The above image shows:
Paco Rabanne Mini-dress (shown with headdress reconstruction by Hannah Brown)
Metal plates, rings and curls; paste florets
Autumn/Winter 1968–69
Francesca Galloway Collection, London
Photograph published in Romano, Alexis, ‘Let’s Kill the Couture – The future-present in 1960s French fashion’ in An Eye for Couture: A Collector’s Exploration of 20th Century Fashion, Prestel, London, 2024.
About the Project:
In 2023 I was commissioned by Francesca Galloway to make a reconstruction of an original headdress made by the fashion designer Paco Rabanne.
With forty years of experience and expertise, Francesca Galloway is known as one of the foremost galleries dealing in Indian painting and courtly arts. In addition to this, Francesca Galloway is one of the foremost galleries dealing in 19th & 20th century textiles and couture and they have been dealing in textiles and costume since the 1980s, with their areas of specialism encompassing important Asian and European textiles as well as iconic examples of 20th century fashion.
In October 2024, Francesca Galloway published, “AN EYE FOR COUTURE – A Collector’s Exploration of 20th Century Fashion”. This book documents and explores her private collection of 20th century French haute couture and fashion, which she has put together over a period of thirty-five years. Her collection focuses on those designers who shaped fashion and whose work embodied the zeitgeist of their time, including Paul Poiret, Gabrielle Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Paco Rabanne.
Paco Rabanne was a Spanish fashion designer and perfumer who was known for his avant-garde designs and use of unusual materials. He used his architecture background to construct garments made of new materials and techniques. Rabanne always pushed the boundaries of fashion through constant experimentation designing truly unique pieces that, today, still influence fashion. Some of his most famous designs were made of plastic discs linked together with fine wires, and a modern version of the chain-mail using squares of aluminum strung together with metal chains and beads in between. His garments were often worn by influential models and celebrities such as Twiggy or his muse, the singer Francoise Hardy. Paco Rabanne put his imprint on the 60′s pop culture like no other designer with his first collection, “12 Unwearable Dresses in Contemporary Materials”, being released in 1966.
Francesca Galloway wanted a reconstruction made of the original piece in order for it to be photographed on a mannequin with the dress to then be featured in her publication. The book’s photographs, by Katrina Lawson Johnston, straddle the line between fashion and still life and are accompanied by essays that explore the collection and aim to deepen our understanding of the pieces and their context.
About:
- The headdress was made to fit onto a fabric-covered mannequin head.
- The headdress was based on an iconic image of a model wearing the original item along with the aluminium chainmail dress in the 1960s.
- The headdress was made from card, tracing paper, aluminium and thread, built up in sections bestto match the reference image.
- The card was patterned with heat-activated silver foil to add a metallic look to the piece.
Design Description:
Based on the reference image sent to me, I made as close a representation of the headdress as possible using alternative materials.
More details about the project as a whole and how I made the headdress can be read in a blog post here.
