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PARIS -- If one were to liken designer Paco Rabanne to any historical figure, he would most resemble Nostradamus, the Medieval mystic who predicted the future.
Both Rabanne and Nostradamus possess a unique gift for transcending whatever century they happen to be encased in, and both have somewhat mixed results in terms of prophesies. Nostradamus struck gold when he predicted the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon and Hitler. On the other hand, Rabanne's millennial prediction that the Mir space station would crash into Paris and destroy all of its inhabitants proved to be a really bad call. In a much more enduring way, however, Paco Rabanne possesses an impressive track record as a sartorial soothsayer. Through his design vision, if not his actual prophesies, he anticipated the millennium as early as 1966. His first space-age experiments in dresses and accessories made of metal or Rhodoid plastic disks, introduced in New York and Paris 35 years ago, have intrigued and inspired subsequent designers ranging from Gaultier to Prada, Mugler to Yves Saint Laurent.
Rabanne's career in the fashion world is atypical. While he dubs his fashion and fragrance empire "the house of Rabanne," his dynasty has never institutionalized itself in the manner of Saint Laurent or Dior. Instead, Rabanne remains a twilight presence, with one foot in the present and one in the past. He emerges in contemporary pop culture from time to time -- Catherine Zeta-Jones sported a Paco top to the premiere of "Traffic" last year, his chain-mail dresses were reappropriated in 1999 by Donatella Versace, his men's cologne was plugged on "The Sopranos" and his fragrances are department store staples. Yet the designer has to battle a persistent assumption that he, as a person, passed away a while ago.
"Many people believe I'm dead," admitted Rabanne in a recent interview conducted at his futuristic headquarters on Ile de la Jatte, an island on the outskirts of Paris that resembles the village in the epochal Sixties sci-fi spy series "The Prisoner."
Part icon, part ghost, Rabanne haunts and resists a present-day fashion world that would be only too happy to consign him to archivists or "where are they now?" magazine features. Rabanne's career illustrates not only the choppy life-cycle of designer celebrity,...