people would be out of work. Tomorrow is something I cannot really plan too much for as I am not as young as I used to be and I do not have any family that I can pass the company on to. I may consider selling the company to some large organisation or I may leave instructions for the name and company to continue as it is now - I am not really certain although I do think about it.

VIVE: If a young person asked of you today, 'I want to be a Pierre Cardin, how do I go about doing so?' how would you respond?

CARDIN: Travaillez, Travaillez, Travaillez! Work, work and more work. I have spent all my life working. When I was fifteen, I spent Saturday and Sunday's working while all the others of my age were playing and enjoying themselves. I was learning in work-shops so I would know and understand how things were done.

VIVE: What has been Pierre Cardin's overriding philosophy?

CARDIN: To construct a happy life and contentment in work. To do something that I like and that makes me happy, Yes, that is all. When I want something done, be it cleaning or cooking, I do it myself, that way it is done. I prefer to create movement in my life.