Brief 4: Fragrance Development

After looking into the clichéd advertising of men's colognes, I found that the biggest culprit of leading it's consumers to believe they will be following a more luxurious lifestyle after purchasing their product is Paco Rabanne, a brand that I have looked into a lot before and have drawn the conclusion that I cannot understand or relate to their campaigns, and find it difficult to comprehend how anyone can.

In light of this I have chosen to rebrand Paco Rabanne with a more authentically classic approach.

Paco Rabanne was born Francisco Rabaneda y Cuervo in 1934

in Pasaia, in the Spanish Basque Country. In 1939, his mother, who

was the head seamstress at Balenciaga, fled to France because of the

Spanish civil war. Spanish at heart and French by adoption, Francisco

Rabaneda would go by the name of Paco Rabanne. A non-conformist

figure, Paco Rabanne would very quickly conquer the world of fashion.

Following architecture studies at the Fine Arts school in Paris, in the

early sixties he began crafting decorative accessories for top Couture

houses, such as Balenciaga, Nina Ricci, Maggy Rouff, Philippe Venet,

Pierre Cardin, Courrèges and Givenchy. In 1966, he presented his first

Manifesto Collection — “12 Unwearable Dresses in contemporary

materials”, adorned with sequins and rhodoid plates. Courting both

scandal and applause, from then on Paco Rabanne would unceasingly

question the way in which fashion was conceived and presented,

prefiguring the conceptual direction taken by designers in the light

of the 21st century. The handcrafted design of unique pieces, an avant-garde

take on recycling, circumstantial ready-to-wear and temporary

clothing… Paco Rabanne has distinguished himself in experimenting

with materials and revolutionary projects: paper dresses, fluorescent

leather designs, hammered metal, aluminium jersey, knitted fur,

etc… In 1971, he was recognised as a couturier by his peers with

his membership in the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture. In 1999,

Paco Rabanne retired from the Fashion scene after over thirty years

of internationally acclaimed creativity.

http://www.pacorabanne.com/house/10-key-dates/paco-rabanne-portrait

After doing some research into the brand itself I found that the fragrance campaigns are a far cry from the fragrance campaigns that the public see today, with a focus on recycling and ready-to-wear clothing, a much more down to earth concept than seen in the '1 Million' fragrance ad seen below:

I have decided that in order to return to the more classic approach that the brand started off with, I would look into branding the company in a way that reverts back to the initial concept for Paco Rabanne, considering the idea of infusing Rabanne's Spanish heritage into the brand.

I started by looking at some branding examples with a european concept:

I found that much of the designs I looked at had a very rustic approach and a focus on making the brand appear quite traditional. While I am interested in making the brand more traditional and less 'sleazy', I would rather forgo the rustic element that a lot of the branding I have looked at have capitalised on.