0000
Written
1968-09-21
Addressed to
The year 2000 (implied by interviewer's question)
Category
Daily Life

There will be a great deal of synthetics, molded to fit the body, perforated for breathing. Ties will be for formal occasions. Buttons will disappear, zippers can now be invisible and they follow the body more closely. Men will be entirely in color.

Pierre Cardin

Barry, Joseph. "Cardin Discusses — 'La Mode Masculine.'" The New York Times, September 21, 1968.

Annotation

The interview is structured around fashion critic Joseph Barry asking Cardin about the future of men's clothing. When Barry pushes toward 'the year 2000,' Cardin replies: 'I'll be dead.' (He wasn't — he lived to 98, dying in 2020.) But the specific predictions are striking: the death of the button, invisible zippers, men dressed 'entirely in color.' Cardin also proposed 'the Cosmocorps' — his name for a new style of violent blues, greens, and reds. The conversation captures a moment when a fashion designer spoke about clothing the way aerospace engineers spoke about rockets: with total confidence in synthetic materials and engineered form.

What Actually Happened

Buttons survived. Ties declined but never became purely formal. However, Cardin was remarkably right about several things: men's fashion did shift dramatically toward color (away from the grey-flannel 1950s), synthetic athletic fabrics did become body-molded and perforated, and invisible zippers are now standard. The 'Cosmocorps' never happened.

#fashion#menswear#clothing#design#Pierre-Cardin#material-culture

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