Space Age designer Paco Rabanne - stage name of Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo - born in Pasaia, in the Basque Country, Spain, on February 19, 1934, has died in Portsall, Brittany, at the age of 88. His mother had worked as a seamstress for Cristóbal Balenciaga. His father was an officer and was killed during the Spanish civil war.
His first collection, Manifesto, dates back to 1966, presented at the Hôtel George V, with 12 shocking dresses (imagine the Parisian fashion shows of the time!) featuring PVC, plastic, jingling worked metal and paper. He was the first designer ever to use music in his fashion shows. Chanel called him “not a couturier, but the metallurgist of fashion.”
He also worked in the movie industry. He very famously worked with Roger Vadim, creating the costumes for the cult film Barbarella, with Jane Fonda. He will forever be remembered as the enfant terrible of fashion, a futurist and visionary who made the history of costumes.