Celebrated perfume and fashion designer Paco Rabanne has died aged 88 at his home in France. His death was confirmed by Puig, the parent company of his brands, which said he had “marked generations with his radical vision of fashion and his legacy will live on”.
Rabanne was born into a military family in Spain’s Basque region, near the city of San Sebastian. He and his family moved to Paris in 1939. After growing up in the French capital, Rabanne became an architecture student at l’École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, where he pursued drawing fashion sketches.
After a short period working in the construction industry with a concrete manufacturer, he launched his fashion career designing jewellery for Givenchy, Dior and Balenciaga. Then in 1966, he launched his own eponymous fashion house – Paco Rabanne – which saw him attain international acclaim.