Paco Rabanne: Women Peace Heroines
By Timothy Hagy
(Photos by Javier Mateo)
PARIS, Mar 12, 2003/ FW/ --- On the very day that Former President Jimmy Carter, a Nobel laureate, published an articulate anti-war message in the New York Times, Paco Rabanne's young designer Rosemary Rodrigues signed her own peace collection at high noon in the Carrousel of the Louvre.
Called "Heroines of Peace", she made use of Rabanne's signature metallic figures, strung together in rectangles to appear as medieval chained corsets. The resulting modern day knights looked ready to withstand the arrows of war.
Ironically, Paco Rabanne exploded onto the Paris scene in the 60s at the height of Vietnam, along with Ungaro and Saint Laurent. Like his colleagues, his career was made with a specific look, inspired by architecture and applied to creations from his Haute Couture house. With the passing of time, his couture became Ready-to-Wear, and, derisively, one could say that the look tarnished, and that profits come largely from accessories and perfume.
But to take such a narrow view of things would be to overlook the talent of Ms. Rodrigues, and to ignore several gems in this most recent collection.
Anchored in black, the use of shredded chiffon and glistening plastic made for masterful cocktail dresses and scalloped skirts. Leather was finely cut into rectangles and then layered into chocolate dresses. Furs were opulent and contemporary, and happily PETA was elsewhere: probably resting after a restless season in Paris.
Of course, there was an ample supply of glitterwear for those people whose credo is never "less is more". The use of top models including Caroline Ribeiro and Karolina Korkouva made it clear that an enormous budget is still in place at this celebrated House. If Karolina's left breast kept poking out from the thin straps of a black chiffon gown, the show otherwise went off without a hitch.
Paco Rabanne accompanied his protégé a few paces on the catwalk, then retreated through a stage plastered with hanging oversize plastic rectangles. The sturdy armor shown today might just come in handy as global tensions are rising, and diplomacy is in meltdown.
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