Remembering Designer Paco Rabanne
Photo: Federick Florin via NBC News
Last Friday, it was announced that Spanish fashion designer Paco Rabanne passed away. Rabanne’s influence on the fashion industry cannot be understated. With his space age designs, perfumes and experimental garments, he brought something original to the table that the fashion industry has never seen before.
In a statement Friday announcing his passing, Puig stated, “The House of Paco Rabanne wishes to honor our visionary designer and founder who passed away today at the age of 88. Among the most seminal fashion figures of the 20th century, his legacy will remain. Paco Rabanne made transgression magnetic. Who else could induce fashionable Parisian women (to) clamor for dresses made of plastic and metal? Who but Paco Rabanne could imagine a fragrance called Calandre — the word means ‘automobile grill,’ you know — and turn it into an icon of modern femininity?” His legacy remains is a statement that has already been proven and rings true with celebrities like Cardi B wearing a tribute to him at the Grammys on Sunday while presenting an award.
Photo: Sonja Flemmings via People Magazine
Rabanne was born Francisco Rabaneda y Cuervo in February 1934 in a military family in Pasajes in the Basque County region. His dad was a colonel in the Spanish Republican military and was eventually executed by the regime. His mother was a couture seamstress for designer Cristobal Balenciaga. In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began and in 1939, the family moved to Paris to escape nationalist forces and he changed his name to the one we know him as today, Paco Rabanne. Before he became a couturier, he studied architecture at Paris’ l’École Nationale des Beaux - Arts and sold his accessories to other designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Givenchy, Dior and Balenciaga in the 1950s. In 1966, he finally launched his fashion house and his first collection titled “Manifesto: 12 Unwearable Dresses in Contemporary Materials” featuring 12 dresses that were created using metals, chainmail and other materials.
His 1969 Fashion Show Photo: INA via The Guardian
The French fashion world was shocked by his debut collection with Chanel herself saying he isn’t a designer but a “metal worker.” This collection already set him apart from the conventional designs that the fashion industry was creating at the time, which made him already a designer to watch in the industry and an artist to boot. In 1968, he eventually signed a deal with the Puig family and after this deal, he began to target the perfume market, something that would prove to be very successful for his brand.
His 1996 Haute Couture Show Photo: Stéphane Cardinale via The Guardian
He released the debut fragrance Calandre, which is still popular and sold by the brand today. This fragrance was released both in store and online, making him the first designer to release their fragrance online at the time. Rabanne was a part of the “Space Age” designers along with designers Pierre Cardin and André Courrèges. They were all couturiers that specialized in avant garde designs that looked futuristic and modern in nature. Rabanne set himself apart because he used an array of materials such as plastics and metals to create his garments.
His 1994 Haute Couture Show Photo: Georges DeKeerle via The Guardian
Rabanne retired from fashion after his 1999 haute couture show but in 2011, Puig, his brand's current parent company, brought back his fashion line. Now, its creative director is French designer Julien Dossena. Rabanne has created many original garments that only he can think of. He helped modernize haute couture and influenced the modern space age aesthetic of the 1960s. His legacy will continue to live on through his fashion brand with the help of designer Dossena and through the fashion industry remembering him.
