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There’s nothing quiet about the luxury at Rabanne, where a woman enters the room with her own wearable percussion.
Julien Dossena’s spring 2024 collection was a show of that female power, from the ancient to the modern, with hints of the late Tina Turner in the short, sexy, stage-worthy dresses with a nod to “Mad Max,” too.
All the rock ‘n’ roll goddesses are going to want to wear them.
In a season when rehashing house archives is a trend itself, Dossena proved his expertise in continuing to push Rabanne forward with innovative materials and techniques.
“The inspiration was celebrating the body and the skin. I wanted that human touch so you see the hand and raw materials,” he said, mentioning Paco Rabanne and Jean Clemmer’s collaboration in the 1960s on the book “Neues,” and finding future inspiration in the tension between industrial metal mesh and chain mail, natural feathers and raffia in the sensual, body-conscious collection.
“I try to play on different times, you never know if it’s ancient or the future, and some people see sci-fi,” he said.
Dossena opened with jingle-jangly fringed metal mesh minidresses befitting warriors, some tipped with peacock feathers, wrap miniskirt and tunic looks, all of which would be at home on Taylor Swift’s concert stage — or at a fabulous beach rave in Ibiza.
The segue into tailoring was notable, with the use of silver chainmail embroidery on the lapels of a black cinched-waist blazer that topped easy harem pants, and a tan-colored twist-front blazer with waist cutouts, dangling fringe. Adding to those, hooded tunics, draped halter tops and harem pants trimmed in metallic discs made for a lot of bohemian daywear options.
Even the house’s classic crystal mesh and sequin embroidery was brought down to earth on a deep cowl front dress worn with a tank top underneath and a pale blush sequin tank top and pants set.
Accessories are a growing focus for the house, and here were some of the coolest shoes of the season — goddess sandals laced to the knee and gold bubble chain belts that should open up a new category.
For the finale, the designer said he collaborated with the Louvre to use imagery of classic Greek and Roman statues for prints on draped metal mesh maxiskirts and crop tops contoured to the curves, bringing goddess dressing into the 21st century. Huzzah!
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