Paco Rabanne and His Most Magnetic Scents

A Perfume Should Be As Imbued With Meaning As It Is Light To Wear

Paco Rabanne

The legendary Spanish born fashion and fragrance designer Paco Rabanne, passed away Feb 3, 2023, at the age of 88. Paco Rabanne revolutionized fashion and was famous for his boundary-breaking “Space Age” style, using offbeat materials like metallics, plastic and chain mail. For nearly five decades he dressed superstars including Jane Fonda, Audrey Hepburn, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. He famously dressed Lady Gaga in outfits made entirely of paper for her 2011 appearance on the MTV Europe Awards. On February 5th, Cardi B wore a Paco Rabanne silver metal gown when she presented Kendrick Lamar with the award for Best Rap Album.

Fleeing the repressive dictator Francisco Franco, he went on to study architecture at the Beaux Arts Academie in Paris before moving to couture, following in the footsteps of his mother, who was a dressmaker in Spain. He claimed she was jailed at one point for being dressed in a “scandalous” fashion, so you can say he had rebellion in his DNA. He signed a deal in 1968 that brought him under the ownership of the Barcelona-based Puig family, major players in the fashion and fragrance industry.

 A year later, in 1969, he created his first perfume Calandre — the French word means “automobile grill,” and the bottle is framed in silver. Calandre’s modern appearance fit his style and the brief he gave perfumer Michel Hy was to capture the feeling of a couple making love on top of a car. When it was launched it was considered risqué, yet the scent is easy to wear; a classic, green floral chypre. Bubbling aldehydes are poured over the cool, silver aroma of iris and tied with metallic thread.

When Paco Rabanne did a vanilla perfume, Olympea, it was not an ordinary vanilla gourmand. Instead of sugar, he used salt. While it might sound unusual, think of how well salt and caramel work in food, now apply it to perfume. With the piquancy of fresh ginger, Olympea is never cloying as jasmine, citrus and ambergris add whimsy and lightness.

Paco Rabanne Fame is the perfume that mirrors Rabanne’s sense of elegant fun often expressed in his metallic pastille-encrusted/constructed fashions and was introduced in 2022. Shortly before his death actress Ellie Fanning became the muse and the face of Paco Rabanne Fame, appearing in the ads wearing a chainmail minidress that purposely reflects the bottle’s design. Fame is a mélange of jasmine, mango and incense— “It’s floral, it’s refreshing, it’s a little sweet, which I do really love,” she said.

His genius will be missed, but his scented legacy lives on.

Read more about Paco Rabanne and his 11 best perfumes here