Obituary: Sonia Rykiel who has passed away aged 86
Legendary French fashion designer Sonia Rykiel, famed for her colourful striped knits, has passed away at the age of 86.
Her daughter Nathalie confirmed the news to the Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency that her mother, who had been suffering from Parkinson's disease for 15 years, has died at 5am this morning from the effects of the disease.
Rykiel was born Sonia Fils on 25 May 1930 to a Russian father and Romanian mother; her family were upper class intellectuals and Sonia was the eldest of five sisters.
She caught the fashion bug early when at 17 she began dressing windows for French department store Grande Maison de Blanc. At the age of 23 she married Sam Rykiel, owner of the Laura boutique in Paris' 14th arondissement. They had two children, Nathalie and Jean-Philippe.
Laura was to prove the launchpad for her design career. She sold her first sweaters at the boutique and made a breakthrough when one was featured on the cover of French Elle modelled by a 19-year-old Francoise Hardy. Audrey Hepburn is said to have visited the store to purchase five of the sweaters, known as "The Poor Boy", in every available colour and Brigitte Bardot was also a fan.
Francoise Hardy models The Poor Boy for Elle
Sam and Sonia were to divorce but he nonetheless supported her in the establishment of her own brand and the opening of her first store in the Rue de Grenelle on Paris' Left Bank in 1968. A year earlier Women's Wear Daily had hailed her as "The Queen of Knitwear". She was a major part of the 1960s ready-to-wear explosion and her design contemporaries at the time were the likes of Yves Saint Laurent in Paris and Mary Quant in London.
As well as her signature stripes (she liked them as she believed they followed a woman's movements), Rykiel's design motifs includes seams on the outside, unfinished hems, long-line or cropped clinging knits and she was also famed for her use of brightly coloured faux fur. She also pioneered the trend for bold words across her sweaters and her designs were always infused with wit and a distinctive Parisian style.
Rykiel was one of the first designers to collaborate with a lower priced brand designing a collection for French catalogue 3 Suisses in 1977. The brand would later go on to collaborate with H&M in 2009.
Sonia Rykiel for H&M in 2009
In 1995 her daughter Nathalie was appointed artistic director at the brand (she became president in 2007) and the more affordable and youthful diffusion line, Sonia by Sonia Rykiel, was launched in 1999.
In 2012 Rykiel revealed that she had been suffering from Parkinson's Disease and in the same year an investment company backed by Hong Kong billionaires Victor and William Fung acquired an 80% stake in Sonia Rykiel, with the Rykiel family retaining a 20% stake.
Julie de Libran was appointed as creative director in 2014 and Nathalie Rykiel remains a creative consultant. It fell to Nathalie to break the news this morning of the passing of her mother and one of fashion's most pioneering forces.
