Sonia Rykiel

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Sonia Rykiel (who was born circa 1930 in Paris, France of Polish Jewish extraction) is a French fashion designer.

Sonia Rykiel was born in Paris, France in 1930. At the age of 17, she was employed to dress the window displays in a Parisian textile store. Sonia was married to the owner of a boutique which sold elegant clothing. In 1962 she just couldn't find any soft sweaters to wear when she was pregnant. So she used a supplier to her husband from Venice to design her own.

Sonia Rykiel created her first maternity dresses and tiny sweater. The sweater is her symbol and she was crowned "Queen of Knits" by the Americans in 1967. The sweater went back 7 times for alterations before she was satisfied with it. From then, she has experimented with seams inside out, took away the hem and lining, and created a range of fragrances of which '7e Sens' was the first. This first creation was called the Poor boy Sweater, and she started selling it from her husbands label "Laura. It made the cover of Elle fashion magazine, and brought her fame.

She later became the first designer to put seams on the outside of a garment, and to print words on her sweaters. In particular, she favours long clinging sweaters or small cropped pullovers, large rolled-back cuffs and long shawls. Her colours are usually beige, grey, dark blue and charcoal.

Rykiel has written many books, including an A to Z of fashion, and a collection of children’s stories.

In 1980 she was voted one of the world's 10 most elegant women. She proved that knitwear can follow any trend. Rykiel also hit the current idea of the big soft fun fur done as a huge bubble of colour, in her case baby pink, purple knitted fox or teal-blue Mongolian lamb. During Paris Fashion Week in October 2003, Sonia Rykiel showed her own collection for next spring. There were also gorgeous ruffled dresses in vintage floral and polka dot prints and smart hounds tooth coats.

During Paris Fashion Week in October 2004, Sonia Rykiel showed her collection for next spring. There were smiling faces at her show seeing models in flower-child knit dresses and big 1970s Paddington Bear hats.

Sonia and her daughter Nathalie have decided to bring Paris to New York. In February 2005 Henri Bendel launched an in-store shop for the Sonia Rykel Woman line. It will almost certainly be as successful as in France. There are two Sonia Rykiel locations in the U.S. and they are in New York and Boston.