Paco Rabanne is always where you least expect it. Iconoclastic, offbeat, essential. Capturing the spirit of the times only to go against the grain. A knack for provocation, inherited from its founder, cultivated with irony. At Paco Rabanne, creation is a shock and always breaks away from the norm. The fragrances say no to conformity and yes to all fantasies.
The fabulous life in one snap of your fingers with 1 Million and its Lady. The legend of the hero and goddess revisited by Invictus and Olympéa. And finally, excess played up in the XS saga. In 1993, the XS fragrance paved the way and claimed sexual desire, free of taboos. Then came the rock star fantasy with Black XS. In 2017, Pure XS announces the comeback of sex, or rather eroticism. With excess in its very genes.
Pure XS, excess in its pure state
He's a man who has it all, excessively. Wealth and beauty, with his whole life ahead of him a desirable heir with every advantage that surpasses perfection. Raised in the neo-gothic family mansion, he has been surrounded by fine artwork and grand cru wines from early childhood. He's a good-looking man with fine taste and sharp wit who isn't afraid of speed in his Aston Martin.
Clearly well cultured and an aesthete, his life is a work of art on a par with his destiny and so is his body. A perfect physique, a calm composure and an angel's face to boot. The handsome heir cuts a fine figure, naturally with a gift for attracting women, effortlessly. How can anyone keep their cool in the presence of such beauty? Especially in the presence of a man who seems unattainable. And who tests the limits.
Pure XS, a story of excess and sex
A fantasy embodied by an excessively perfect and perfectly indecent man. An unattainable heir who oozes sex and desire. A double sin. Pure XS is excess in its pure state, implicit, explicit and pure fantasy.
Pure XS is the duality of a man with a noble upbringing and sexual power. He merges decency and daring, vice and virtue with magnetic results. The name indulges in extremes, Pure, like the purity of masculine beauty or desire and eroticism. XS spells out sex and the excess of the character at the heart of the story, the reactions that he incites and the fragrance that oscillates between freshness and fire.
Pure XS, the film
When an unattainable man awakens the most voyeuristic instincts
Lights, camera, action! Black marble and chandeliers, paintings by the masters and an impressive collection of antique books. Our heir's bathroom sets the scene. An immense and opulent boudoir in which modernity meets the baroque. The hedonism is obvious and the taste is flawless. A man enters, runs a bath and gets undressed. Close shot of his stunning, half-naked body. A group of girls spy on and drool over him from a distance. Hypnotised. Dazzled by so much beauty, the girls swoon, too weak-kneed to take action. Frustration. The object of sin is right before their eyes, so close, but untouchable. Obsession. The heir knows it or at least has a clue. It's a delicious game. In front of the mirror, he smiles as if unaware and applies his fragrance to the right side of his body, the left and then a little lower... Chain reactions. Mass hysteria and fainting spells close the scene. The film's signature: the Pure XS bottle, encircled by a snake.
Designed and edited like a choreographed video, the advertising film stages sexual fantasy with a finely crafted aesthetic in an excessively stylised setting. The pulsing rhythm of the "Habanera" aria from Bizet's Carmen accompanies the mounting desire with a tragicomic dimension until the final scene: watch out! Humour, a Paco Rabanne trademark, runs through the film and begins with a gender switch: the subject is a male object, not a woman! A wink to the spectator this time, the high-angle shot of the setting creates a film within the film, immersing us in theatre. Finally, we can point out the metaphorically and erotically charged ambience from start to finish. An ultimate phallic symbol and allegory of the original sin, the tempting serpent winds through the elements of the setting only to be revealed at the very end.
We find the talented Johan Renck at the helm once again. After Lady Million, this is his second collaboration with Paco Rabanne. The Swedish director belongs to the new generation of artists who dabble in many fields. From music to photography by way of cinema and advertising, Johan Renck has made a name for himself with his borderline-gothic world tinged with dark beauty. The Scandinavian aesthetic... For TV, he directed several episodes of Breaking Bad, Walking Dead and the British series The Last Panthers. He also created acclaimed videos for Beyoncé, Madonna, The Knife, New Order, Robbie Williams and David Bowie.
Pure XS, the photo campaign
The artist behind the Million campaigns, in their famous Hollywood black and white, the great fashion photographer Nathaniel Goldberg returns with a highly cinematic visual. In a contrasting light and dark atmosphere, the heir poses bare-chested, his jacket negligently flung over his shoulder. Less is more. His proud gaze penetrates the camera with a twinkle of irony. An invitation? In the foreground, the Pure XS bottle appears. Behind it, a golden serpent rises up to form an S. A metaphor that doesn't shy away from grandiloquence.
Francisco, the heir of eroticism
To give a face to its heir, Paco Rabanne wanted a personality that embodied both vice and virtue, between the romanticism of a Visconti hero and the sex appeal of an irresistible ladies' man. Francisco Henriques is the one. Far from the virile and monolithic male standards, this 21-year-old model exudes a disturbing erotic power. His noble beauty and juvenile freshness express both masculinity and femininity: intense charm and natural sensuality, an expressive mouth, a certain nonchalance and, above all, a candour that wins over all the girls.
Pure XS, the bottle
To capture fantasised eroticism in a bottle, the designer focused on powerful, stylised restraint that conveys excess in its animality and purity at the same time. This duality is anchored in a solid base. The glass is thick but sculptural, chiselled in the shape of a cult lighter. A twist in pure Rabanne style. The bottle opens with a flirty snap for a masculine gesture. A curved black lacquered cap and pure, sharp edges. Interlacing clear and flowing lines with proud ambiguity. On the glass, the nocturnal ambience lights up with a clear glow. Blue plays with a gradation, from the deepest to the most electric hue, hypnotising us. Warm gold signs the name, making it stand out. A fiery artifice, complementary to blue. The blue of blue blood. The blue of nobility. Bold and disturbing, the Pure XS bottle is an extremely beautiful object that knows how to make itself desired.
The fragrance, a fresh-smouldering Oriental
For the olfactory signature of Pure XS, Paco Rabanne called on the combined talents of two perfumers at IFF: Anne Flipo, creator of the Lady Million fragrance, and Caroline Dumur. The challenge was to convey the sensation of skin shivering with desire and burning with pleasure in an olfactory expression. This idea of a "smouldering shiver" guided the perfumers to achieve a composition with two accords that contrast and harmonise with each other: a body-to-body caught between two contrary excesses. The fragrance also had to call on all of the senses. Smell, of course, but also taste and touch, like a sensory trap.
Pure XS is a vibrant, magnetic and fresh oriental with a permanent in-and-out between cold and hot, gentle and intense. Two sensations on edge, brushing against, attracting and echoing each other. The first excess: explosive freshness. During this foreplay, the senses go wild and the palate tingles with an overdose of almost icy ginger. A juicy, delicious, bite inducing,aphrodisiac. A carnal second wind: the green creaminess of vegetal sap and ultra-masculine thyme. The second excess and double indecency: smouldering sensuality. Cinnamon adds a piquant touch and makes mouths water. A spicy sin! Followed by a surge of power with deep, noble vanilla infused with leather-liquor-musk inflections. Sweet animality. Finally, it's time to let go and sink into the pulsing warmth of myrrh dusted with sugar. A sensation of overheated skin to enter an altered state. And, quickly, a pure longing to indulge once again.
Pure XS builds up tension and dizzies the senses.
An overdose of ginger. A shiver swells up!
An explosion of animal vanilla and myrrh. Overheated skin...
A fresh, smouldering and fascinating oriental. Excess in its pure state.
