Sonia Rykiel RTW Spring 2018
The oyster: A marvel infinitely more modest than the sparkling Eiffel Tower, yet another piece of Parisian heaven that Julie de Libran blew up into a fetching Sonia Rykiel collection. It was full of iridescent textures and tinkling shell embroideries and went down as easily as a glass of chilled Côtes-de-provence on a balmy day.
In fact, you could imagine the girls who whisked across the tile floors of the Beaux-Arts striding past Sénéquier, the famous seaside cafe in Saint-Tropez where Karl Lagerfeld hangs out in August and where he once staged a memorable cruise show for Chanel.
Here were real daytime clothes – simple, but hardly plain – that exalted summer and French chic: Vichy checks cut into boxy, yet breezy jackets and knee-length shorts; knit or boucle dresses as sexy as swimsuits, and boxy camp shirts matched to flattering pants in silk the color of crème caramel. The trickiest things on the runway were tailored jackets with semi-detachable sleeves that could hang loose from the collarbone, freeing the arms and revealing a racer-cut back.
De Libran wore one backstage over a big men’s shirt and she hugged the sleeves and meaty lapels like an old friend as she talked about the hardworking oysters producing things of beauty: pearls. She used them to edge the porthole on the back of a ravishing pale blue gown, and lined them up like Breton stripes on clinging black knit gowns.
“Versatile, quite sensual and extremely feminine,” she said. “It’s about beauty.”
De Libran expressed all of that with a light hand and a touch of humor that reached its zenith with a sack dress printed with oysters and a pearl embroidered at the center of each. After the show, the models assembled outside the venue, climbed on a giant pink inflatable mattress and jumped up and down.
Launch Gallery: Sonia Rykiel RTW Spring 2018
Related stories
Instagram Reactions to Pierre Bergé's Death
André Saraiva Exhibition Opens in Shanghai
Designer Raffaele Borriello Dies in Paris
Get more from WWD: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
