PARIS — Paco Rabanne is prepared for its close-up, and global expansion on multiple fronts, having synced up its fashion and fragrance businesses.

Abbreviating its name to easily Rabanne, the Puig-owned fashion and fragrance home is launching makeup, kicking off a d-to-c intensification with a flagship boutique in Latest York City — and slowly applying its recent visual identity to varied product lines and retail spaces.

Disclosing a bunch of changes and initiatives exclusively to WWD, Puig beauty and fashion president José Manuel Albesa also reported strong business momentum at Paris-based Rabanne, which has been logging 40 percent growth in recent times — and is poised to soon cross the 1 billion euro revenue threshold.

“There’s been an elevation of the brand, and a feminization of the brand. It’s been a whole lot of work these last five years,” he said in an interview.

And it’s all coming together in 2023, by all accounts an enormous yr for Rabanne with a now-unified image between fashion and fragrance dubbed One Rabanne. Crystalizing that is the brand new logo for the complete brand, with typeface inspired by the brand’s 1968 hit perfume Calandre, a monogram that’s being trickled into textile patterns, accessories and fragrances.

“The brand is having a moment that’s incredible,” Albesa enthused.

It’ll reach a zenith during Paris Fashion Week in September, when Rabanne unveils its spring 2024 collection on the runway with expanded ranges of eveningwear, denim and knitwear — and the Avenue Montaigne flagship will bear the brand new lower-case Rabanne banner.

By that point, the playful recent Rabanne makeup, with 90 stock keeping units housed in gleaming silver-colored tubes and compacts, may have landed on the brand’s e-commerce site and counters in Selfridges within the U.K. and Sephora in Europe, with Ulta within the U.S. coming on stream Oct. 1. 

Albesa made clear the crucial contribution of designer Julien Dossena, who has revved up Rabanne’s fashion credibility, reworked and clarified the brand’s key aesthetic codes, and recently made necessary inroads with celebrities by adding more eveningwear.

For instance, when Beyoncé stepped onto the stage on the Stade de France last month, she wore a gleaming, waist-cinched Rabanne gown assembled from round, mirror-effect plates. 

Dossena arrived as creative director of the style house 10 years ago, and he’s been locked in to guide Rabanne’s next chapter.

Albesa wouldn’t comment directly on the French designer’s contract, however it is known that it was recently renewed, which should squelch recurring speculation Dossena might soon defect to a different fashion house.

“There’s nothing to announce. Julien is here to remain,” Albesa said with amusing and an enormous smile. “And he’s more excited than ever to explore recent themes, and he’s more energetic than ever.”

“The brand has such an iconic and immediately recognizable legacy; it’s a novel and robust vision we feature on,” Dossena said. “We try our greatest to honor the values of the founder: freedom and empowerment.”

WWD broke the news on March 3 that Dossena would turn into the newest guest designer to comprehend a one-off high fashion collection for Jean Paul Gaultier, also owned by Puig. 

The show is scheduled for July 5 during Paris Couture Week, and Albesa hinted that Dossena would mix Rabanne references with Gaultier’s vast and eclectic oeuvre, achieved over a profession spanning 50 years.

One other high-profile project is in view: a vacation collaboration with Swedish fashion giant H&M. WWD also broke the news of that project on Feb. 22, though officials at each firms remain mum concerning the tie-up. 

Dossena burst onto the style radar in 2006, when he won a prize on the International Festival of Fashion and Photography in Hyères. He went on to spend 4 years as a senior designer at Balenciaga, working under then-creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, who instilled in him an exacting, forward-looking approach to design.

Dossena joined Paco Rabanne, famed for its Space Age designs, in early 2013 under then-creative director Lydia Maurer, and in parallel launched his own label, Atto, which he placed on hold to think about Paco Rabanne when he was promoted to creative director later that yr.

Albesa said the designer, then 30 years old, immediately won the approval of the style press, keen on his meticulous yet zesty designs with a futuristic sheen.

“Julien has this capability to proceed innovating,” Albesa said. “While remaining consistent and really loyal to the brand codes, he’s capable of — each time — bring something recent, and the way that is now being infused into accessories, into jewelry, into beauty, into makeup is incredible.”

Calling Dossena “instrumental in creating the home,” Albesa characterised him as “greater than a designer. He has a vision for the brand.”

Amongst the important thing codes of the brand that now appear across fashion, accessories and sweetness products are metal mesh, silver and gold together, square chain links, and round and hole-punched metallic discs just like the ones the founder hammered into “12 Unwearable Dresses” back in 1966, cementing Rabanne’s fame.

Albesa grabbed a clicker to point out on a big monitor a rendering of a future Rabanne makeup stand. Incorporating marble amid the gleaming silver and gold. The unit includes large images of Rabanne jewelry, fashions and purses, portraying the aesthetic complicity between all categories.

In dropping the Paco from the home name, Rabanne falls in keeping with a bunch of designer-founded brands consumers know by the family name, including Dior, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Mugler. Albesa noted that in losing Paco, Rabanne can focus further on its feminization.

About 10 years ago, the Rabanne team presented a chart outlining how all of the facets of the brand’s fashion and fragrance branches could converge, and that’s been implemented little by little since.

“From today, all that’s recent is totally aligned — which means we’re revamping our packaging and bottles in fragrances, our strategy of how one can elevate the brand,” Albesa explained. “So it’s an enormous turnaround that has been cooking for years and starts to see the sunshine now. It’s a vital elevation — keeping the values of Rabanne, obviously.”

Dossena has been key to all that in creating an overarching brand ecosystem, including what products appear to be, the chief underlined.

“The chemistry comes from Julien, it was his vision,” Albesa said. “Each fragrance goes to take one code of the brand, and it’s going to put it on the market.”

Rabanne’s perfume business, which ranks among the many top-five fragrance houses worldwide, has various bestselling men’s scent franchises. One Million is in the highest 4 and Invictus in the highest seven. A goal for Phantom, already among the many 20 bestsellers, is to climb to the highest 10 by 2025.

To start out shifting the scales, with women’s fragrances taking up greater weight, there’s been a change of strategy.

“We decided to work on stand-alone feminines,” said Albesa, referring to Fame, with its own promoting and vision. “We’re selecting a female hero by brand, who will likely be its image. We give the female fragrances the capability to shine.”

The strategy is working, with Fame becoming one of the best launch in 2022 within the markets where it was introduced, in accordance with NPD Group. Further, Puig has gained various market share points in women’s fragrances this yr and Albesa believes that momentum should speed up.

“Then comes the makeup, which can be one other way of injecting this feminization of the brand that’s more consistent with the style,” said Albesa, who believes the time is ripe for the colour cosmetics, since Rabanne has a lot momentum today. “This makeup is a method to show fashion and sweetness together.”

Puig has been delving into the makeup category across its stable of brands with launches for Carolina Herrera, Dries Van Noten and Christian Louboutin, not to say Charlotte Tilbury, which the group acquired in 2020.

Taking a differentiated approach has all the time been key, in accordance with Albesa. Rabanne has done that with its fragrances, coming to the market with daring storytelling and juices.

“Paco Rabanne is the primary designer doing indie makeup,” Albesa said. “It’s a really collective approach — by the people for the people.”

Diane Kendal was chosen to be Rabanne’s global beauty creative director. Brand executives were attracted by her philosophy that “there’s no beauty — only beauties.” Standards usually are not imposed.

The colour cosmetics range has 4 categories: One for foundations, with 30 references, is dubbed Nudes. Eyephoria, for eyes, comprises 29 units; Rouge Rabanne has 21 lipsticks, while Arts Factory, with 10 skus, includes artistry-inspired products.

The gender-free products with sustainable — vegan, cruelty-free and 98 percent natural — formulas, infused with skincare, have been developed with the assistance of a community of individuals.

“It’s very modern makeup. Textures are super necessary,” said Albesa, calling the easy-to-use color cosmetics “nomad” attributable to their carry-ability.

Shimmer Bomb, with spray-on glitters, is available in an aerosol can; pressed eye powders are encased in oh-so-Rabanne metallic compacts, while foundations are available squeezy shiny tubes.

“It’s very playful makeup, which you apply together with your fingers,” Albesa said.

The ad campaign — with Rabanne-clad models taking the makeup from chain-link bags, a pocket or boot, then trying it on and posing — is playful as well. Stef Mitchell photographed the ad.

The makeup’s prelaunch will happen on Rabanne’s direct-to-consumer platform rabanne.com, starting Aug. 21, followed by Selfridges on Aug. 31; Sephora in France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal on Sept. 12, and Ulta at first of October. 

Prices will likely be within the accessible luxury range, from about $20 to $40.

Rabanne executives aim for the brand to rank among the many top 10 in makeup — in addition to top five in the attention segment — in doors where it’s carried during launch. After, it should place among the many top-15 color cosmetics brands globally by 2030.

Rabanne could ultimately stretch into other beauty categories, resembling skincare.

For each Rabanne fashion and sweetness, the stated purpose is to “galvanize young generations with a view to forge a more inclusive and inventive future.”

Albesa explained the aim goes beyond product, to cultural relevance stretching into digital, music and communities. “We’ve planned for every of our brands to have a cultural aspect,” he said.

Spanish founder Paco Rabanne died last February at age 88, remembered for his futuristic vision and use of nonconventional materials.

The home went through a silent period to mourn his death, with Dossena paying homage at his fall 2023 show last March, parading some archival dresses for the finale.

(Dossena began dabbling in menswear starting with the spring 2020 season, however it was quickly phased out.)

Albesa declined to present revenue figures for the style house, but said year-to-date, fashion sales have been doubling.

Dossena’s designs are sold in about 300 wholesale doors. Along with the Avenue Montaigne flagship, which opened at number 39 in 2021 and replaced a unit for Nina Ricci, also owned by Puig, there may be a smaller Rabanne store on Rue Cambon.

Albesa noted the brand’s direct-to-consumer sales are tracking 80 percent ahead of last yr.

The chief said he’s zeroing in on a lease for a Rabanne flagship in Latest York’s SoHo district that ought to open in the primary half of 2024. After that, he has his sights set on London for the subsequent location.

The Avenue Montaigne flagship can be slated to double in size next yr.

Such developments should help counter the lingering industry perception that Barcelona-based Puig, while formidable with fragrances and sweetness products, doesn’t have its heart in the style business.

Albesa argued that Puig is exclusive amongst Europe’s big luxury groups insofar because it operates brands, not separate fashion and sweetness divisions, which might create an aesthetic gulf.

For instance, when Belgian designer Van Noten launched fragrance and lipstick last yr, he approached those categories similar to he sets about creating his fashion, garden or home decor: with a clash of concepts and a riot of colours, prints and textures.

Albesa called it “a ravishing exercise of how the DNA of the style got here into the sweetness.”

Still, he acknowledged there may be work to do in growing the d-to-c portion of Puig’s fashion houses’ sales via directly operated retail; in constructing lucrative accessories categories, and improving gross margins in apparel.

“We still need two, three years to fine-tune those three subjects,” he allowed. “We take it very seriously, though perhaps we work at a special speed. We don’t face the identical pressure as other groups so we’ve been putting a whole lot of thought in what we do.”

Albesa noted that Rabanne has expanded the product range around its popular chainmail 1969 bag, including nano and micro versions, whose origins could be traced back to the steel aprons worn by French butchers back within the day.

“Abruptly we see a whole lot of young consumers wanting to own a chunk of Rabanne,” Albesa marveled.