Once again, Sonia Rykiel stands at a crossroads, wondering what its name might mean to a new generation. It has all the makings of a fashion case study. A fiercely independent woman, Rykiel built a small empire on her own attitude, one that became known as la démode, or dressing down. By right, that qualifier alone should give the house enough latitude to stake out its turf in the Paris landscape today.
With no one officially designated at the helm, the design studio had to hit the ground running and turn out a Resort collection in record time. They kept the inspiration simple, taking cues from Madame Rykiel herself—a woman who grew up in one of the toniest neighborhoods in Paris, knew all the conventional rules, and then proceeded to break them precisely at the time the city was taking to the street, in May 1968. The parallels between then and now are readily apparent.
The collection gamely ticked a lot of Rykiel’s boxes. The striped knits and inside-out seams for which the designer became beloved were here; the stripes even mingle with chains on knit handbags. Rock T-shirts paired with slouchy trousers and skirts; shirts and trenches were extrapolated from vintage prints. Balloon sleeves and dropped shoulders nodded to the designer’s ’80s heyday, as did the color palette reprising the bleu, blanc, et rouge of the French flag, as well as Rykiel’s favorite color, black. A sprinkling of charms—ladybugs, dice, four-leaf clovers—riffed on the founder’s superstitious tendencies.
The accessories smartly hewed toward spare lines and practicality. Given the many challenges, it was a more-than-honest effort. You get the sense that Rykiel’s potential lives on, that it could still become a woman’s go-to for unfussy, chic staples, so long as the powers that be grant it the freedom to do so.
