Francisco de Rabanne da Cuervo, known worldwide as Paco Rabanne, was born in San Sebastián, Spain, on February 18, 1934. During the Spanish civil war, he fled to France along with his mother, who was then the Chief Seamstress of the Salon de Balenciaga.

Paco studied architecture at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, graduating in 1964. To finance his studies, he produced fashion accessories made of plastic for Givenchy, Dior, and Balenciaga. His career as a designer began in 1965 when he introduced “Unwearables”, a collection of 12 experimental contemporary dresses, which included his first plastic dress. The following year, he opened his own store that featured plastic dresses and accessories with plastic disks laced with metal. His extravagant and extravagant fashion statements completely departed from tradition with the use of new materials and earned him the title of “enfant terrible” of French fashion.

Soon, Paco Rabanne was a name to be reckoned with and was first to think of as a costume designer for film, theater and ballet. One outfit that stood out in particular that he designed was for Barbarella, which amassed a cult following. Although his style may have been considered bizarre and extravagant, his creations had a major influence in changing the face of fashion by pushing the boundaries of acceptable streetwear.

In 1969, he launched his first fragrance, “Calandre”. Today Paco Rabanne has a popular fragrance range of 36 fragrances.

In the 1980s, his creations are distinguished by the use of unusual materials such as crumpled paper, cotton towels, aluminum, patchwork leather, ostrich feathers and upholstery tassels. In 1989, Paco Rabanne was awarded the Golden Thimble Award during the First International Fashion Festival. A year later, he opened his Paris boutique on rue de Cherche Midi, whose interiors were designed and built around themes of metal, glass and light. It was at this time that Paco Rabanne launched his women’s ready-to-wear line that moved away from the usual metallic and plastic materials and switched to softer man-made fabrics such as sofrina and amaretto.

Rabanne wrote several books, most notably “Trajectory” (1991) and “Journey: From One Life to Another” (1997), which were personal accounts of his search for spiritual understanding and how he applied the results of this search to his life. creative work. These were followed by “Le Temps Presente”, “La Fin des Temps”, “Has the countdown begun?” more “Dawn of the Golden Age.” His writings reveal his deep interest in mysticism, astrology, out-of-body experiences, and close encounters with God.

In 1999, at the age of 34, Paco Rabanne presented his latest collection and retired, leaving the design of the House of Rabanne to younger designers and giving himself time to explore other forms of art. In 2005, he opened the first exhibition of his drawings in Moscow, including a sketch dedicated to the 2004 Beslan school massacre. “I want this drawing to be sold and the money to be given to the women of Beslan,” said the designer.