PARIS — Swedish high-street retailer H&M staged a surprise event during Paris Fashion Week to announce its upcoming collaboration with French fashion house Rabanne.
Guests received a save-the-date for a private concert at nightclub Silencio late on Monday that promised performances by Robyn and Peggy Chou and a “special moment” with Cher, who has been in town with her boyfriend Alexander Edwards taking in shows by the likes of Balmain, Givenchy and Valentino.
Ahead of the event, Ann-Sofie Johansson, creative adviser at H&M, and Julien Dossena, creative director of Rabanne, lifted the lid on the collaboration, which WWD reported in February. The line will feature ready-to-wear and accessories for women and men, as well as a homewares line, a new venture for Dossena.
They confirmed it will include pieces made with Rabanne’s signature metallic mesh, which usually retail in the thousands of euros. By contrast, the H&M versions will range in price from 39.99 euros for a bag to 599 euros for dresses.
It marks the retailer’s second major collaboration this year, following a capsule with Mugler launched in May. Dossena is also on a roll following his stint as guest couturier at Jean Paul Gaultier in July, and the launch of makeup amid a rebranding at Rabanne, which is poised to soon cross the 1 billion euros revenue threshold.
For the designer, it marks the culmination of a decade of brand-building efforts. “It’s a clear sign that there is a wider audience for the Rabanne brand and, above all, an understanding of what we do,” Dossena told WWD. “We know the type of customer that identifies with the brand.”
The Space Age label has come a long way since Dossena came on board in 2013. He has revved up Rabanne’s fashion credibility, reworked and clarified the brand’s key aesthetic codes, and recently made important inroads with celebrities by adding more eveningwear.
“It’s been really interesting to follow Julien’s journey at Rabanne,” said Johansson. “He really found his way and renewed the brand and made it relevant again.”
Lauding the “youthful” spirit of his collections, she said it was “how girls want to dress” now. The H&M line, to be launched on Nov. 9, will consist of 41 clothing items and 25 accessories for women; 21 pieces and 11 accessories for men, and 31 items for the home, Johansson said.
The vibe is a laid-back ‘70s pool party. “The collection is very glamorous, but at the same time, there are some pieces in there that are more for lounging around, like a tracksuit, for example,” she said.
A look from Rabanne’s spring 2024 collection.
Giovanni Giannoni/WWD
It marks the first time H&M has ever worked with metal mesh, a material that reflects founder Paco Rabanne’s revolutionary approach to materials, epitomized by his “12 Unwearable Dresses” in 1966.
“You have to be kind of an engineer almost to make that,” Johansson said. “We have really good pattern makers and they are also technicians, and they are really up for a challenge like that.”
Dossena said he was blown away by the result.
“I was amazed by their precision and their standards, also because it was out of the question for me to offer lesser-quality metal mesh or chain mail products at H&M,” he said. “I can assure you that the quality that H&M achieved with its own partner is the same that we offer at Paco Rabanne.”
He described working with the H&M team as a two-way exchange, with Rabanne bringing its technical expertise to the table, while H&M helped the house to forge ahead with its sustainability goals. The sequins in the collection are 100 percent recycled, and the metallic materials 70 percent.
The collection also marks Dossena’s return into menswear, a category that Rabanne launched with the spring 2020 season but put on hold during the pandemic.
It’s the first time that he’s tried his hand at the home category, one he would like to launch at the label owned by Spanish fragrance and fashion giant Puig.
Items in the H&M line include a metal side table, metal versions of plastic goblets and a water bottle, metal dice, a pack of cards, blanket with the new Rabanne monogram, cushions and carpets, the designer said.
“I’ve always thought of Paco Rabanne as representing a certain ‘70s lifestyle and he also saw it that way, like many designers of that era, so he had already produced things such as tables and small objects. He even designed pajamas and renovated hotels,” Dossena said. “I would be very interested to start working on this type of product.”
H&M, which ignited high-low collaborations with a blockbuster 2004 collection by Karl Lagerfeld, has also sold collections by Stella McCartney, Moschino, Maison Margiela, Balmain, Isabel Marant, Comme des Garçons, Lanvin, Versace and Giambattista Valli.
Most of them sold out briskly, occasionally unleashing pandemonium in the retailer’s flagships. The pace of its collaborations slowed after a line with Simone Rocha in 2021, but H&M has kicked back into high gear as competition for market share in the fast-fashion sector has heated up.
Johansson admitted that launching two major collaborations within six months was unusual, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. “It’s really good for our customers, they love them, but maybe for us, it’s a very big workload,” she said. “But overall, our customers still love our collaborations, so we will continue in one way or another.”
She was confident that the time is ripe to take Rabanne to the masses. The founder died last February at the age of 88.
“It is an iconic brand, really. When you’re talking about fashion history, Paco Rabanne is in that history of fashion also, working with those unconventional fabrics and the materials that were completely new,” she said.
“When you think about having a touch of futurism in a trend, you always go back to Rabanne,” Johansson said. “That we have to look back to be able to be futuristic today, as well, that says something about how modern they were in their time and how radical, really. And now I think maybe it’s time for that radicalism again.”
