He dedicated himself to architecture and claimed to be an artisan. However, it was elsewhere, in fashion design that “the metallurgist”, as Gabrielle Chanel contemptuously called him, built his empire. 1955: In his Parisian student room, Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo, a young Spanish thirty-something fresh out of the Fine Arts school, tinkers with his first collection. These “twelve unwearable dresses in contemporary materials” are nonetheless worn by models dancing barefoot in the salons of the George V, swirling their aluminium and Rhodoïd dresses in a presentation reminiscent of a manifesto. The man calling himself Paco Rabanne immediately established himself as a “brutal provocateur” in his own words. “A fashion designer, like any creator, must compel the public to move forward, he must surprise them, take them out of their customary acceptance of art to show them other possibilities, other boundaries” asserts the man who considers himself a student of Cristobal Balenciaga. Like him, Paco Rabanne explores the philosophy of anatomy and masters the art of cutting. This is evidenced by this iconic dress created for the Spring-Summer 1967 collection and composed of riveted metal rectangles assembled by rings. The eternal standard of Paco Rabanne’s signature that revolutionised the history of fashion. Criticised for its discomfort and accused of hindering movement and even causing skin injuries, it is meticulously composed of plates differing from each other in shape or curvature, thus adapting to the curved contours of the female silhouette. Custom-made for each client by Paco Rabanne himself according to the same interlocking structure, each piece is unique in its variations of the plate shape, in the metal sometimes smooth, sometimes brushed or hammered, in its colour - golden, silver, in the decorations that can take the form of studs or half-cabochons, in the number of rows determined according to the client’s size or the desired effect. Elevated as an allegory of Rabanne’s style, the metallic dress occupies a prominent place in the collections of the world’s greatest museum institutions: Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Palais Galliera in Paris & Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, Kyoto Costume Institute in Japan, and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It captivated Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda, Françoise Hardy, and Audrey Hepburn, and shimmered in three films released in 1967: Roger Vadim’s Barbarella, Stanley Donen’s Two for the Road, and John Huston’s Casino Royale. Not to mention William Klein cinematic UFO Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?, a satire of fashion opening with a wild parade of models injured by their metallic outfits. Although officially admitted in 1971 into the community of couturiers, Paco Rabanne continued throughout his career this laboratory research, overturning established values, venturing to the edge of conventions, questioning good and bad taste, and skillfully deconstructing the canonical principles of haute couture. His subversive creativity rooted in the collective imagination continues its path through the influence it still exerts on contemporary creators such as Iris Van Herpen or Kevin Germnanier, and through the astute reinterpretation work carried out by the talented Julien Dosséna, artistic director of the House since 2013. - Pénélope Blanckaert

1960s Paco Rabanne’s metallic dresses belong to the collection of: - Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, "Dress", 1967 - Palais Galliera in Paris, "Robe", 1967 - Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, "Robe mini", 1968 - Kyoto Costume Institute in Japan, "Metal Worker", 1967 - Victoria & Albert Museum in London, "Mini dress", 1968 - Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, "Dress", 1967

“Paco Rabanne, le sens de la recherche”, Lydia Kamitsis, Michael Lafon Publisher, 1996. Similar dresses p. 56 & p.59