Spring Summer 1991 Collection

France

Modernist ensemble from Paco Rabanne's Haute Couture show. Composed of a pair of Bermuda shorts, a tunic-dress made of stretchy ribbed knitwear in lemon-yellow and a bolero with quilted fins in iridescent silver foil called Papier Fou. This clever and deliberately avant-garde process corresponded at the time to a sheet of rhodoïd laminated with a reflective silver foil. Metal buckle with yellow synthetic stone cabochon to close the bolero. Light crazy paper patina, clean set, little or no wear. Very good condition of colour and conservation. Exhibited and catalogued at the Villa Rosemaine in 2022.

Dimensions: Equivalent to French size 36-38. Bolero: Shoulder span 68 cm, height 23 cm. Body Top: Height 81 cm, shoulders 40 cm, sleeves 29 cm, chest 90-93 cm, waist 70-74 cm, hips 95-100 cm. Bermuda Shorts: Height 40 cm. Elastic waist 70-74 cm, hips 90-100 cm.

Paco Rabanne, whom Gabrielle Chanel called "the metallurgist of fashion", breaks with traditional couture. Avant-garde, futuristic and subversive, his style marked the fashion of the sixties with a resolutely modern approach. His dresses, designed from industrial materials such as rhodoid, metal and aluminium, seduced and dressed the most prominent personalities of the time such as Françoise Hardy and Jane Fonda.