Paco Rabanne and the manifesto of a furious craftsmanship

On 1 February 1966, at the Hotel Georges V in Paris, a group of models paraded to the rhythm of the cantata Le Marteau sans maître, composed by Pierre Boulez based on the surrealist poems of René Clair. Their bodies were abandoned in movements that caused the rhodoïd discs and steel rings of their costumes to shake. Paco Rabanne's manifesto collection, "12 unwearable dresses in contemporary materials", was being presented. Soon, those rhodoïd designs would be joined by others made of metal plates and sheets, which were, in principle, a desecration of the traditional concept of luxury. It is curious that the son of a Balenciaga seamstress should turn his earliest steps in fashion into those of a "metallurgist", as Gabrielle Chanel would label him.See article here