In addition to Rabanne’s work in costume design, he produced a series of
sophisticated perfumes. Calandre, launched in 1969 by the Spanish company
Puig (which bought out Paco Rabanne in 1986), has proven to be one of the
most successful contemporary fragrances. Subsequent fragrances have sold
well also. Rabanne’s perfumes, as well as his numerous licenses for other
products around the world, have made it possible for the designer to continue
his fashion experiments without suKering unduly from the low pro8t margins
of haute couture.
In 1999, Rabanne decided to put an end to haute couture activity, while the
ready-to-wear sector that he had developed since 1990 experienced new
growth, particularly with the arrival in 2000 of Rosemary Rodriguez as the
head of Rabanne’s creative studio. Rodriguez has developed several
collections in harmony with the very particular stylistic grammar of Paco
Rabanne.
On the occasion of Rabanne’s thirtieth anniversary as a designer, the 8rst
retrospective exhibition of his fash-ions was presented in 1995 at the Musie de
la Mode in Marseille, followed in 1996 by the bilingual publication of the 8rst
monograph devoted to his work.
Paco Rabanne has been involved since the late 1980s in several artistic
projects beyond the con8nes of fashion, including the production of Mira Nair’s
8lm Salaam, Bombay! The 8lm was awarded the Camera d’Or at the Festival
de Cannes in 1988.
In 1991 Rabanne published his 8rst book, Trajectoire. He has since written
several other works of re(ection on mystical subjects and practices.
183
Текст 16. ПРАДА.
(из энциклопедии моды «Encyclopedia of Clothing and
Fashion»)
Prada was founded in Milan in 1913 by Mario Prada as a luxury leather-goods
8rm, but it made little impact on the world of fashion until after Miuccia Prada
took charge of her grandfather’s company in 1978. Her 8rst big success was a
black nylon backpack with a
triangular silver label. Soon her shoe and handbag designs became the focus
of a veritable cult of fashionable consumers in Europe, America, and Japan.
Miuccia Prada and her husband and business partner, Patrizio Bertelli,
maintain close control over the company.
They added a ready-to-wear line in 1989 and inaugurated the younger, slightly
less expensive Miu Miu line in 1992, followed by Prada Sport, whose iconic red
line is almost as recognized in certain circles as Nike’s swoosh symbol. A
string of shops and boutiques in Paris, New York, and San Francisco, designed
in collaboration with the architect Rem Koolhaas, became instantly famous.
Prada also engaged in a series of complex ownership maneuvers in the late
1990s, buying and selling stakes in Gucci, Fendi, and other companies and
forming a partnership with Azzedine Alana in 2000.