Three hundred and sixty-seven gleaming ‘pastilles’ of metal, each one attached together by hand, make up Rabanne’s ‘1969’ chainmail handbag, an emblem of the eponymous designer’s utopian vision for fashion which – alongside André Courrèges and Pierre Cardin – would define the Space Age spirit of the 1960s. ‘I defy anyone to design a hat, coat or dress that hasn’t been done before,’ Paco Rabanne said in 1966. ‘The only new frontier left in fashion is the finding of new materials.’ Metal would become his favoured medium, creating pieces in chainmail and metal paillettes that looked descended from another planet.
‘When you wear Rabanne chainmail, it’s really a feeling. There is a sensation between the garment and the skin,’ current creative director Julien Dossena told Wallpaper* in the September 2023 Style Issue. ‘He was fighting against the old rules, the old world. Even aesthetically, he didn’t understand couture, and he didn’t want to understand.’
