(Paris) Spanish fashion designer Paco Rabanne, famous for his metal dresses, died Friday at the age of 88 in France, in Brittany, announced the Catalan group Puig, which owns the brand bearing his name.
“With deep sadness, Puig announces the death of Paco Rabanne,” said a press release, confirming information from the regional daily. The Telegram. The designer died in the village of Portsall where he lived, said a spokesperson.
“A major fashion personality, his vision was bold, revolutionary and provocative, conveyed by a unique aesthetic. He will remain an important source of inspiration for Puig’s fashion and fragrance teams, who constantly work together to express the radically modern codes of Mr. Paco Rabanne,” said Marc Puig, CEO of the group, quoted in the press release. .
Jose Manuel Albesa, president of the “beauty and fashion” division of Puig, for his part paid tribute to the “radical and rebellious spirit” of the designer.
“Who else could incite fashion-conscious Parisiennes to demand plastic and metal dresses? Who else but Paco Rabanne could imagine a perfume called “Calandre” – the word means “car grill” – and make it an icon of modern femininity? “, he added.
Born on February 18, 1934 in the Spanish Basque Country, in San Sebastian where his mother was first hand at Cristobal Balenciaga, Paco Rabanne – whose real name is Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo – graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Paris, architecture section.
His father, General Rabaneda Postigo, who commanded the Guernica garrison, was shot by Franco’s soldiers in 1936. In 1939, the family had taken refuge in France.
He began his career by creating accessories, jewelry, ties, buttons that he offered to Dior, Saint-Laurent, Cardin. Before embarking on fashion in turn to bring it to life in line with new materials and techniques.
Throughout his career, the couturier, who assiduously practiced esotericism, also stood out for a number of eccentric statements and hazardous predictions.
In 1999, for example, he had announced in one of his books the destruction of Paris by the fall of the Mir station, based on a very personal reading of the prophecies of Nostradamus.
The same year, the house had ceased its haute couture activity to refocus on ready-to-wear.
Gradually taking the distance, Paco Rabanne continued to appear in fashion festival juries.