Sonia Rykiel

Sonia Rykiel
Sonia Rykiel née Flisis a French fashion designer...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionFashion Designer
Date of Birth25 May 1930
CountryFrance
running lovers eating
I am like the lover of Roland Barthes "who's always running in his head". I'm always searching, and "eating" everything from my life, in order to put it in my dresses!
disappointed
I can be happy with something I did, like a drawing or a dress I designed, and yet be very disappointed with the same drawing, or the same dress the day after.
proust
You know, the more grown-up you are, the more you like Proust.
daughter care artistic
I am still taking care of the creation of the collection alongside my staff, and my daughter Nathalie Rykiel, is the artistic director of Sonia Rykiel, who takes care of a lot of things. We are very alike and also very close.
daughter fashion men
I married a man who was in fashion. I began to work when my daughter Nathalie was about eight or 10 years old. Then one day I began to make a sweater, and eventually the sweater was on the front page of Elle magazine. And the day after I was the queen of knit in America.
feelings done
I have the feeling I've always done what I wanted throughout my life.
husband boys different
My husband had a clothing store in Paris, and I had his factory make specifically for me something similar to the one I was looking for. We made it in different colours, and decided to sell them in the store...and in a day, they were sold out! This sweater became later known as the "poor boy sweater" and it ended up making the cover of Elle magazine, and in a day, I became the "Queen of knit", without knowing anything about knitting!
important
I can't go any place without going to museums. It's very important for me.
hippie feminist feminist-movement
I was influenced by the hippie movement in San Francisco and by the feminist movement, which had arrived in Paris.
smart helpful let-me-go
I can be negatively criticised, but this is actually a positive thing, especially if the critic is smart, and helpful. I am very attentive to critics, they let me go ahead and push myself harder to continue.
design
I started by designing a sweater very close to the body, because I couldn't find any for myself.
fashion art real
My parents never mentioned anything about fashion in our household, instead we used to talk about literature, theatre, and arts...this is why I have kept a real relation with the Art world, by putting books from the beginning in my shops' windows.
fashion fashion-industry
The fashion industry can in a certain way be very hard and closed.
fashion decision doubt
After all these years of creating my collections, I still doubt my decision even until the last minute before the fashion show, I keep questioning myself and wondering if I did the right thing.