Photo of Paco Rabanne and his models backstage in his Haute Coutrue Fall-Winter 1968-69 Credits Claude Raimond Ditvyon Via Paco Rabanne Official Instagram

The revolutionary risk-taking artist Paco Rabanne has just passed away on February 3rd, 2023. (in 1975, Rabanne shared his drawings with Salvador Dalí – who encouraged him to continue). Born in the Basque town of Pasaia, Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo – later to be known as the brilliant fashion designer Paco Rabanne – seemed tailor-made [sic] to disrupt the status quo: after all, his mother was the chief seamstress for fellow Basquais Cristóbal Balenciaga. When Balenciaga moved his atelier from Spain to Paris due to the erupting Spanish Civil War in 1937, the Cuervo family followed soon after (in 1939).

Paco Rabanne with Francoise Hardy| © AGIP/AD/Everett Collection (00017328) 1968

It wasn’t long before Paco’s talents were acknowledged. In the 1950s, while attending the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in pursuit of the study of architecture, he supported himself by sketching designs for Givenchy and Dior, and shoes for Charles Jourdan. For the next 10 years, he also worked with architectural pioneer Auguste Perret, who created the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. It was 1966 when he finally founded his own house of couture at the tender age of 32. Mr. Rabanne’s exuberant mode turned the fashion world on its ear, utilizing paper, metal, and even plastic in his futuristic designs – which strikes me as extraordinary, considering that he didn’t see himself as someone so forward-looking – despite having created the first space-age couture. In the 1968 cult film Barbarella (starring a nubile Jane Fonda), the heroine’s wardrobe is all Rabanne’s doing. He became well known for his metal mail dresses and swimsuits – proudly worn by French icons such as singer/songwriter Françoise Hardy, Jane Birkin and Brigitte Bardot. From Audrey Hepburn to Lady Gaga, he dressed the beautiful people for decades.

Paco Rabanne Calandre ad courtesy of Paco Rabanne archives

It was in 1969, that riotous year – that Paco Rabanne released his first (and some say, his best loved) fragrance composed by perfumer Michael Hy (co-creator of YSL Rive Gauche with Jacques Polge, and composer of Ricci Fille D’ Eve, Farouche, and Pucci Eau de Vivara): Paco Rabanne Calandre. Who but the great Pierre Dinand could have invented such a distinguished, minimalist flacon? With its unassuming rectangular form bordered in silver, Calandre’s briskly modern appearance mirrors Rabanne’s sense of elegant fun often expressed in his metallic pastille-encrusted/constructed fashions. More than this, the fragrance possesses a lightness of being, a breezy devil-may-care aesthetic: it is a light-hearted aldehydic green floral chypre adorned with metallic thread. Those familiar with 1971’s YSL Rive Gauche will immediately smell Calandre’s lineage, the main difference being Rive Gauche’s exclusion of hyacinth in favor of employing peach, ylang-ylang, and tonka: it’s bolder, more intense; rosier, but a darker, moodier rose – and it also possesses a mossier, drier visage.

Paco Rabanne Calandre Ida’s bottle

Paco Rabanne Calandre opens with a sparkling wink of aldehydes: bright, good-natured, expansive. Bergamot encounters galbanum, which is instantly recognizable and tastefully underplayed. Other aromatic components augment floral verdancy – muguet and hyacinth, in particular; geranium straddles the floral/herbal/green line with a tease of mint. Rose and jasmine imbue a generous heart, skirted with orris’ silvery aspect. The elements which constitute Calandre’s base might easily be construed as heavy-hitting, dense materials, but in Michael Hy’s deft hands they provide a soft landing of sorts – wispy, fey, delightfully contemporary in feel, and effortlessly weightless. All this makes perfect sense, especially because the fragrance was originally intended as an eau de toilette – which is the form most readily available. The parfum concentration feels weightier and less diffusive; although no less lovely, Calandre’s esprit has been somewhat grounded, unlike its winged predecessor. For me, its appeal is experienced via a sense of flight, being airborne on a zephyr of buoyancy. It reminds us to savor the fleeting nature of play, and not to take ourselves too seriously. Somehow, we feel soigné without even trying. Notes: aldehydes, bergamot, galbanum, rose, jasmine, geranium, orris, muguet, hyacinth, sandalwood, vetiver, oakmoss, amber, musk

Paco Rabanne in In France In May, 1994 Getty

Many thanks, Mr. Rabanne – for all your years of dedication, artistry, and your capacity for keeping haute couture a vivacious source of enjoyment.

~ Ida Meister, Deputy and Natural Perfumery Editor

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