Trained in the Paris workrooms of Christian Dior, Elsa Schiaparelli and Jeanne Paquin, Pierre Cardin saw his future unfold before him at an early age. “It was far-sighted of Cardin,” Valerie Steele, a fashion historian at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, told The Times some years ago. “People think because you’re a dress designer you must …
