At Rabanne (no longer Paco), Julien Dossena had a mesmerizing collection featuring nomadic warrior women in chainmail armours (occasionally weaved with peacock feathers) and gilded textures. “I’ve never been that interested in the bourgeoisie,” the designer quipped backstage. “I can play on the codes but it’s about exploration for me.” Going by the pictures Jean Clemmer shot for Paco Rabanne in the 1970s, Dossena imagined a kind of warrior beach woman whose wardrobe was founded in ancient constructions. “It’s a woman by the sea, black and white, in the sun with a little loincloth and a jewel. It’s an exalting sensuality. It was a strength I wanted to work on,” he explained. As a meta inspiration element, he printed the pictures on tank tops. The look materialised in hooded mini chainmail dresses, sarouel trousers – “the original first clothes we ever wore: a square with two tubes” – and rustic, organic textures Dossena attributed to the work of the artist Sheila Hicks. “Like a carpet you’ve made a dress [out] of,” as he put it. “I wanted everything to be handcrafted: the feeling that someone touches it; sensual; destroying the fabric; threads.” It made for an ancient sensibility that felt kind of sci-fi. Dossena’s time-travelling looks gave off everything from Athena to Amazon to gladiator to Joan of Arc. “Tender and strong,” he said. “It’s a kind of community: a tribe, a gang of women who express their own sensibility and sensuality.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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