Unusual creativity and extravagance character: Paco Rabanne

Enfant-terrible of the 1960s Parisian fashion scene, Paco Rabanne embodied a futuristic vision that became a billionaire global holding company with a lucrative luxury perfume division. Discover the story...

Francisco Rabaneda y Cuervo was born in the Basque Country a couple of years before the Spanish Civil War broke out. His mother, head seamstress at the San Sebastian shop of the great Basque couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga, rejoined the master's Paris atelier once her family was safe in Paris. As an architecture student, the young Francisco began designing jewellery and sketching for Dior, Givenchy, Balenciaga and Charles Jourdan. After ten years in Auguste Perret's architecture studio, he launched his own fashion label by frenchifying his Spanish surname. The legendary Paco Rabanne was born, with the 1966 "Manifesto” Collection: "12 unwearable dresses in contemporary materials". Renouncing the traditional thread and needle, he opted for plastic, metal, sheet metal, wire and glue, becoming the creator of the "Space-Age style", the young, rebellious and futuristic fashion of the 60s. By designing costumes for film and music divas of the 60s and 70s, he set a fashion milestone with the creations worn by Jane Fonda in the 1968 film Barbarella.

Provocative, utopic, unwearable, sexy, the Paco Rabanne style

In 1969, at the same time as the launch of Apollo 11, Paco Rabanne launched his first perfume "Calandre", in collaboration with the Spanish group Puig. In 1973, his first men's fragrance "Paco Rabanne pour homme" was born. The latest "Fame" line recreates the famous icons of the house, such as the "Le69" bag and metallic dresses, adapted to a new femininity represented by Elle Fanning, the current muse of Paco Rabanne... now simply renamed "Rabanne".

...show off your rebel creativity… by wearing Rabanne perfumes

“Fashion and perfumes are two pillars in pursuit of seduction”

Paco Rabanne