Sonia Rykiel was only 17 when she was given a job dressing the window displays at a store in her home town of Paris, having been born there in 1930.
She actually first came to design clothes in 1962 when she made maternity dresses for herself after failing to find any soft sweaters while pregnant. This then led to designing for Laura, her husbands company.
Fame arrived thanks to the creation of the Poorboy Sweater which appeared on the cover of Elle and attracted worldwide attention. Rykiel was responsible for many firsts including printing words on sweaters and putting seams on the outside of clothes.
The first Rykiel boutique was opened in 1968 and specialised in knitwear – a format synonymous with the brand to this day in the form of soft wools, jersey, angor and mohair.
Her style often produces figure-hugging clothes with a sensual outline and is known for the unusual use of seams, putting them on the outside of garments and she has also been known to dabble with asymmetrical cuts, while her Lurex creations are perfect to be worn in the evening . In America she has been branded the Queen of Knitwear.
The signatures of her clothes are her long clinging sweaters and long shawls, plus small cropped pullovers and large cuffs, typically rolled back.
Rykiels favoured colours tend to be grey, dark blue, charcoal and beige.
In four decades her trademark features such as slim fitted sweaters and trend of words on garments have prevailed, being highly visible at the showing of her spring 2002 collection at the Louvre in Paris, shown in October 2001.
Now in her 70s, she appears not to have slid to conservatism, releasing sex toys as part of one collection and also including amusing underwear.She has also branched into publishing, releasing a collection of stories for children and an A to Z of fashion.
Her fashion work is now shared with daughter Nathalie. |
