In this life, designer Paco Rabanne is the avant-garde creator of 60s “metal” couture and two of the most successful fragrances ever, Calandre and Paco Rabanne pour Homme. In past lives, Rabanne claims, he has been an Egyptian priest who murdered King Tutankhamen, a flying-saucer pilot, and an 18th-century actress. This month, as Rabanne introduces a new perfume, Ultraviolet, GEORGE WAYNE catches up with the mystic for a close encounter of the Paco kind.

George Wayne: Wacko Paco, how do you know when you’re having an out-of-body experience?

Paco Rabanne: I feel like I am floating above my body.

G.W. Do you break into a cold sweat?

P.R. No, I feel like I am in a world of light.

G.W. And how many past lives have you led?

P.R. About 100.

G.W. One hundred?!

P.R. I am 70,000 years old.

G.W. Yeah, you, Shirley MacLaine, and Tina Turner. In one of those past lives, you claim to have been an 18th-century prostitute. What was her name?

P.R. Adrienne Lecouvreur.

G.W.How do you know you were a prostitute in the 18th century? Is it because in your current life, even at 65, you are horny all the time?

P.R. No. When I close my eyes, I always see images of women in the past. And I try to translate that for the future.

G.W. And what will you be in your next life?

P.R. This is my last life on Earth.

I will move on to other planets.

G.W. What happened to your Nostradamus prediction for Paris?

P.R. The prophecies of Nostradamus? I believe in them. I was wrong with the date and the interpretation. I made a mistake; people make mistakes.

G.W. So, will it happen or not?

P.R. Eventually.

G.W. Well, it is not every day that G.W. has the pleasure of bantering with a queenious iconoclast such as yourself.

P.R. I am not an iconoclast. I worked for Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, Christian Dior.

G.W. We especially love that Paco is not afraid to jostle with the Young Turks. For example, and I quote, “I don’t want to do like John Galliano, who for the 10th time remakes a dress fit for a whore in a 1925 bordello.” And you have called Stella McCartney’s work ‘‘grotesque and pitiful.”

P.R. I am honest. I judge people on each collection. The last McCartney collection was fabulous!

G.W. Who is your favorite young designer?

P.R. Alexander McQueen.

G.W. A better name for your new fragrance would have been Mystic.

P.R. The new fragrance is Ultraviolet, the most mystic color of the rainbow. Ultraviolet is the color of the Age of Aquarius, which i we are now moving into. Ultra| violet is the ray of light that f brought life on Earth, when it was still covered by oceans. G.W.Paco Rabanne does have an extraordinary nose for the fragrance as cash cow. Paco Rabanne pour Homme is probably the most successful men’s fragrance ever.

P.R. Yes, after 25 years it still has no wrinkles.

G.W. Do you expect Ultraviolet to be the classic fragrance of the 21st century? P.R. This is the only one that has been designed as the fragrance of the 21st century. We use fresh pimento as the top note, as opposed to a citrus note, which is what is traditionally used. And then we use the Japanese flower kinmokusei. It’s a very tender flower, so we had to use a new technology which does a spectrum analysis of the flower. 

G.W. Any more predictions?

P.R. There will be more catastrophes on earth; there have been more than there used to be. But that is because of the transition from the era of the Pisces to the era of the Aquarius. In such a transition, there is always turmoil.

G.W. Well, is the era of Aquarius going to be a fabulous one?

P.R. From 2005 on, there will be a thousand years of happiness.