The fashion designer Paco Rabanne is dead. He died on Friday at the age of 88, as the Spanish cosmetics group Puig confirmed to the German Press Agency.
“He is one of the most important personalities in the fashion world of the 20th century and his legacy will remain a constant source of inspiration,” the fashion house paid tribute to him on Instagram. “We are grateful to Monsieur Rabanne for establishing our avant-garde heritage and defining a future of unlimited possibilities.”
Rabanne, born in San Sebastián, Spain, in 1934, became known in the 1960s for his extravagant clothing designs. Unlike other fashion designers at the time, he used little satin or velvet, instead playing with materials such as aluminum or plastic.
In recent years he has been best known for his perfume line. Rabanne was considered a self-taught fashion designer. His mother worked for fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga. In the 1960s, Rabanne founded his eponymous company, which has been fully owned by the Spanish cosmetics group Puig for several decades.
According to media reports, the fashion designer died in Brittany near Brest.
