PFW SS25: Rabanne, Agleam Armour

The Rabanne show was held yesterday evening in Paris and Julien Dossena presented quite the intriguing collection. The only thing I knew prior to watching the livestream was that the world's most expensive handbag, made entirely out of 18 karat gold and diamonds, was a part of it.

Gigi Hadid opened the show in a chic outfit, full of layers of horizontal & vertical stripes over shorts and plastic encased pointed toe heels. It transitioned from striped glory into blazers and lamé layers into floral patterns and metallic pieces. There was an obvious nod to the brilliant Paco Rabanne’s ideology of fusing plastic and metallic disks to create garments; also a reference to the debut collection in ‘66 which presented twelve dresses resembling armour.

Art is subjective and fashion is the greatest art form so my interpretation of the collection might be different from what was intended or what someone thinks but I believe this was like two worlds colliding behind one message which was presented along the DNA on which the maison was built. One was a fairytale, fantasy world full of metallic armoured dresses made out of disks threaded together and metallic boots. It even had embroidered & cut-out tops with sheer, ankle length net skirts. It was a female warrior’s wardrobe straight out of fiction.

Combined with this was the corporate world’s armour; striped shirts and skirts with blazers and vests over pointed toe heels. There was an ode to what has truly played the role of armour for a long time, a long time ago - men's garments. Striped shorts and hoodies formed layers in between classic formal shirts and jackets.

The pointed toes were encased in transparent covering as were the bags. Deep cutouts along the sides of some of the sleeveless dresses as well as deep necks with low hems. A colour palette spanning mint green, silver, gold, black and white. The classic Paco sleeveless metallic silhouette was interspersed with lamé and bold layers of stripes. There were floral prints on sheer nets and a gorgeous black leather jacket & red hoodie duo and shimmery wraparound skirts.

It was world building with homage to the roots of the brand Julien has been heading for almost 13 years. This was a collection for the woman of today, the one Paco had been creating clothes for, way back in the 60s.