For next season, Rabanne creative director Julien Dossena decided to tone things down a few notches while still working a festive vibe into the mix. Which is perhaps why, rather than calling this a straight-up pre-collection, he titled it “women’s wear, party ’26 and spring.”
“It’s a little bit of a reaction to the industry,” the designer offered. “Yes, fashion can be cinematic, it can be an escape, but I have the impression that it’s always Hunger Games, with more beautiful women in more beautiful dresses whereas the world outside is more than questionable.”
His response was to try to find a middle path, relying not on a mood board or a muse or an overarching story, but a piece-by-piece philosophy grounded in “pragmatism, reality, and effortlessness.” The party, meanwhile, turned up in shimmying mesh, lashings of silver fringe or faux fur and, especially, some seriously fun disco-adjacent accessories.
There is perhaps no piece more foundational than a pair of well-cut black wool trousers. Here, the designer styled those, variously, with a single-breasted coat in gray, black, and white chiné wool and a fringed scarf; a t-shirt in coppery mesh, its cape-like sleeves edged with stone incrustations; or under a draped halter dress in olive green mesh with crystal trim. Other sartorial cornerstones were inspired by conversations with friends: the one who wants a ’70s perfecto, not the aughts rocker that’s popping up all over lately; another who wants a “demi-boyfriend” jean in an offbeat color; a third who needs a slouchy blouson that skews just masculine enough, or an ivory trench with puffed sleeves that can be worn scrunched up and out of the way.
In his 13-year tenure as creative director at Rabanne, Dossena has kept the house in the conversation by extrapolating chainmail, rhodoid, and sundry other house signatures every which way. This season, he said he was aiming for yet another point of view. Take, for example, a chocolate knit dress with a plunging neckline and dropped waist, its skirt embroidered with slivers of rhodoid that seemed to disperse toward the hem. That contradiction between sharp and sparse was the point. Another: a khaki knit dress over a silver fringed skirt, smart on top and sass below. “Working with the quality of tension is what interests me as a designer,” Dossena noted.
For decades, Rabanne has been synonymous with cool-girl dressing by night. The whole trick therefore lies in nudging that specificity into the light of day. Here, Dossena gamely offered up a relaxed take on suiting with a khaki jacket worn over an ivory button-down and carpenter pants (an idea that also came in a “futuristic skater” shorts version). Dossena noted that he sees in Liberty print a kind of “impressionistic chainmail,” a counterpoint he paired with a sage-colored pantsuit or an ivory shift.
“Working on the idea of modernity is a catchall, but for me it reflects a certain reality,” the designer noted. “It’s about observing the women around us and finding what resonates with their lives.” With this collection, Dossena gives the Rabanne customer multiple crosscurrents. It will be interesting to see how she chooses to navigate them.
