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Wise Woman behind the Label

While the giant black suitcases bearing the Pierre Cardin Spring/Summer 2008 Collection might easily accommodate Fang Fang, the chief representative of Pierre Cardin in China, it’s not at all certain they could contain all the ideas soaring in her mind.

“I have always wanted to express the concept of the Pierre Cardin brand and Cardin's image in China in a unique way,” Fang said of her ideas for Cardin’s recent dazzling 2008 show in West China.

“Then we seized upon the idea of the traveller/adventurer Marco Polo who arrived in China via the Silk Road 700 years ago,” said Fang Fang. “It was in this spirit that Cardin brought his Western fashions to China in the 1970s. As with Macro Polo, who bridged the ancient East and the West, the Pierre Cardin has used western fashion to open doors to China."

The awe-inspiring deserts and enthralling mystique of Dunhuang, along China's famed Silk Road, provided an exotic backdrop for an exhibition of Cardin’s haute couture designs. The legendary fashion godfather used the vast desert of Mingsha Mountain, or whistling Sand Mountain, near Dunhuang, as his models’ runway along the Silk Road in Northwest China's Gansu Province.

More than 100 models walked along the 280-metre stretch, at the bottom of the mountainous dunes once traversed by traders and pilgrims on the ancient route. This desert oasis, where East once met West, is home to one of the world's greatest shrines to Buddhism.

Fang Fang took part in every one of the show’s detailed arrangements, from its background music and set decoration to the lighting and scheduling of performances. Even before the start of the show, she busied herself with assigning people to smooth the sands near the desert runway stage. Fluent in English, Chinese and French, she greeted each guest, switching among the languages. As the music began, ballet dancers moved gracefully and the curtain rose on Cardin's models and his logo, all blending perfectly with the desert background.

“We chose the sunset time for the show. On one side, you have sun hanging there, while on the other side, you have the moon,” she said.

“It is a miracle of the desert," said the 85-year-old Cardin who came on stage at the end of the show. He also gave his special thanks to Fang Fang, who has been working with him for more than ten years.

Cardin is a branding visionary. For more than 30 years he has been putting his stamp on everything, including the kitchen sink: luggage, linens, sardines, calculators, airplanes, cigarettes, hair dryers, pots and pans, cars, kitchens, liquor, campers, skis, floor coverings, mattresses, collapsible bicycles, bathrooms, wallpaper, chocolates, alarm clocks and ice buckets. Today, more than 800 products bearing his name are sold in more than 140 countries.

In speaking of Pierre Cardin's great success in China, however, there is a woman named Song Huaigui who lingers in the memory. She was the general agent for Pierre Cardin in China and the manager of Maxim’s restaurant. She met Pierre Cardin at an art exhibition in Paris in 1980, and this was the beginning of a 20-year cooperation. Song did much for the Pierre Cardin brand in China. Sadly, Song died just before Cardin’s autumn and winter, 2006/07 show.

Fang Fang, who studied literature at her university, accidentally became the next woman to continue the Cardin legend in China, despite her youth. She and Sylvie Zhang, deputy chief representative to China of Pierre Cardin, became the next generation in the Cardin fashion world.

“Cardin himself is energetic. He is very charming and I respect the courage he showed when he introduced western fashion to China,” she said. “Though I was not a major in fashion or design, I have been working to the company for many years. I love it and want to do my best to carry the Cardin mission.”

Often travelling between France and China, Fang Fang said she adheres closely to Cardin’s spirit of fashion when establishing rules and systems for the Pierre Cardin brand in China “to ensure the brand’s healthy development.”

“Style should speak for the brand rather than the opposite: which is to say, when you pick up a pair of shoes of any clothes, you can tell the name of the brand from it. You don't have to check out the label first,” Fang Fang said. “With the increasingly fierce competition, the brand style is very important. That is what Cardin told us. It is like a rule for us in seeking progress.”