Last season, the mayor of Paris unveiled the newly christened Allée Sonia Rykiel, not far from the late designer’s Saint Germain des Prés shop. This season, creative director Julie de Libran took the “born from the streets” idea of Rykiel and ran with it. The label shot a lookbook rather than staging a show (a notable absence from the Paris Fashion Week calendar), hiring five French models and sending them out onto the avenues and rues of the city. “It’s not about fashion,” De Libran said at the showroom, “it’s about the iconic values of the house.”
Rykiel began designing under her own name in 1968, when the prêt-à-porter category was being born. Unlike many of the other heritage brands in this city, there’s no affiliation with haute couture. The icons of the house are stripes, knitwear, and a playful sort of femininity, more coquette than seductress. So this “real world” approach suits the spirit of Rykiel. It also jibes with the direction the industry is going. At the moment, overly designed and conceptual collections feel passé.
De Libran’s stripes this season are lively and multicolored, inspired by a kaleidoscope. And there was novelty in her knits, including a pullover cut like a sporty-outdoorsy fleece and a fringed top and skirt set made from a new machine that’s proprietary to Rykiel (not pictured in the lookbook). Among the highlights: a super-wide-wale corduroy pantsuit, and a black velvet dress embellished with fringes of sequins.
At the start of her run, De Libran presented her collections in the Rykiel flagship. The store would be a charming compromise between this lookbook and a fashion show; it would give us a chance to see these real-world clothes in action.
