fashion designer dies at 88

Paco Rabanne was a fashion designer known for his space age designs in unusual materials, such as metal and plastic.

A lifetime of fashion

Rabanne grew up steeped in the fashion world, as his mother was a seamstress for the legendary Balenciaga fashion house. A native of Spain who relocated to Paris with his family as a boy, Rabanne studied architecture but found himself gravitating to fashion until he opened his own fashion house in 1966. He launched with a bang, presenting his “12 Unwearable Dresses in Contemporary Materials” collection. It featured dresses made of linked plastic disks, spiky bits of metals, and other surprising materials. Rabanne continued pushing the envelope with his fashions, but more accessible to the average consumer were his fragrances. These included his debut scent, Calandre, as well as popular perfumes including 1 Million, Lady Million, and XS. Rabanne was also known for his eccentricities, including his publicly stated belief that the space station Mir would crash into France and destroy Paris.

Notable quote

“As a journalist said: Paco Rabanne, how avant-garde you are. I invariably replied: Not at all, I am of my time, but you have a delay of fifty years.” —from a 2008 interview for Mirror Mirror

 

Tributes to Paco Rabanne

 

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