The Reign of Rykiel: French Designer and Icon's Interview

Most have only seen that shade of startling red and particular coif on the crowned heads of Europe; Queen Elizabeth I had that shade of rouge in her frizzy bob and it was all the rage circa 1558. There are other portraits of various European royals with similar gravity defying cuts too in erstwhile eras. Surely no less than royalty, "The Queen of knits" Sonia Rykiel, is the uncrowned doyenne of Parisian fashion. She speaks exclusively to P.Ramakrishnan about her Asian visits and influence, prior to the unveiling of her latest collection.

Images courtesy of The Swank.


In an age that extols thinness, there is no greater model for the sartorial styling of Sonia Rykiel than the designer herself. With a bone structure that models dream of and photographers lust after, a slim silhouette that drapes her signature knits in ways that Twiggy couldn't pull off with as much panache, her dreamy eyes and insouciant smile all make for intriguing images.

To label her merely a 'designer' is a near insult; singer, writer, artist, inspiration, icon, novelist, social commentator, thinker, mother, actress and so much more, conversation with the legend is typically French-cryptic, loaded with double entendre (and not in a vulgar way for she's never done anything vulgar in her 77 years). In saying little, she says much.

A profession that constantly demands new samples of creative fecundity every season, Rykiel has been in the business for nearly 40 years. To be precise, it is 38 years since she sent back a sweater (eight times) during her second trimester in 1968 when she couldn't find chic, comfortable maternity wear. She simply says, "I became a designer by accident, it was not planned."

Her husband owned a shop and she created a few items, mostly for herself, but when ELLE magazine put one of her knit ensembles on its cover, there was no going back to her original plan, which was "to get married and have 10 children."

Through an unprecedented career that still finds renewed and constant interest, Rykiel's knitwear is a signature look that she can't escape. If the showing at her namesake store in Central was anything to go by, the ones doling out their black Amexes were happy to embrace her latest inspired collection of shirt-dresses, minis, boat neck sweaters - all in short and loose silhouettes. As Suzy Menkes said of Rykeil: "She has a way of embracing the new without changing her merry romps on the runway, where the models exude an ooh-la-la cheerfulness."


The surprise for those who sat in the haloed front row of her Spring/Summer 2007 show in Paris was the fact the models were smiling their way down the catwalk in colourful ensembles. The colour wasn't the innovation, but getting the feline models to Cheshire grin their way through to the end of the catwalk was, as instructed by Rykeil's team as she presented a joyful collection unlike her counterparts and their grim and theatrical runway shows.

The novel idea of happy models culminated with the designer and her daughter Nathalie coming down the runway laughing, skipping and nearly dancing their way to the end. It's one of many innovations that Rykeil has placed on the catwalk. For example, she was one of the first few to put words across the front of her sweaters, with unequivocal statements like "Je deteste le cinema" ("I hate the movies" - a proclamation that came soon after Robert Altman did a caricature of her in his film Pret-a-Porter).

Not satisfied with writing a few letters on tops and behind jerseys, she penned novellas like "Les Levres Rouges" (Red Lips) and "Je La Voudrais Nus"(I would Like Her To Be Naked), and a book of fairy tales Tatania, Acacia among other books and articles. The lover of words famously said in the international Herald Tribune, "I feel more like a novelist than a fashion designer. Someone who writes a new chapter each season, including everything I see around me."

So who is the woman wearing a long sweater with the words "I Love Black" across her breasts?

"Any woman who wants to wear fashionable clothes and can manage to wear them, as long as she is able to to play with it," she responds. "These clothes are made for a woman of no specific age, any woman can wear them as long as she knows herself and her body well. It is also a fact that our customers are becoming younger, as the collections are improving a lot. But the clothes can fit any woman, a woman with a body like mine, or like Nathalie's."

Describing the kind of women she wants to sport her emblematic creations, Rykeil says, "She is not defined. She is mysterious, intelligent, attentive, and she likes to play. She is also involved in today's world and issues, politics and all the ecological problems."


But do the warm, wool peasant tops with matching voluminous skirts in baby pink fit the climate, political or environmental, of our city? "We already changed some fabrics and colours for the climate. The wool is fresher, and there is a lot of cotton, and light fabric. The clothes are very easy to wear," she assures. "It's very important to me that I know my client, the worldly woman who dons my clothes."

For someone whose work influences international fashionistas, the French icon has never even dreamed of moving to New York, London, Milan, Tokyo or any of the capital cities that she's wildly popular in.

In her monarchical splendour, she once said, "You can create fashion everywhere in the world, but the place where you are crowned is Paris. It's where you are the queen."

Published in Kee magazine.