Julien Dossena is celebrating 10 years at Paco Rabanne in 2023—a decade in which he’s very much made his playfully sexy French demi- eighties taste accessible to a new generation. Of the pre-fall precursor to the Paris runway show he’ll have in a few weeks, he said, “It’s about how to explore and continue to discover new interpretations for that woman who is now the Paco Rabanne girl—the effortless, couldn’t-care-less mix and match.”
A large part of the transformation he’s wrought is bringing a wearable lightness and relevance to the heritage of Paco Rabanne chainmail. Dossena has moved the brand away from its ’60s Space Age roots, and turned it into a place to find party-wear, long-legged velvet boot-cut trouser suits, and Gen-Z catnip accessories.
In the showroom, Dossena demonstrated his other insight: the things which appear to be total looks often break apart into separates. The non-scratchy lightweight aluminum chainmail he uses now drapes like a slinky fabric, and can be printed. That’s the case with the tiger-print halterneck ‘dress’ with a double layer of flounces running around its edges. The trick is that it’s actually a top and skirt. Ditto with a completely different shape, in blue, printed with flowers. All these bits can be worn as layering pieces—tops that can be worn with trousers, jeans, leggings, track pants, whatever; skirts to be dressed down with sweaters, T-shirts, over pants. This completely makes sense on a practical, economic level. Paco Rabanne is “commercial”—with intelligence.
A Paco Rabanne wardrobe makes statements to be seen—that’s the point of the jazzily printed coats that Dossena does, and the electro-shimmery micro chainmail bags. On a note more out-there in this cold- and flu-ridden winter, Dossena also had the inspiration of stringing pill-capsules together as the links on a mesh dress or to dangle on bags. “Like a remedy,” he joked. No surprises if that idea soon goes, um, viral.
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