When Jean Paul Gaultier was spotted sitting front row at the Paco RabanneParis Fashion Week show back in February, fashion insiders speculated as to whether the 70-year-old French designer’s presence was a signal of his next choice of guest designer at his eponymous brand.
It’s now confirmed that Julien Dossena, who celebrates his 10th year as creative director at Paco Rabanne this year, will design a one-off couture collection for the house, to be revealed at Paris Couture week in July.
Since hanging up his designer hat in January 2020, Gaultier has ensured that the house he founded in 1982 lives on, via a rotating guest designer concept. Dosenna will be the fifth to take the reins, following Chitose Abe, Glenn Martens, Olivier Rousteing, and Haider Ackermann.
Both JPG and Paco Rabanne are owned by luxury conglomerate Puig, and this marks the first time the parent company has hired from within its ranks.
Since he took the helm in 2013, Dosenna has successfully revived Paco Rabanne, bringing a fresh aesthetic and restoring its avante-garde, futuristic DNA in a way that feels relevant today. His first job out of design school was in the Balenciaga studio in Paris, where he worked closely with its then-creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, himself an alum of Jean Paul Gaultier.
“Julien has a particular sense of reinterpretation, and I’m curious to see how he will play with my codes,” Gaultier told WWD. “Paco Rabanne’s heritage is extremely rich, and Julien knows how to make this strength resonate in his collections.”
Dossena has a knack for balancing modernity, excitement, and the erotic with silhouettes that are effortlessly elegant. At Paco Rabanne, he has made plastic and chainmail red-carpet ready, as well as scratch lace and jacquard knits that most retailers can’t keep in stock. Combining these codes with the precision and finesse required by couture will no doubt result in a dynamic, shimmer-heavy show.
