Paco Rabanne’s Relaunch
Between the Marimekko store opening in New York, Courrèges plans for a global relaunch, and Paco Rabanne’s return to the Paris runway, there must be something ‘60s in the air.
The latter closed out Paris Fashion Week with a bang—its new creative director, Manish Arora, garnering critical acclaim for the line’s revival.
“If ever there was a designer-to-brand matchup that was made of perfectly complementary parts, it would be the appointment of Manish Arora as creative director at Paco Rabanne this season,” wrote Eric Wilson for the New York Times.
“Mr. Arora’s flair for fantastical and theatrical designs is not that far off from what Mr. Rabanne was doing in the 1960s, when he made dresses of metal plates and squares that occasionally gave literal meaning to the term fashion victim.”
There were mosaic-like pieced together skirts and dresses, dramatically sculpted minis, sharp shoulders, and more than enough metallic and iridescents to sufficiently hearken back to Rabanne’s glory days.
The real showstoppers, though, were the closing looks: dresses made of paper with incredibly voluminous pleated necklines, extending up to an arm’s length away from the body.
“I’m used to intricate workmanship in clothes, and dresses that take 25 people to make,” Arora told the Times, before pointing out that he also offered separates and accessories to make the collection more commercially viable.
"There are a lot of similarities between Paco Rabanne and my brand, like the craftsmanship," Arora told Style.com. "The way he made clothes in the sixties was incredible. When I went to the archives, I looked at them and said, 'OK, this is me.'"
And check out more Spring 2012 collections.
