METAL MORPHOSIS

Once known for its futuristic couture, Spanish-owned fashion house Rabanne is evolving under the creative direction of Julien Dossena, but remains true to its founder's avant-garde legacy

- JACK MOSS

In 1966, the Spanish couturier Paco Rabanne presented his breakout collection, 'Twelve Unwearable Dresses in Contemporary Materials'. An evolution of an earlier project, as well as his work creating plastic accessories for Parisian houses like Schiaparelli, Balenciaga and Givenchy in the early 1960s, the collection of abbreviated mini dresses were fashioned from futuristic panels of aluminium and iridescent plastic, joined together with metal rings to evoke chainmail.

The audacious designs would send a jolt through Paris' traditional haute couture salons - 'he's not a couturier, he's a metal worker, Coco Chanel is said to have sniped - and posited the designer, who first trained as an architect, as fashion's enfant terrible. Alongside fellow couturiers André Courrèges and Pierre Cardin, and furniture designers such as Verner Panton, Arne Jacobsen and Eero Aarnio, he was deemed responsible for ushering in the 'space age' spirit of the late 1960s, which used post-war industrial materials to create a gleaming, utopian vision of the future. 'I defy anyone to design a hat, coat or dress that hasn't been done before, Rabanne said in 1966. The only new frontier left in fashion is the finding of new materials.

In February this year, Rabanne passed away, aged 88, at his home in Brittany. The following month, in Paris, French designer Julien Dossena - creative director of the house since 2013 - presented a collection that he described as a 'coda to the couturier's legacy', ending with five archival dresses and featuring spoken extracts from Rabanne as part of the show's soundtrack. 'Spanning five decades, these dresses will signal the innovative craftsmanship that defines the timeless and totemic women of Paco Rabanne, read the collection notes.