Julien Dossena

Julien Dossena is a French fashion designer and the Creative Director of Rabanne, a position he has held since 2013. Born in Brittany and trained at La Cambre in Brussels, he honed his technical skills as a senior designer at Balenciaga under Nicolas Ghesquière. Dossena is widely credited with the successful revitalisation of Rabanne, transforming it from a heritage house into a contemporary, commercially vibrant label.

His tenure is marked by a deft ability to synthesise the house’s avant-garde history with a modern, wearable sensibility. By balancing experimental material use with precise tailoring, he has re-established the brand as a significant force in the Parisian fashion landscape, appealing to a new generation of style-conscious consumers.

Materiality is central to the design process, where the iconic space-age heritage of chainmail and metal mesh is reinterpreted through a lens of athletic utility and sharp tailoring. The objective is to make complex, industrial-leaning garments appear effortless and street-ready. This involves a rigorous exploration of how rigid materials can be made fluid, resulting in silhouettes that act as a form of modern armour while maintaining a distinct sense of sensuality and movement.

The silhouette often features a hero-like quality, drawing on both historical costume and contemporary sportswear to create a look that is both protective and assertive. There is a consistent focus on the ‘functional wardrobe’, where every experimental piece is grounded by a precise understanding of proportion and ‘attitude’. Through this approach, the work navigates the tension between the radical futurism of the 1960s and the pragmatic requirements of a 21st-century lifestyle.