Invictus Intense EDT 100ml

Paco Rabanne revolutionised perfume, too, shaking up the scent world with his daring debut fragrance, Calandre (which is still available today). As perfumer Marcel Carles recalls, it had the most evocative – and racy – brief : ‘Imagine it’s spring. A rich young man arrives in his E-type Jaguar to pick up his girlfriend. Imagine the scent of fast air, speed and leather seats. He takes the girl for a ride along the seaside. He stops in a forest. There he makes love to her on the bonnet of his car.’ paco_rabanne_dressFast-forward to the 21st Century – and Paco Rabanne is still making waves in perfumery – with fragrances that have captured hearts, and become global blockbusters. Most notably, Lady Million, with its faceted –and yes, metal-capped – bottle. (This time, the metal is gold.) As a result, even though Paco Rabanne himself retired gracefully from fashion in 1999, his name’s still on the lips of perfume-lovers all over the world. A bit of history: Paco Rabanne was born Francisco Rabaneda y Cuervo in 1934, in Pasaïa, in the Basque country of Spain. His mother, a head seamstress at the Spanish couture house of Balenciaga, fled the Spanish Civil War for France, in 1939. ‘Spanish at heart and French by adoption,’ his biography says, ‘Francisco Rabaneda would now be known as Paco Rabanne‘. After studying architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (which nurtured a deep love of the art world), Rabanne began designing costume jewellery for the greatest couture houses of the day: Nina Ricci, Pierre Cardin, Balenciaga, Courrèges, Givenchy and more.