Paco Rabanne, a luminary of perfumery.
Who was Paco Rabanne?
Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo, known as Paco Rabanne, was born in Pasaia, Spain, in 1934 and was a world-renowned fashion designer and stylist.
He studied to become an architect but began to be known in the 1960s as an "enfant terrible" of the French fashion world. Rabanne embarked on his career in fashion by creating jewelry for Givenchy, Dior, and Balenciaga in the 1960s.
He started his own fashion house in 1966. He used out-of-the-ordinary materials such as metal, paper and plastic for his designs. Coco Chanel dubbed his colleague "the metallurgist of fashion" since he used metal a lot in his creations. In fact, the designer carries out a series of innovative research on materials from all over the world. He uses precisely aluminum, one of his emblematic metals, for a mini dress decorated with panels that seems to anticipate the Space Age. It is one of the most photographed garments of 1968.
Considering him truly the forerunner of a revolutionary concept, Salvador Dali says of him, "He is the second greatest genius in Spain, after me." But the designer does not only work with metal, how can we not mention the dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the film Two for the Road, made from small plastic discs and now part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York. At this point, Paco Rabanne decided to vote his life into the world of fashion.
Considering him truly the forerunner of a revolutionary concept, Salvador Dali says of him, "He is the second greatest genius in Spain, after me." But the designer does not only work with metal, how can we not mention the dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the film Two for the Road, made from small plastic discs and now part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York. At this point, Paco Rabanne decided to vote his life into the world of fashion.
Paco Rabanne He was the first designer ever to use music in his fashion shows. In the 1970s he launched the men's eau de toilette Paco Rabanne Pour Homme. Among his best-known clients were Romina Power and Françoise Hardy. Paco Rabanne became known for his stage costumes in films such as Barbarella. Rabanne became interested in paranormal phenomena and was disliked by the public for his erroneous predictions regarding a fall of the Russian space station Mir on Paris in 1999.
Paco Rabanne's impact in perfumery.
Francisco, known for his maniacal attention paid to particular types of materials used in the fashion district, others will surely remember him for his greatest masterpiece, 1 million. But let's take a few steps back, Paco Rabanne, when did he turn to the world of fine fragrance?
It was 1969 the year when he collaborated with the Puig house (a Spanish fashion and fragrance company founded in 1914 by Antonio Puig and the Castellós in Barcelona) to launch a first perfume Calandre and in 1973 the first perfume, Paco Rabanne, a men's eau de toilette, the first of the aromatic-fougère family in which spicy and woody notes are united by contrasting them with sweet amber notes. The fragrance opens with aromatic and Mediterranean notes of lavender and thyme, continuing in a floral heart, thanks to carnation and sage: to close, masculine and virile base notes given by tobacco and quercine musk, bottle created by designer Pierre Dinand vi. Métal, La Nuit, Sport, and Ténéré follow. Paco Rabanne's perfumes are successful, so he still creates XS called XS pour Elle, Paco.
1 million, the acme of designer perfumery
The maison's flagship fragrance, hated by many, praised by all, considered a milestone and pillar of the perfumery, 1 Million, with its eye-catching bottle reminiscent of a gold ingot, typical of Paco Rabanne, in 2008 landed in the perfumery deforming and disrupting the market, becoming the most purchased and inflated fragrance of recent years, along with Sauvage by Dior and Acqua di Giò.
It is followed by Métal, La Nuit, Sport, and Ténéré. Paco Rabanne's perfumes are successful, so he still creates XS called XS pour Elle, Paco.
Dressing a bottle in gold might have seemed like a gamble, an excess, but it was the winning factor that allowed Paco Rabanne to reflect its nature, style, and soul in this brand new perfume.
A numbered and engraved gold bar, specially created by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance. A perfume designed for a strong and fascinating 2.0 man. Felt as a revisiting of a path that had to evolve and disrupt the market. So it was. 1 Million turns out to be one of the most purchased and successful perfumes. The promotional campaign wanted to promote this fragrance certainly did its job well, becoming an added value to something that was already a winner in itself. The image of a winning man, played by model Matt Gordon, who just by snapping his fingers can get everything he wants, thanks to his unmistakable 1 Million fragrance.
No less important Christophe Raynaud, Olivier Pescheux, Michel Girard, and Christian Dussoulier, the perfumer noses who have committed themselves to creating this art form, yes, because to this day, a perfume that continues to sell and excite cannot but be considered a form of artistic expression.
"A perfume must be as full of meaning as it is light to wear. " -Paco Rabanne.
February 3, 2023, Paco Rabanne leaves us, with a permanent memory, like a perfume.
Sources:
Photo by Micha Lehmann su Unsplash, Google
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