Designer Sonia Rykiel, known for a relaxed style, dies at 86
PARIS >> Sonia Rykiel, a French designer dubbed the “queen of knitwear” whose relaxed sweaters in berrycolored stripes and eye-popping motifs helped liberate women from stuffy suits, has died. She was 86.
President Francois Hollande’s office announced her death in a statement Thursday, praising her as “a pioneer” who “offered women freedom of movement.” His office didn’t provide further details, and the Sonia Rykiel fashion house in Paris wouldn’t comment.
For the generation of women who came of age in the heady 1960s and ‘70s, Rykiel, with her hallmark bright orange hair, came to symbolize the new era of freedom.
She also penned several novels — including one about a dress and its various incarnations — and figured in director Robert Altman’s satirical 1994 look at the fashion industry, “Pret-a-Porter.”
Designers, fashionistas and French cultural figures offered tributes to her and her influence Thursday, including on multilingual posts on her house’s Facebook page.
Rykiel got her start by designing knit maternity dresses for herself. She became a fixture of Paris’ fashion scene starting in 1968 when she opened her first ready-to-wear shop on the Left Bank at a time when student riots were challenging France’s bourgeoisie establishment. The designer’s empire grew to include menswear and children’s lines as well as accessories, perfumes and home goods, sold in the label’s stores on four continents.
Her daughter, Nathalie Rykiel, who as a young woman used to model her mother’s garments on the catwalk, has long helped manage the fashion house. The business was among France’s last major familyowned labels until it was sold to a Hong Kong investment fund in 2012.
Rykiel’s star pieces include the “poor boy” sweater — often in black with jewel tone stripes or emblazoned with messages or graphic motifs like oversized red lips — knit tops with embroidered roses and funky, rhinestone-studded berets. She developed new techniques like insideout stitching and no-hem finishings that embodied the freewheeling spirit of the times.