History of Paco Rabanne

Francisco de Rabanne da Cuervo, known to everyone as Paco Rabanne, was born in Spain in 1934. During the Civil War, she and her mother left for France, where Paco graduated from the School of Fine Arts and received an architect's diploma in 1964. His career as a designer began in 1965, when he presented his experimental collection of twelve dresses, among which was a plastic dress.

In the sixties of the twentieth century, Paco Rabanne was in demand as a costume designer for theater, cinema and ballet. One of the most famous of his creations of the time was the costume for Jane Fonda in the science fiction film "Barbarella". Although the style of Paco was considered strange and outlandish, his design work had a great influence on fashion and broadened its boundaries. In the seventies, Paco was the first to use dark-skinned girls as models, which at that time was considered quite outrageous.

However, the activities of Paco Rabanne were not limited to just the design of clothes. In 1969, he released his first fragrance called Calandre. His spirits, like everything else, whatever he did, reflected the individuality and shock of his creator. So, Calandre combined the smell of roses and the smack of metal. In 1973, a new creation of Paco Rabanne - perfume for men Paco Rabanne pour Homme, combining the smell of wood and flowers. They have become just a breakthrough in the world of perfumery. Then began to appear more and more new fragrances. Now in total there are more than thirty-six species.

In 1989, Paco Rabanne was awarded the Golden Thimble Award at the first International Fashion Festival. He got it for creating designer clothes, trimmed with unusual materials, such as cotton towels, corrugated paper, ostrich feathers, aluminum and others. A year after receiving the award, Paco opened his boutique in Paris. Together with the architect Erik Raffi, they developed an interior that combines three themes: metal, light and glass. It was during this period that Paco stepped back from using metal and plastic in his design works and began resorting to softer synthetic fabric materials.

In addition to the above talents, Paco Raban discovered to people and one more. He wrote books. In them he described his search for spiritual understanding. The most famous works were "Trajectoire" in 1991 and "Journey: From One Life to Another" in 1997. In his writings, Paco revealed his deepest interests to mysticism, astrology and God.

In 1999, the famous designer decided to retire. Before this came out a new fragrance Paco Rabanne - Ultraviolet, which became literally the classic of world perfumery. Being on the deserved rest, the couturier was carried away by one more creative occupation - painting. Exhibitions of his paintings were also in Russia. In the past decade, Paco has been actively involved in social life, taking part in AIDS support activities. He continues to design clothes and sometimes creates outfits for famous people. In 2010, Paco Rabanne received the National Order of the Legion of Honor, which is the biggest award in France. Nevertheless, he still considers his homeland to be Spain. He was repeatedly asked to accept the citizenship of France, but he constantly refused, arguing that he did not want to upset his parents.