Sonia Rykiel, a French fashion designer, passed away at the age of 86 due to complications from Parkinson’s disease.
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Paying homage to the designer, French President Francois Hollande said Rykiel invented not only a style but an attitude.
A true icon of French fashion, Rykiel was born in Paris on May 25, 1930 and began her career in fashion as a window dresser at the Parisian textile store, the Grande Maison de Blanc, aged 17, before going on to dominate the French ready-to-wear scene, most notably with knitwear.
Speaking about her loss to WWD, Nathalie said: “My mother died at 05:00 this morning at her home in Paris from the effects of Parkinson’s”.
Sonia Rykiel, the French fashion designer noted for her work in knitwear, has died.
Her death comes as France is deep in a debate over what many see as a regression in women’s fashion and freedom, centred around full-body burkini swimsuits worn by some Muslim women.
Rykiel, whose voluminous red bob made her instantly recognizable, began designing nearly accidentally, while pregnant with her first child in 1956. (The lead in his film Pret-a-Porter is based on her.) She also wrote books beginning in 1979, including novels, children’s books, and memoir-which is where, in 2012, she publicly revealed her Parkinson’s, in N’oubliez pas que je joue, written in conversation with the journalist Judith Perrignon. She developed new techniques like inside-out stitching and no-hem finishings that embodied the freewheeling spirit of the times. By the mid-’60s, she was selling her “poorboy sweater” out of her husband Sam’s boutique, Laura, and was featured in a 1963 issue of Elle.
“People are going to figure out that I don’t know anything”.
Rykiel’s clothes were then picked up by Bloomingdale’s and Henri Bendel in NY. Her message to women was similarly nonconformist: She told them not to look to any authority for dictates on how to dress-even herself.
This approach to relaxed, chic femininity has endured through Rykiel’s house as well as in her protegées. I don’t think I would ever have plastic surgery; there isn’t anything I’d want to change.
She went on to become a trendsetter in women’s wear and a regular of Paris Fashion Week.
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Rykiel is survived by Nathalie, her son, Jean-Philippe, and Nathalie’s three daughters. No information about a memorial ceremony has yet been made available.
