Paco Rabanne, fashion designer and parfumier whose Space Age aesthetic was matched by his New Age philosophy – obituary
telegraph.co.ukFor the intergalactic sex goddess Barbarella in Roger Vadim’s 1968 film of the same name, he produced pirate-style leather boots, halter tops made from see-through moulded plastic and a green dress that resembled a Space Age lampshade (and offered about as much coverage).But as with most post-war fashion designers, real wealth only came with the launch of his perfume and diffusion ranges.
Calandre (1969, named after the French for a car’s radiator grille), Paco Rabanne pour Hommes (1974) and XS (1993-94) were some of the most successful scents of their day, while Lady Million (2010) – sold in diamond-shaped bottles with embossed gold caps – played up to ideas of extravagance.
In another indication of the designer’s forward-thinking tactics, Paco Rabanne was among the first brands to be sampled in a men’s magazine; readers of Playboy in July 1984 received an insert imbued with the latest luxury scent.Though Rabanne was, he admitted, “rather put out once” to hear himself described in passing as “the perfumes man”, the financial figures bore out this description.
By 1987 the Spanish cosmetics group Puig, already the owners of Parfums Paco Rabanne, had gained control of the apparel business as well, and by the new millennium turnover within the House of Rabanne had come to be largely dependent upon perfume sales.
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