For the Paco Rabanne Fall 2019 RTW collection, designer Julien Dossena broke free of the brand’s chainmail heritage to articulate his own decorative vision.

“I started to look at old Hollywood movies; at ceremonials, from royalty to military to the red carpet; at dandified ’70s glam rock and Roxy Music,” said Julien Dossena about the source materials behind his collection.

The collection featured slinky Deco-pattern-printed chain mail dresses, ’40s-shouldered velvet frocks, and short curvy cocktail dresses with trains. Styling assistants were moving in, lavishing them with diamanté waterfall earrings, pinning on sparkly “heirloom” brooches, fastening on a glittering silver chain belt with a starburst buckle. Other girls were climbing into suits with military frogging and gold braid.

The procession lined up to tread the carpet of a runway setting Dossena imagined as “my dream hotel lobby,” a David Lynchian fantasy space where “everyone you want to see passes by.” There were glimpses of Dietrich, Hendrix, Eno, Prince, Monroe—and for anyone who can remember it, that early-’70s moment in London when Ossie Clark and Biba revived a romance with ’30s and ’40s silver-screen goddesses.

Go backstage as the preparations for the uber-glamorous Paco Rabanne Fall runway show in Paris begin.