Anja Rabes was born in Munich. After an apprenticeship as a tailor at the Bavarian State Opera, she studied theatre studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. She worked as a costume assistant to Anna Viebrock, Axel Manthey and Johannes Grützke at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Burgtheater in Vienna and the Münchner Kammerspiele. During this time she created her own costume designs for dance theatre productions by Verena Weiss and Carolyn Carlson. As a freelance costume designer, she has worked regularly since 1994 with the directors Jossi Wieler, Sergio Morabito, Stephan Kimmig, Johan Simons, Christoph Marthaler and Calixto Bieito for theatre and opera productions in Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Oslo, Vienna, London, Amsterdam and Stuttgart, at the Ruhrtriennale and since 1998 at the Salzburger Festspiele.

Anja Rabes has also worked as a stage designer since 2002. In 2004, for example, she designed the stage and costumes for Jossi Wieler's production of Paul Claudel's Mittagswende at the Münchner Kammerspiele, which was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen. In 2008, she created the stage and costumes for the world premiere of Elfriede Jelinek's Rechnitz (Der Würgeengel) at the Münchner Kammerspiele, which travelled internationally to many guest performances, in 2009 for Das letzteBand/Bis dass der Tag euch scheidet (Beckett/Handke) and in 2010 for the world premiere of Angst by Koen Tachelet after Stefan Zweig at the Salzburg Festival, directed by Jossi Wieler. This was followed in 2021 by Mysteries by Knut Hamsun, directed by Johan Simons in Bochum. Anja Rabes was a guest lecturer in the scenography class at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe and a lecturer at the Hochschule für Theater und Musik in Hamburg.