40 Years of Iconic Sonia Rykiel Designs
Sonia Rykiel, the pioneering French fashion designer, died today at age 86 in Paris. Rykiel had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for the past few years. With her shock of bright orange hair and bold, body-conscious knit designs, Rykiel embodied the youthful spirit of French insouciance throughout her 50-year career.
Rykiel was inspired to take up design when she was pregnant with her daughter, Nathalie: “I wanted a maternity dress, but I couldn’t find anything I liked,” the designer told WWD. “Everything was abominable. So I made one. Then I made a pullover. Elle put it on the cover. Then WWD elected me the Queen of Knitwear.” Early fans of her designs included French stars Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve, as well as Audrey Hepburn, who famously trekked to the French boutique Laura to buy 14 of Rykiel’s sweaters, one in each color.
Rykiel opened her first boutique on Paris’s Left Bank in 1968, to further success. Her signature item, the shrunken, neon-striped “poor-boy” sweater both nodded at, and thumbed its nose at, the conventional boxy Breton top. The designer showed some version of the striped sweaters at nearly every runway show — and throughout the years, designers from Azzedine Alaïa to Miuccia Prada paid tribute to her signature style with their own striped motifs and body-clinging knits. The Sonia Rykiel brand eventually expanded to include menswear, children’s clothing, and fragrances, and in 2009, a collaboration with H&M brought Rykiel’s appeal to a whole new generation.
Although Sonia Rykiel had long since given up the reins as the designer of her collection, her eccentric spirit remained at the core of the brand. As she told WWD in 2008, “Since I didn’t know anything, I did everything I wanted. I didn’t listen to anyone, … only to what I wanted and myself. People loved me or hated me. Those who loved me, loved me a lot. The others, I didn’t bother with them very much.”
Count us in the former category. Click ahead to see some of Rykiel’s most iconic designs from the last 40 years of her career.
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