Iconic fashion designer dead

Spanish-born fashion designer Paco Rabanne has died aged 88 in the French town of Porstall, where he lived. His death was confirmed by Puig, which controls the fashion house and fragrance business bearing his name.

In a statement, Puig president Jose Manuel Albesa said Rabanne “marked generations with his radical vision of fashion and his legacy will live on.”

Rabanne, whose real name was Francisco Rabaneda y Cuervo, was best known for eccentric futuristic styles using materials like plastic, metal and paper, making him a major figure in the space-age fashion movement of the 1960s.

His first collection using plastics was presented in 1966 and was titled “12 Unwearable Dresses in Contemporary Materials.” Rabanne “made transgression magnetic” with his “radical, rebellious spirit,” Albesa said. 

Born in 1934, Rabanne’s father was a colonel in the Republican military who was shot dead by Francoist troops during the Spanish Civil War. His mother was a chief seamstress at Cristobal Balenciaga’s first fashion house in the Basque country. The family later moved to Paris, where Rabanne studied architecture and began creating sketches for Dior and Givenchy.

Over the course of his career, Rabanne dressed stars from Audrey Hepburn to Lady Gaga. He retired in 1999 and had rarely made appearances in public since.

The cause of Rabanne’s death was not confirmed.