Paco Rabanne, goodbye to the designer who lived in the future

The designer passed away in Portsall, Brittany, at the age of 88 Paco Rabannestage name of Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo, born in Pasaia, in the Spanish Basque Country, on February 19, 1934. His mother worked as a seamstress for Cristóbal Balenciaga, while his father was an officer.

After moving to France (initially to Morlaix, then moving to Paris in 1951) with his mother following the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, in which his father was killed, Paco studied architecture at the National School of Fine Arts, but already Sixties his name became popular in the fashion world. He began his career as a designer of jewels and applications and imaginative accessories used by various brands, to land in 1966 with the foundation of his Maison.

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In February of the same year, his first collection was presented at the Hôtel George-V Manifest: 12 objectively importable clothes in contemporary materials, influenced by the modernisms of Space Age of those years. In a nutshell, there is already his whole fashion idea. Revolutionary, innovative and futuristic his approach to style, starting from the choice of new and surprising materials used, from pvc to plastic, from metal – worked by joining small plates together with rings – to paper. Not everyone immediately understood the avant-garde significance of the absolute genius – Gabrielle Chanel called him «not a couturier, but the metallurgist of fashion» – destined with his strength to influence the following decades. Research, experimentation and innovation have always been the cornerstones of his aesthetics.

His association with the world of cinema is also strong: his collaboration with Roger Vadim for the costumes of the cult film is very famous Barbarellain which he dressed Jane Fonda with his creations, true visions of the future today with an irresistibly vintage flavor.

From 1969 calenders, the first perfume in a long line of great commercial successes. Among the great revolutions introduced by Paco Rabanne in the old fashion rituals, also the introduction of music as the backbone of his engaging fashion shows.

In the 1999 predicted the fall of the Mir space station on the city of Paris. Perhaps the only intuition of his that has not come true. Starting from the same year she gradually withdraws from the catwalks, but his brand continues to conquer women all over the world, thanks to the work of the current creative director Julien Dossena.