Born in 1966 in Munich, Anja Rabes began her career with an apprenticeship in tailoring at the Bavarian State Opera before studying Theater Studies at LMU Munich. She worked as a costume assistant for Anna Viebrock, Axel Manthey, and Johannes Grützke at the Deutsches SchauSpielHaus Hamburg, Vienna's Burgtheater, and the Münchner Kammerspiele.
Since 1994, Rabes has worked as a freelance costume designer, collaborating regularly with directors Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito, Stephan Kimmig, Johan Simons, Christoph Marthaler, and Calixto Bieito. Her designs have been featured in productions for theater, opera, and dance in cities such as Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Oslo, Vienna, London, Amsterdam, and Stuttgart, as well as at the Ruhrtriennale and the Salzburg Festival (since 1998).
In 2001, she created costumes for Jossi Wieler’s production of Euripides’ Alkestis at the Münchner Kammerspiele. In 2004, also at the Münchner Kammerspiele, she designed the set and costumes for Wieler’s staging of Paul Claudel’s Mittagswende, both of which were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen.
In 2008, Rabes designed the set and costumes for the world premiere of Elfriede Jelinek’s Rechnitz (Der Würgeengel) at the Münchner Kammerspiele, a production that toured internationally and won the Nestroy Prize in 2009. In 2023, she created the stage design for Jossi Wieler’s production of Angabe der Person at Deutsches Theater Berlin, which was awarded the Nestroy Prize for Best Production in the German-speaking world.
Rabes has served as a guest lecturer in scenography at the State University of Design Karlsruhe, as a lecturer at the University of Music and Theater Hamburg, and currently teaches at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen.