Rabanne rose to prominence as an enfant terrible of the fashion world in the 1960s with his use of unconventional materials such as metal and plastic in his clothing, and for his incorporation of futuristic elements in his designs, gaining notoriety for his space-age style.

He nevertheless subsequently took a job with France's foremost developer of reinforced concrete, Auguste Perret, working there for over ten years.

[6] People Magazine journalist Hedy Philips noted that these space age designs "turned the fashion world upside down".

[7] Rabanne is known for designing the iconic green dress,[8] as well as the other costumes,[9] worn by Jane Fonda in the 1968 science-fiction film Barbarella.

[12] For Tour 1996 and the resulting Live à Bercy album, singer Mylène Farmer commissioned Rabanne to create her live-concert stage costumes.

[13][14] In 1966, Rabanne was named one of the "fashion revolutionaries" in New York by Women's Wear Daily, alongside Edie Sedgwick, Tiger Morse, Pierre Cardin, Baby Jane Holzer, Rudi Gernreich, André Courrèges, Emanuel Ungaro, Yves Saint Laurent, and Mary Quant.

The court reasoned that because Puig's local distributor was smuggling perfume into Brazil, the company could not show proof of payment of import duties.

[29] In mid-2013, Belgian and former Balenciaga designer Julien Dossena was appointed creative director of womenswear at Paco Rabanne.

[30][31] The ateliers are located in Paris above the flagship store of Nina Ricci, another Puig fashion company, on Avenue Montaigne.

In January 2016, a new store opened on Paris' Rue Cambon, following the closure of the remaining Paco Rabanne boutiques more than ten years earlier.

[2][36] In 1999, he announced that, at the age of seventeen, he had visions of Parisians in flames throwing themselves into the Seine and that after studying other concordant prophecies, he came to the conclusion that the Mir space station was going to crash in France at the time of the solar eclipse of 11 August 1999, its debris causing thousands of deaths in Paris and in the Gers region.