Pierre Hardy

PIERRE HARDY SPRING/SUMMER 2013

As a student of fine arts, Pierre Hardy also studied dance intensively. At the same time he discovered shoes through working as an assistant, a position that quickly lead to him designing the shoe collections for Christian Dior, a post he held for four years. Aggregated by the Ecole Normale Supérieure, he taught scenography at the rue Blanche School, then at the Ecole Supérieure d’Arts Appliqués Duperré, a school where he still teaches to this day. Expanding his reach Pierre Hardy produced illustrations for magazines like Vogue Homme International and Vanity Fair, and, for a time, was also Artistic Director of the fashion shows at the Hyères Festival in the south of France. Pierre Hardy was named Creative Director of the women’s then men’s footwear collections at Hermès in 1990. In 2001 he also became fine jewelry Creative Director for the famous leather goods house.  His collaboration with Nicolas Ghesquière since 2001 has seen him develop and push to the forefront the Balenciaga shoe collections. In 1999, Pierre Hardy created his first collection of women’s shoes under his own name. For Spring/Summer 2013, Hardy has introduced fewer platforms, heels are lower and stabilizing at 8, 9 or 10 cm; creating a new silhouette with a lighter foot. Reworking the main standards of the shoe to radicalize them by developing open models, offbeat volumes, spiky heels, leather-cut raw and toxic colours – thus defining a venomous femininity. A chic mix of 1940s retro volumes, glam 1970 touches, graphic dynamics from the 1980s and gangsta rap samples totally in today’s mood. Clashing references, then smoothed down, sharpened and styled to the extreme make this a collection with a strange sophistication.