The House

Paris

1962 — Sonia Rykiel creates the « poor boy sweater », the sweater that adapts to the shape of the body and originates envy. This will mark the begining of a revolution for the dress codes.

1968 — Sonia Rykiel opens her first shop in Saint-Germain des Près, at 6 Rue de Grenelle.

1972 — Sonia Rykiel is consecrated « queen of knits » by the Women’s Wear Daily.

1976 — Sonia invents the « démode » : women need to free themselves from the diktats of fashion. It’s up to the garment to adapt to women’s bodies and not the other way around.

1983 — The fashion designer launches her first Sonia Rykiel Kids collection.

1989 — The « Inscription Rykiel » collection is being launched. Ten years later, this collection will be known as « Sonia By Sonia Rykiel »

1990 — The Men collection « Rykiel Homme » appears for the first time on the catwalk. Same year, the iconic Saint Germain flagship store celebrates its opening.

2002 — The « Rykiel Women » collection is imagined as a manifesto to female pleasures. It includes wardrobe essentials and various sex toys.

2008 — Celebration of the 40th anniversary of Sonia Rykiel; the 30 most influential fashion designers create a look of their perception on the Rykiel woman in a fashion show tribute to the designer.

2009 — Sonia Rykiel is a guest of honor at H&M to present two collections of ready-to-wear together.

2018 — 50th anniversary of the french fashion house; various events as Manifesto, Atelier (Haute-Couture show), Sonia Rykiel alley and the show outdoors for its inauguration mark the history of the brand.

Since the 1970s, Sonia Rykiel (1930-2016) embodies an emancipated and iconoclastic woman. She will always be known as one of the main figures of Parisian ready-to-wear.

Throughout the collections, Sonia Rykiel has been able to turn fashion upside down and create clothes that match with a real lifestyle. Shaking up institutions, not paying attention to codes and established rules, she has always took women’s part. This perhaps explains the modernity, the longevity, the influence, the posterity of her vision and its unique journey.

New York Fashion Group International award
National Order of the Legion of Honor, then Commander
Insignia of Commander of Arts and Letters
Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit.
Sonia Rykiel Alley in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district, the only street named after a fashion designer in Paris.

stripes
no hem
velvet
lace
« trompe l'œil»
black
reverse seams
colors
words
intarsia
strass
studs
masculine-feminine
true-false
layering
knit
sweater

Copyright Dominique Issermann — © Dominique Issermann

Rykielism

Rykielism is a sociological and stylistic movement founded in 1968 by Sonia Rykiel in Saint-Germain-des-Près, a neighborhood in Paris’ Left Bank. Rykielism extols the libération of women through sensuality, intelligence and irreverence.

Rykielism is about having the freedom to be oneself. It’s a way of life that’s chic and offbeat.

demode
freedom
avant-garde
bold
provocation
democratization
joy of living

pleasure
seduction
Sensuality
game / double-dealing
game
trust
emancipation

eccentricity
humour
chic
offset
non-compliance
visionnarism
passion
bewitchment
mischief

I wanted to destroy the laws, the diktats.
I wanted to duplicate, overflow, unmeasure fashion.
I wanted to unfold it, unroll it.

Et je la voudrais nue… , Sonia Rykiel Editions Grasset and Fasquelle, 1979

When I live the collection,
I live multiplied.
I am one but I am everywhere,
in the colors, under the shapes, into the pockets.

Et je la voudrais nue… , Sonia Rykiel Editions Grasset and Fasquelle, 1979

I returned the clothes;
I haven't finished them;
I made holes, overlays;
I decided that garment is freedom.

Rapsody in black, film by Antoinette Fouque and Marie-Claude Grumbach, 1985-2008

Rykielism

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