Pierre Cardin, Visionary Fashion Designer, Dies at 98 – The New York Times:

His ability to sculpt fabric with an architectural sensibility was his real signature,” he added.

Mr. Cardin drew inspiration from everywhere, be it the pagodas he visited in China, Op Art painting or automotive design. 

“I’m always inspired by something outside, not by the body itself,” he told The New York Times in 1985. Clothing, he said, was meant “to give the body its shape, the way a glass gives shape to the water poured into it.”