Pierre Cardin is a famous French fashion brand, and I never thought they were into stationery as well. I’ve just had the chance to use and review a Pierre Cardin fountain pen for the first time, and the pen I received was the Pierre Cardin Grand Aqua fountain pen! The pen came in a nice smooth box with the Pierre Cardin logo debossed on it. When I opened it up, I was really happy to see a beautiful white pen with rose gold trims!
The pen looks very elegant with a smooth, shiny white pearl body, and it comes with a converter. The gold trims appear around the barrel, section, and on the clip area.
First impressions scored many points for the pen. It was relatively lightweight, which suits it size. It is a medium-sized pen but slightly on the slimmer side. The cap is a pull-off and interestingly, snaps shut at two stops. I believe there is an inner cap which grips the pen at the first stop, and as you push it further, the cap is fully closed. Inner caps are supposed to prevent the nib from drying out – we will see how it performs later.
The cap has a clip which is rose gold in colour too. On the top of the cap, there is the Pierre Cardin logo against a black background. There is also an engraving “TAIWAN” which suggests that this pen was made in Taiwan.
Uncapping the pen, you see a two-coloured nib. This is clearly a steel nib from the writing experience. The gold tones seem to have been plated onto the nib. While the rest of the pen looks very clean and elegant, the nib however, has part where the plating was not even. This may be a turnoff for some people, since the nib is the essence of a fountain pen.
The pen dismantles easily, having a section that screws out smoothly. The cartridge used is an international short cartridge, which is good as it is easy to find. I, however, used the converter to fill the pen with J. Herbin Perle Noire (my go-to ink, as usual).
The writing experience was smooth and pleasant, to say the least! I wrote an entire 4-page letter to a friend with this pen and didn’t hesitate a single time. I like the smoothness, which is not as slippery as a baby’s bottom, but it gives some minor tactile feedback, and glides along. The ink flow was moderate – saturated enough for the black to appear right, but not too wet, so that a left-hander like me can move the writing hand across the page without too much worry of smudging wet ink. So, this probably gained back some points from the fact that the nib’s plating was not nicely done!
Overall I would say this pen is a very decent pen, that looks nice and elegant. It would be suitable for both beginners and those who have been trying out fountain pens for a while, and are looking to move up the range.
I thank Pierre Cardin for sending me the pen for review. All opinions are of my own.
I am the founder of this website.
Chemist by day, slacker by night, fanatic of stationery all the time.
I write with my left hand, but can also do the same with my right hand – it just won’t look very pretty.
Thank you Maybelline !
Looking forward to visiting Singapore Fountain Pen Lovers in the near future ~