Metal was always more than just a material for Paco Rabanne. The most media-savvy designer of the space age was also an innovator who knew how to create dresses and accessories from elements outside the textile world. His training as an architect had something to do with it, but also the spirit of experimentation that, in the years of the space race, filled everyday life with innovative technologies and practical inventions.
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Rabanne’s new project aims to revive precisely that legacy. The international competition for new design talents just launched by the fashion and perfumery brand is marked by a love of experimentation and the legacy of the designer and the house he founded.
The project was born in collaboration with The Steidz, a platform founded in 2015 by Maxime Gasnier and Sébastien Maschino to support contemporary creation and channel future visual trends. They usually do this through their magazine, as well as exhibitions and scholarships, but now they have decided to join forces with the Puig-owned brand to take their interdisciplinary fusion to another level.
Under the motto “House of Fantasies,” the call invites participants to interpret Rabanne’s universe from a different and personal perspective, without losing sight of the tension between rupture and excess that has guided all its creative stages. And it does so with a common thread: metal.
The process is simple: after reviewing the various applications, Rabanne and The Steidz will select five emerging designers to participate in a series of workshops and receive advice and mentorship from Harry Nuriev, the unique designer and interior designer who has best captured the analog side of new digital languages. The opportunity will extend over several months, during which all finalists will receive support to produce and develop an original object inspired by the plastic and aesthetic codes of the house.
The call is already underway and will remain open until October 3. The five finalists will be announced at the end of October, and between November and March of next year the workshops and work sessions will take place. It will then be in March 2027 when the winner’s name is announced.
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