Paco Rabanne: from fashion spaceman to fragrance king

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Paris: Nicknamed 'Wacko Paco' in the 1960s for his often unwearable designs, Spain's Paco Rabanne became best-known in later years for his globally popular line of fragrances as well as his eccentric beliefs. Image Credit: Reuters

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Dismissed as "the metal worker" by Coco Chanel, his influence nonetheless carried through many generations and he famously dressed global superstar Lady Gaga in outfits made entirely of paper for her 2011 appearance at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Image Credit: Reuters

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He also designed Jane Fonda's iconic costume for 1968 sci-fi film "Barbarella", and dresses for French icons Brigitte Bardot and Francoise Hardy. Image Credit: AFP

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Rabanne started out as a co-creator of the 1960s space-age movement in fashion alongside designers such as Pierre Cardin, who incorporated the era's giddy excitement around the future and technological advancements into their clothes. Image Credit: AFP

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Francisco Rabaneda-Cuervo was born in 1934 in Spain's Basque region, near the city of San Sebastian, where his mother was a seamstress for the designer Cristobal Balenciaga and his father was an army general. Image Credit: AFP

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In 1939 his family fled to France and Rabanne went on to study at the Beaux-Arts university in Paris, graduating with a diploma in architecture. He began his fashion career creating accessories - jewellery, ties, buttons - that caught the attention of Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Cardin. Image Credit: AFP

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After the media furore around his own line, Rabanne signed a deal in 1968 that brought him under the ownership of the Barcelona-based Puig family, heavyweights in the fashion and fragrance industry. Image Credit: AFP

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It marked his entry into perfumes that would see his name become synonymous with cologne, ultimately even eclipsing his fame as a designer. Image Credit: Reuters

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Ever the provocateur, Rabanne had a penchant for mysticism and esoterism. He claimed to have had multiple lives, to have been some 78,000 years old, to have made love to the Earth, seen God and been visited by aliens. Image Credit: AFP

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"To say that Paco Rabanne marches to his own drummer is an understatement," the New York Times wrote in 2002. "He's been called a futurist, couturier, mystic, madman, Dadaist, sculptor, architect, astrologer, perfumer, artist and prophet." Image Credit: Reuters

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