FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2016, file photo, French fashion designer Pierre Cardin acknowledges applause after a show to mark 70 years of his creations, in Paris. France's Academy of Fine Arts says famed fashion designer Pierre Cardin has died at 98. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)PARIS – French fashion designer Pierre Cardin possessed a wildly inventive artistic sensibility tempered by a stiff dose of business sense. Cardin, who died Tuesday at age 98, was the ultimate entrepreneurial designer. He understood the importance his exclusive haute couture shows played in stoking consumer desire and became an early pioneer of licensing.