The Spanish fashion designer Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo, known internationally as Paco Rabanne, died Friday at the age of 88 at his home in Porstall, in Finisterre, where he lived. The French media ‘Le Telégramme’ or the French version of ‘Vanity Fair’ confirmed the news of his death, as well as the Spanish group Puig, after many rumors that his death could be a hoax.
Marc Puig, CEO of Puig, declared in a statement his sorrow for the sad news: «I am deeply saddened by the passing of Paco Rabanne. The story of Puig and Paco Rabanne begins in the late 1960s with the launch of Calandre, the perfume created shortly after the designer launched 12 impossible-to-wear dresses in contemporary materials. His great personality conveyed, through a unique aesthetic, his daring, revolutionary and provocative vision of the fashion world» and has assured that «he will continue to be an important source of inspiration for Puig’s fashion and fragrance teams, who work together to express the radically modern codes of Paco Rabanne. My sincere condolences to his family and to those who knew him».
He studied architecture between 1951 and 1963 at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but his name soon began to resonate strongly in the world of fashion. It was in 1959 when we saw a series of seven dresses with geometric lines signed by Franck Rabanne in Women’s Wear Daily, when he was already designing bowling for Roger Model and shoes for Charles Jourdan.
In 1966 she presented her first ‘manifesto collection’ consisting of 12 dresses made of contemporary materials and, months later, her second collection, this time of Rhodoid swimsuits. Designing accessories for couturiers such as Givenchy, Balenciaga or Dior in these early years, he soon realized that his career was beginning to take off, becoming responsible for the aesthetics of some films such as ‘Les aventuriers’, ‘Barbarella’ or even Audrey Hepburn’s dresses in ‘Two for the Road’.
SOURCE: (CHANCE)