Paco Rabanne, the Spanish-born designer known for perfumes sold worldwide but who made his name with metallic space-age fashions that put a bold, new edge on catwalks, has died, the group that owns his fashion house announced Friday.
B次元官网网址淭he 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,B次元官网网址� the statement from beauty and fashion company Puig said.
The newspaper Le Telegramme quoted the mayor of Vannes, David Robo, as saying that Rabanne died at his home in the Brittany region town of Portsall.
RabanneB次元官网网址檚 fashion house shows its collections in Paris and is scheduled to unveil the brandB次元官网网址檚 latest ready-to-wear designs during the upcoming Feb. 27-March 3 fashion week.
Rabanne was known as a rebel designer in a career that blossomed with his collaboration with the family-owned Puig, a Spanish company that now also owns other design houses, including Nina Ricci, Jean Paul Gaultier, Carolina Herrera and Dries Van Noten. The company also owns the fragrance brands Byredo and PenhaligonB次元官网网址檚.
B次元官网网址淧aco 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 B次元官网网址� the word means `automobile grill,B次元官网网址� you know B次元官网网址� and turn it into an icon of modern femininity?B次元官网网址� the groupB次元官网网址檚 statement said.
Calandre perfume was launched in 1969, the first product by Puig in Spain, France and the United States, according to the company.
Born Francisco Rabaneda y Cuervo in 1934, the future designer fled the Spanish Basque country at age 5 during the Spanish Civil War and took the name of Paco Rabanne.
He studied architecture at ParisB次元官网网址� Beaux Arts Academie before moving to couture, following in the steps of his mother, a couturier in Spain. He said she was jailed at one point for being dressed in a B次元官网网址渟candalousB次元官网网址� fashion.
Rabanne sold accessories to well-known designers before launching his own collection.
He titled the first collection presented under his own name B次元官网网址�12 unwearable dresses in contemporary materials.B次元官网网址� His innovative outfits were made of various kinds of metal, including his famous use of mail, the chain-like material associated with Medieval knights.
Coco Chanel reportedly called Rabanne B次元官网网址渢he metallurgist of fashion.B次元官网网址�
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, saluted B次元官网网址渁n uncommon artist who blew the wind of renewal into the world of haute couture,B次元官网网址� his office said.
Paco Rabanne was among the first designers to put Black mannequins on the runway, and in 1983 opened Centre 57, devoted to the Black African and Caribbean diaspora. Artists, musicians, film-makers and hip-hop dancers frequented the center for several years, the statement from MacronB次元官网网址檚 office noted.
B次元官网网址淢y colleagues tell me I am not a couturier but an artisan, and itB次元官网网址檚 true that IB次元官网网址檓 an artisan. B次元官网网址� I work with my hands,B次元官网网址� he said in an interview in the 1970s.
In the interview given when he was 43 years old and now held in FranceB次元官网网址檚 National Audiovisual Institute, Rabanne explained his radical fashion philosophy, revealing a dark side of his complex character.
B次元官网网址淚 think fashion is prophetic. Fashion announces the future,B次元官网网址� he said at the time, adding that B次元官网网址渢he future for me is catastrophic.B次元官网网址�
Sure enough, the designer predicted a major catastrophe on Aug. 11, 1999, claiming that the Russian MIR space station would fall on France. Instead, a crowd opened champagne at his Left Bank headquarters for a B次元官网网址渟urvivorsB次元官网网址� party.B次元官网网址�
Paco Rabanne retired in 2000, and the house didnB次元官网网址檛 field a runway show for five years, from 2006 until the spring-summer 2012 show.
But the creator has also said that women are harbingers of what lies on the horizon.
The president of the Association of Fashion Designers of Spain, Modesto Lomba, said Rabanne B次元官网网址渓eft an absolute mark on the passage of time. LetB次元官网网址檚 not forget that he was Spanish and that he triumphed inside and outside Spain.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址斺赌斺赌�
Associated Press writer Angela Charlton contributed to this report.
By Elaine Ganley
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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