Paco Rabanne Eau de Perfume for Woman

History of Paco Rabanne

Courtesy of Perfume Society

Paco Rabanne revolutionised perfume, too, shaking up the scent world with his daring debut fragrance, Calandre 

Paco Rabanne is still making waves in perfumery – with fragrances that have captured hearts, and gone on to become global blockbusters. Most notably, Lady Million, with its faceted – yes, metal-capped – bottle. (Gold, this time.) As a result, even though Paco Rabanne himself retired from fashion in 1999, his name’s on the lips of perfume-lovers all over the world.

A bit of history: Paco Rabanne was born Francisco Rabaneda y Cuervo in 1934, in Pasaïa, in the Basque country of Spain. His mother, a head seamstress at the Spanish couture house of Balenciaga, fled the Spanish Civil War for France, in 1939. ‘Spanish at heart and French by adoption,’ his biography says, ‘Francisco Rabaneda would now be known as Paco Rabanne‘. After studying architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (which nurtured a deep love of the art world), Rabanne began designing costume jewellery for the greatest couture houses of the day: Nina Ricci, Pierre Cardin, Balenciaga, Courrèges, Givenchy

in 1966 he created a storm in the fashion world with his debut collection: ’12 Unwearable Dresses in Contemporary Materials’. It turned fashion on its head, put him on the map – and what’s even more extraordinary is that many of those dresses still look utterly contemporary, today.

If those dresses were ‘unwearable’, though, his fragrances are anything but: Paco Rabanne‘s signature has always been to take the unconventional, the avant garde, and create a classic. ‘I like my fragrances to be fresh first, then structured, full of vibrations and contrasts,’ says Paco Rabanne. Echoing that philosophy, the recent scents from this avant-garde designer name are incredibly widely worn.

We know you’ll have smelled the Lady Million collection, with a gold-capped bottle as multi-faceted as the fresh woody floral itself: voluptuous, sensual, addictive, with its nectarous notes of white flowers, underpinned by patchouli and honey, and now available in a more intense version, with a 20% concentration of the perfume extraits, in the Lady Million Absolutely Gold Parfum. Lovers of Lady Million – and its male counterpart, 1 Million – can also sign up to the Million Club, with special offers, invitations, Instagram competitions, among other excitement. Sniff out, too, the Black XS collection, embodying ‘rock and excess’, for every woman’s inner rock star. And take a little time at the fragrance counter to discover for yourself why Calandre became such an iconic scent – and enjoy its utter timelessness…

In 2010 Paco Rabanne was decorated with the Legion d’Honneur by France’s culture minister, an acknowledgment of his work as a visionary designer and innovative originator in the world of fashion. We’d rather like to give him an award for services to perfume, too…