Long before television audiences peeked into the aspirational-fashion-filled closets of TV characters like Carrie Bradshaw, Fran Fine and Emily (in Paris), there was Jane Jetson. Premiering in 1962, The Jetsons showcased the cartoon matriarch’s futuristic wardrobe blending geometric silhouettes with ’60s staples. In episode 20, Jane buys a light-up evening gown (complete with extension cord) by “Pierre Martian,” a cheeky nod to the fashion pioneer Pierre Cardin. In the Space Age, Cardin’s innovative designs, like this wool Cinétique dress, were a giant leap for the wardrobes of womankind.
Alongside contemporaries like Paco Rabanne and André Courrèges, Cardin promoted Retrofuturism, characterized by optimistic conjecture about how science and technology might shape the future. Appropriately, this circa 1970 design is as much a study in physics as it is a piece of wearable clothing. “The principle of the dress is movement,” says Sarah Rozenbaum, of Chez Sarah, who is offering it on 1stDibs. “The top is calm and formfitting, but the bottom follows the body’s energy when walking, running or dancing.”
What starts as a conventional shift dress splits into dozens of panels below the waist, each ending in a circle. The strips are designed to swing to and fro as the wearer walks, but the dress begs to be spun. Raquel Welch did just that for a 1970 photo by Terry O’Neill. Wearing a similar style, and standing next to Cardin himself, Welch twirls gleefully, perfectly demonstrating the dress’s dynamic potential.
The Cinétique — which, like many of Cardin’s designs, is housed at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute — was inspired by the mid-century kinetic art movement, with its focus on motion, expressed in which works like mobiles, motorized sculptures and jewelry. This connection to sculpture may have led Cardin to venture beyond prêt-à-porter and into furniture design in the 1970s. His “utilitarian sculptures,” as he called them, are now highly collectible, exhibiting his signature geometric shapes, bold color blocking and high-shine surfaces.
Still, fashion was his north star. Cardin trained under Jeanne Paquin in the 1940s before working in the ateliers of Christian Dior, Schiaparelli and Jean Cocteau. He drew on this couture pedigree in creating the Space Age designs for which he is now revered. Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot and Jackie Kennedy all came within his orbit, pulled in by his hyper-mod silhouettes.
Cardin’s fascination with outer space went beyond the hypothetical. In 1969, he visited NASA, looking for insights into what people might wear in space, even trying on Buzz Aldrin’s spacesuit while there. The designer, who died in 2020, never fulfilled his dream of traveling to space, but his futuristic legacy cements him as one of fashion history’s brightest stars. Unlike Jane Jetson’s dress, the Cinétique doesn’t come with an extension cord, but its unique charm is still guaranteed to light up any room.
