It is not uncommon to find Julien Dossena (Brittany, France, 1982) sitting in the front row of a Chloé show supporting his friend Natacha Ramsay-Levi or in the Louis Vuitton show together with his co-worker, the designer Nicolas Ghesquiere.
Dossena is part of a generation of creatives who have managed to carve out their own path without the need to compare themselves to the one next door. Formed in the ranks of Balenciaga, the artist shares the successes of his colleagues, regardless of the luxury house or the group to which they belong.
“Here nobody is a mentor to anyone and we always support the work of the other”, he explains. A spirit of brotherhood and humility that has accompanied him throughout his career and has led him to victory in many fields of his life.
Julien Dossena took the reins of the creative direction of Paco Rabanne in 2013 with the aim of reviving a firm that was not going through its best moments. "The greatest difficulty I have had to face and at the same time my greatest fortune has been having the opportunity to build something without anyone having any expectations placed on me," says the Frenchman, recalling that young inexperienced designer who had barely turned thirty.
Like a blank page on which to write his own story, Dossena began his first chapter with a team of twelve people and with a clear desire to evolve, rather than revolutionize.
Solidity has accompanied the designer's work over the past ten years. A path in which he has managed to assert Rabanne's heritage, founded on values such as sexual diversity, fluidity or identity, adjusting it to the tastes of our times.
A milestone that the designer himself believes was easily within reach, thanks to the vision of modernity that the creative who died last February already possessed. “It has been very easy to work from these values, Rabanne already shared them in his time”.
A month after her death, within the framework of Paris fashion week, Dossena dedicated her latest collection to her with a series of revised designs such as the iconic Audrey dress. The dress was specially designed for Audrey Hepburn in 1967 for the film Two for the Road and required 45 hours of work with just two types of sparkles: 1,915 pieces of 30mm and 651 pieces of 21mm. Modern and futuristic art that Julien Dossena has continued to cultivate and adapt until today.
