Paco Rabanne dies aged 88
Ali Condon
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock/ REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo
World-famous designer Paco Rabanne has died at the age of 88, a spokesperson has confirmed.
The designer, real name Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo, was best known for his perfumes and fashion designs.
A statement shared on the renowned Spanish designer's official Instagram account read: "The House of Paco Rabanne wishes to honour our visionary designer and founder who passed away today at the age of 88.
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"Among the most seminal fashion figures of the 20th century, his legacy will remain a constant source of inspiration.
“We are grateful to Monsieur Rabanne for establishing our avant-garde heritage and defining a future of limitless possibilities.”
Puig, the Spanish parent company of Paco Rabanne's brands confirmed the news on Friday (3 February), nothing that the designer had 'marked generations with his radical vision of fashion and his legacy will live on."
Paco Rabanne was born in Pasaia, Gipuzka, Spain to a Republican colonel and a chief seamstress for Balenciaga.
The Spanish Civil War majorly impacted Rabanne's childhood, resulting in his father's execution and his family's move to Paris.
While studying at l'École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, he earned money creating fashion sketches for top fashion brands like Givenchy and Dior.
By 1966, Rabanne had his own fashion house, and was known best for using unusual material in his designs.
Two years later, he started working with Puig to create Paco Rabanne perfumes - which, today, are some of the most popular perfumes in the world.
In 1960s Paris, Paco Rabanne was known to the Paris fashion world as an 'enfant terrible', which directly translates to 'terrible child', but has a much kinder meaning.
The French phrase essentially describes a young success who paves the way with striking, rebellious ideals. And that certainly describes Paco Rabanne.
The designer was known for his unusual pieces, often made of odd materials like plastic and metal.
Some of his unorthodox fashion designs can still be seen today at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
He was also the first fashion designer to use Black women as models, which was considered quite shocking at the time.
His work also appeared on the big screen - most famously on Jane Fonda in the 1968 sci-fi Barbarella.
Outside of the fashion world, Paco Rabanne was known for his fascination with the paranormal.
In 1999 he quite infamously predicted that the Mir space station was going to crash into Paris during the solar eclipse that August, and that the crash would kill thousands. Of course, this never happened.
Fans of the fashion world are already pouring their hearts out with tributes to the late great designer.