When the rain hits Paris’ Avenue Montaigne, shoppers are given a clear plastic overlay to protect their purchases from being dampened by the weather.
At Rabanne, which has an outpost on the rarefied shopping street, a new handbag comes with such functionality built-in, seeing a version of the French house’s seminal ‘1969’ chainmail bag sheathed in a futuristic transparent plastic case which can be popped on or off depending on the day’s forecast (this new iteration, in disks of leather, is called the ‘Paco’ bag).
Rain or shin: Rabanne’s weatherproof handbag
The bag as featured in Julien Dossen’s S/S 2025 runway show for Rabanne, presented in Paris last September
It arrives as part of a S/S 2025 collection in which creative director Julian Dossena reimagines the ‘1969’ bag – originally inspired by the humble chainmail apron worn by butchers in France – in a multitude of precious new materials, from disks of hand-blown Murano glass by Venice-based artisans Venini to gleaming gold coins by French medal-makers Maison Arthus Bertrand (the latter in a process which takestook over 300 hours of handcraft).
Dubbed by the designer as the ‘world’s most expensive bag’, the gilded accessory is an ode to Paco Rabanne’s gold-and-diamond-adorned ‘world’s most expensive dress’, created for house muse Françoise Hardy in 1968.
A version of this article appears in the April 2025 issue of Wallpaper* , available in print on newsstands from 6 March 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today
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