Paco Rabanne was born in San Sebastian, in the Spanish Basque Country. I spent my childhood under a hail of bombs in Spain, then in France, where we went into exile because my family was Republican. Before that, my mom worked as a head seamstress for Balenciaga. I had my first supernatural experience at the age of seven and it would affect me for the rest of my life. Until 1966, Courreges, Cardin, Balenciaga and Givenchy encouraged me and bought my sketches and Gerard Pipart, who had just joined Nina Ricci, gave me some styles to embroider. With my whole family I made beautiful buttons from braided leather, gemstones, but also from vermicelli or coffee beans that were glued on Rhodoid and then painted. In 1973 Paco Rabanne introduced his first fragrance, Paco Rabanne pour homme. In 1995 XS Pour Elle was introduced, a floral, clear perfume. In 1996 his first unisex fragrance "Paco" was designed in a recyclable metal bottle. Two years later "Paco Energy" was created and a year later the "Ultraviolet" perfume for women was launched. In 2001 the men's version of "Ultraviolet" was introduced.