Pierre Cardin was never particularly interested in sticking to fashion’s rules. From his space-age designs of the 1960s to his experiments with furniture, architecture and industrial design, the French couturier had a habit of taking his ideas well beyond the runway.
It’s an approach his great-nephew, Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, seems to have inherited. An engineer by training and an accomplished musician, Basilicati-Cardin began his creative career designing furniture and interiors before joining the Pierre Cardin Group in 2000. Along the way, he’s worked on projects involving space technology, developed an enormous transparent gondola and explored how clothing might one day help regulate body temperature.
Since taking over as artistic director after his uncle’s death in 2020, he’s been finding ways to carry the house’s distinctive design language forward while introducing some of his own ideas. Where Pierre Cardin favoured bold geometry, Basilicati-Cardin has increasingly been experimenting with curves, organic forms and the possibilities of new technologies.
We caught up with him during his recent visit to Johannesburg for the first South African edition of the Pierre Cardin Young Designers Award, held in partnership with South African Fashion Week. The visit also saw the house present its first runway show in the country under his artistic direction, featuring a selection of looks from recent collections.
In conversation with Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin
You have quite an unconventional background for someone leading a fashion house. How have engineering, music and architecture influenced the way you approach design?
There’s an engineering approach to everything I do, and that’s part of the reason I’m working with space technology now. I’m interested in how we can develop fabrics and how thinking technically about clothing for space might help us change the way we approach fashion here on Earth.
Fashion shouldn’t only be aesthetic. It should also be practical, and I think we have a responsibility to find solutions to some of the problems facing the industry.
My engineering background allows me to approach projects from that perspective. But style and poetry are also very important to me, and I think that’s where music comes in.
The themes I explore in my creations are often connected to nature, the human body and the relationships between people. I like expressing those ideas through abstract forms, whether it’s a garment, a piece of furniture or something else entirely.
For me, the artistic and technical sides aren’t separate. They come together in everything I create. I think fashion could change a great deal if we started thinking in this way.
You mentioned that you only met your uncle when you were 24. How did that relationship develop?
I met him in 1994, near Venice, at an event. I was already designing interiors and furniture, and when I discovered what he was doing, I realised that we had some very similar interests. I thought perhaps I could show him my work. He was curious, and about a year later he came to Venice to meet me.
At the time, I was making furniture and lamps, and I think he liked my creative approach, particularly the abstract forms and the way I interpreted nature. He encouraged me to exhibit my designs, but under my own name, not Pierre Cardin. He wanted me to develop my own identity.
Later, he gave me responsibility for a natural water source in Tuscany, partly to see how I would manage the business side of things.
I remember making a large chess set with sculptural pieces [for him]. And then there was the gondola. I had the idea of creating a transparent, illuminated gondola for Venice. I made it, and six months later I presented him with the finished boat. I think that was important because he could see that I was capable of taking an idea and making it real.
After that, he began giving me more and more projects. I worked on furniture, accessories and eyewear, and eventually moved into the fashion atelier. That was quite a change. With furniture, you’re working with something solid, whereas clothing is always moving. You have to think differently.
What was the most important thing you learnt from working with Pierre Cardin?
I think proportion. I already had a sense of proportion naturally, but I didn’t always understand exactly why something worked. Pierre helped me understand that.
He would look at a design and change the size of a form or move it slightly, and suddenly everything would be balanced. When you look at his creations, there’s a very strong sense of equilibrium. Even when the forms are unusual, they’re pleasing to the eye. There’s a simplicity to them.
He also taught me that a design doesn’t need a lot of detail. One clear idea can be enough.
Pierre Cardin’s designs have always had a very recognisable identity. What do you think makes something unmistakably Cardin?
For me, it’s simplicity. Pierre Cardin was never about adding a lot of detail to a garment. You should be able to look at something from 10 or 20 metres away and recognise it.
It’s not necessarily about the colours, although colour is part of the design. It’s about having one very clear idea. That idea might come from nature or from something abstract, like joy, sadness or tension. What’s interesting is how you translate that idea into a garment.
I don’t want lots of different forms put together without a reason. There has to be something behind them.
Sometimes when we’re working on a collection, the theme isn’t a colour or a fabric. It might be the sun, for example, and all the different ways you could interpret it. That’s what I find fascinating about design: taking something conceptual and finding a way to express it through form.
What did you want to show South African audiences through the runway presentation?
I wanted to bring the most spectacular pieces, the ones that best represent Pierre Cardin.
I chose looks from the last three collections because there’s always a relationship between them. One collection develops from the previous one. Sometimes I take an idea from one collection and transform it into something new for the next. There’s a continuity, almost like a novel where each chapter follows the one before it.
I wanted the show to feel almost like going to the theatre. Not crazy, but spectacular. It was our first time presenting a runway show in South Africa, and I wanted to make an impression.
And while you were here, what struck you about South African design?
The first thing I noticed was the students’ strong attachment to their traditions and culture.
They take forms and patterns from their own cultures and translate them into something modern. But what I find particularly interesting is the freedom with which they do it. There’s a lot of asymmetry, and many of the designs have an almost architectural quality. They’re very sculptural, which I love because that’s also very Pierre Cardin. I haven’t seen quite the same approach in places like the US, Korea or even Paris.
There’s a freedom of expression here that I find very interesting. The students aren’t simply copying what already exists. They’re taking something from their own culture and developing it into something new.
And for us, it’s enriching too. When two very different cultures come together, you discover ideas you might never have thought of otherwise.
Finally, what advice would you give a young designer hoping to make their mark?
I want them to be free, and I don’t want them to copy. For me, copying what you’ve seen at another fashion show is the death of creativity. I want young designers to invent something, something we’ve never seen before.
I also think students sometimes feel they need to leave their country and go to Paris or New York to work in fashion. But why should they imitate what is happening elsewhere? They have their own culture, their own ideas and their own creativity. They should develop those things and create a style that’s recognisably their own.
If you begin with a real concept, something you genuinely want to express, you’re much less likely to copy. That’s what I hope young designers will understand.
Wanted
