Pierre Cardin: The Espace Collection

Foreword

Pierre Cardin, the Italian-born, French fashion designer (1922–2020) was known for his avant- guarde style and space age designs. He founded his fashion house in 1950 and focused on geometric shapes and motifs, his experimental designs were alternative and not always practical. He famously designed the collarless suits for the Beatles in 1963 and Nasa Spacesuits in 1970. Inspired by Space exploration, Pierre Cardin launched the Espace collection of wristwatches in 1971. A time of playful and alternative experimentation Cardin was surely influenced by such cult movies as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Jane Fonda’s Barbarella which were both released in 1968.

There were 26 models within the collection in total, incorporating manual winding movements from Jaeger and housed in futuristic cases manufactured using distinctive ’70’s materials.

Pierre Cardin himself is quoted as saying
‘The infinity of space is more inspiring than anything else’.