The succession of Pierre Cardin: a family battle worth several hundred million euros

This spring, and for the first time in thirty years, professionals and other fashion enthusiasts saw Pierre Cardin’s name appear on the official Fashion Week calendar. On Sunday, March 5, several of them were invited to participate in this revival, organized by four longtime collaborators of the label, including Marise Gaspard, the label’s top model and the administrator of Pierre Cardin Evolution, a company founded in 1991. nephew of the quartet’s creator, Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardi, who died on December 29, 2020. An unconvincing reinterpretation of the master’s futurism, the collection is barely covered by the press, some representatives of which do not hesitate to ridicule, is disabled, the organization and the “ridiculous” described silhouettes. Since then, despite a few stage wears by Beyoncé or L’Impératrice and fashion shows abroad, the brand’s news has remained low-key and its legacy in the spotlight. The tree hides the forest. behind the scenes of this timid return is actually an internal war between the descendants of the creator.

In the video, Pierre Cardin, the future couturier.

Storm sequence

The surreal Palais Bulles in Théoule-sur-Mer, the fabulous Maxim’s restaurant, the heights of Lacoste village in Provence… The childless couturier left behind a rich legacy of holdings and subsidiaries, patents and brands, as well as real estate, particularly in Paris and in Vaucluse. In total, family members are torn over assets estimated at between 750 and 800 million euros, according to takeover offers, AFP Me Jean-Louis Rivière, a lawyer for the creator’s great cousins, says. The last of the thirteen-year-old brother and sister left behind twenty-two heirs who now fight mercilessly.

On the one hand, Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, the couturier’s nephew, who became the group’s general manager in 2018 and then president in November 2020. The Italian was 25 in 1995 when he met his famous relative through his grandfather Erminio, Pierre’s older brother. On June 5, the student accompanies his grandfather to Treviso, where Pierre Cardin is given the title of honorary citizen of the city. He was a pianist at the time, studying civil engineering and teaching art at school in his spare time. Fascinated by the versatility of the young man, the creator would take him under his wing, entrusting him with many roles, such as the construction of the Lumière Palace in Venice (a project interrupted in 2013) or the recovery of the mineral business. water in Tuscany. Now in his fifties, Rodrigo Basilicati, who has added “Cardin” to his last name, wants to “respect Pierre Cardin’s wishes, preserve his empire and protect his image.”

On the other hand, the designer’s grandchildren (Patricia, Laurence, Régine and Marie-Christine, granddaughters of Giovanna, one of Pierre’s older sisters), supported by most of the Cardin family, want the group to be sold and condemn “an attempt to cheat the inheritance”. The latter accuse their cousin of wanting to “restore the entire personal inheritance of Pierre Cardin and the group according to dubious or even possible fraudulent maneuvers,” their lawyer summarizes.

Will found

In particular, we are talking about the will signed by Pierre Cardin in November 2016, in which Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin was named as the sole heir. The latter found this document in 2022 in his great uncle’s Parisian building. The “timely” disclosure came the day after the group’s takeover offer, which was “agreed upon by all the heirs, which make up 85%,” emphasizes Me Riviere.

This “will should have been found in the inventory carried out after the designer’s death,” “but it allowed me to at least know my family,” Mr. Basilicati-Cardin quipped, according to comments reported by AFP. Pierre Cardin “expressed during his lifetime his desire that I should succeed him, and in the course of ten years he made a certain amount of follow-up to the will,” he claims. The validity of this will is disputed in the civil court of Paris. The battle between the two Carden clans has also won the criminal field.

Court case

The Paris prosecutor’s office did open an investigation after the Cardin nieces complained in March of abuse of weakness, breach of trust, fraud, forgery and forgery, a judicial source said, confirming the Challenges information. The investigation, which is still ongoing, has been entrusted to the Offenses Repression Brigade (an entity of the economic and financial affairs sub-section of the Paris police headquarters, which covers fraud, breach of trust and abuse of weakness, editor’s note), he said. These same Cardins have filed three other appeals since the start of the year, including one that was dismissed in June. The other two, one for breach of trust and forgery and the second for fraud and breach of trust, are being analyzed, the judicial source detailed.

In one of the appeals, the grandsons dispute the conditions under which Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin assumed the position of head of the holding a few days after his great uncle’s death. Their doubts concern the validity of the share transfer deed their grandmother, Giovanna Cardin, signed a few days before her death in March 2000 at the age of 97. “Rodrigo Basilicati-Carden is in a situation of self-determination. He wants to get rid of his heirs for purely personal reasons,” Me Riviere condemns.

Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin himself responded on June 21 with a civil suit for defamation. “Some members of the family, who do not accept that Pierre Cardin appointed me to replace him, multiply the procedures and try to mobilize the press with false accusations, the sole purpose of which is to harm me and harm the group,” he denounces. Three months before his death, Pierre Cardin announced to Paris Match. “After my death?” I don’t think about that. I did not organize anything. NOTHING. »

In the video: “Pierre Cardin”, the trailer