Sonia Rykiel's Biography Sonia Rykiel was born on May 25, 1930 in Paris, France. Many people don’t know that ethnically Sonia is a Russian-Roman Jew. Sonia is the oldest of 5 daughters. At the age of seventeen Sonia was employed to dress the window displays in a Parisian textile store. Which one could say that is where her fashion career begins.
The Poor Boy Sweater, which she started selling from her husbands label “Laura”. This sweater made the cover of Elle fashion magazine, and brought Sonia fame because of it. She was the Sonia Rykiel then created her first maternity dresses and a sweater called the Poor Boy crowned “Queen of Knits” by americans in 1967. Since then Sonia has continued to experiment and expanded her offerings. She then later became the first designer to put seams on the outside of a garment, and to print words on her sweaters. With her daughter Nathalie, Sonia brought Paris to New York. In February 2005 Henri Bendel launched an in-store for the Sonia Rykiel woman line. There are only 3 Sonia Rykiel boutiques in the United States. These boutiques are in New York, Boston, and Guam. Sonia recently revealed that she is suffering from Parkinsons Disease and has been suffering for 15 years. Parkinson's Disease affects the way you move and also occurs when certain nerve cells in the brain don’t produce enough of Dopamine. For Sonia, even this disease made it difficult to be in the fashion world, but she is deciding to stick to her dream and let nothing bring her down. Sonia will be 83 in May of 2013 and she is still designing her spring collection.
Celebrities Rocking Sonia's Style Sonia Rykiel’s fashion sense is one of many on the unique side. There are not many celebrities that wear her clothes, but the one’s that do wear line are ones that we all know VERY well. A few that are spotted often wearing her clothes would be Vanessa Hudgdens, Leighton Meester, Victoria Beckham, Nicole Richie, and even Michelle Obama. We may not pay very much attention to it, but these fashionable ladies rock Sonia Rykiel on many different occasions. On January 6th, 2009, Nicole Richie was spotted wearing a double breasted, short coat designed by Sonia Rykiel. On a different occurrence, Michelle Obama was sighted wearing a sweater from the Sonia line.
Sonia vs. Other Fashion Designers While a lot of designers stick to the look that they are used to, Sonia goes for a much more extreme and different look every time she creates something new. And that is on of the reason's people love her clothing. Because she isn't afraid to take risks. Most designers only design the stuff that they're used to designing. They stick with the same boring stuff that we're all so accustomed to seeing. They never have that one year or line of clothing that just pops! And i personally think that's why a lot of designers just slowly fade away. But Sonia, is always different. Every year at her fashion shows there is something in them that stands out. And if you are truly into fashion, these things are things that you will never forget. And that is what is so cool about her. "The designs I created in 1968 you could still wear today," Sonia said in an interview with The Observer. So even though you could still wear her designs they never go out of style. Sonia Rykiel is an international brand, so even though not many people know about her label, it is still out there. Which is another was Sonia is different from other fashion designers. While most designers, everybody knows about, not many know about Sonia. And still she has managed to be successful for as long as she has.
Impact on Society For more than 50 years, Sonia has been sketching designs for her label. Sonia see's it as a way to "express herself". When Sonia was 66 though, she was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. She did not tel anyone though, not even her daughter. Sonia finally revealed to everyone she had Parkinson's when she wrote her book; N'oubliez Pas Que Je Joue (Don't Forget That I'm Acting). Sonia sees this predicament as a good thing though. Her daughter is now the president of the board of directors, after the Sonia brand sold to the Fung Brands in Hong Kong, which is what they needed to make Sonia a global brand. The Sonia brand was the first to print words on sweaters and the first to film their fashion shows. And ever since then that's what everybody has done.
Sonia's Style Compared to other stylist Sonia Rykiel has a very unique style. While she stays to the stuff that she has always done, she always switches stuff up. She designs her clothes in many different unique patterns. She favors long clinging sweaters or small cropped pullovers, large rolled-back cuffs and long shawls.
Her color palette usually features beige, grey, dark blue and charcoal. Her style is very unique and nobody can really compare to it. She has a creative yet wild side to her beautiful creations. Each style of clothing says something different about Sonia, whether its her bright side or her humorous side, her clothing designs inspire many people all over the world. Some of her ideas came from creating the iconic, shrunken “poor boy” sweater. “I wanted a maternity dress and I couldn't find anything I liked. Everything was abominable. So I made one. Then I made a pullover. Elle put it on the cover. Then WWD elected me the queen of knitwear.”—Sonia Rykiel Women's Wear Daily
Sonia Rykiel's Biography
Sonia Rykiel was born on May 25, 1930 in Paris, France. Many people don’t know that ethnically Sonia is a Russian-Roman Jew. Sonia is the oldest of 5 daughters. At the age of seventeen Sonia was employed to dress the window displays in a Parisian textile store. Which one could say that is where her fashion career
begins.
The Poor Boy Sweater, which she started selling from her husbands label “Laura”. This sweater made the cover of Elle fashion magazine, and brought Sonia fame because of it. She was the Sonia Rykiel then created her first maternity dresses and a sweater called the Poor Boy crowned “Queen of Knits” by americans in 1967. Since then Sonia has continued to experiment and expanded her offerings. She then later became the first designer to put seams on the outside of a garment, and to print words on her sweaters.
With her daughter Nathalie, Sonia brought Paris to New York. In February 2005 Henri Bendel launched an in-store for the Sonia Rykiel woman line.
There are only 3 Sonia Rykiel boutiques in the United States. These boutiques are in New York, Boston, and Guam.
Sonia recently revealed that she is suffering from Parkinsons Disease and has been suffering for 15 years. Parkinson's Disease affects the way you move and also occurs when certain nerve cells in the brain don’t produce enough of Dopamine. For Sonia, even this disease made it difficult to be in the fashion world, but she is deciding to stick to her dream and let nothing bring her down. Sonia will be 83 in May of 2013 and she is still designing her spring collection.
Celebrities Rocking Sonia's Style
Sonia Rykiel’s fashion sense is one of many on the unique side. There are not many celebrities that wear her clothes, but the one’s that do wear line are ones that we all know VERY well. A few that are spotted often wearing her clothes would be Vanessa Hudgdens, Leighton Meester, Victoria Beckham, Nicole Richie, and even Michelle Obama.
We may not pay very much attention to it, but these fashionable ladies rock Sonia Rykiel on many different occasions. On January 6th, 2009, Nicole Richie was spotted wearing a double breasted, short coat designed by Sonia Rykiel. On a different occurrence, Michelle Obama was sighted wearing a sweater from the Sonia line.
Sonia vs. Other Fashion Designers
While a lot of designers stick to the look that they are used to, Sonia goes for a much more extreme and different look every time she creates something new. And that is on of the reason's people love her clothing. Because she isn't afraid to take risks.
Most designers only design the stuff that they're used to designing. They stick with the same boring stuff that we're all so accustomed to seeing. They never have that one year or line of clothing that just pops! And i personally think that's why a lot of designers just slowly fade away. But Sonia, is always different. Every year at her fashion shows there is something in them that stands out. And if you are truly into fashion, these things are things that you will never forget. And that is what is so cool about her. "The designs I created in 1968 you could still wear today," Sonia said in an interview with The Observer. So even though you could still wear her designs they never go out of style. Sonia Rykiel is an international brand, so even though not many people know about her label, it is still out there. Which is another was Sonia is different from other fashion designers. While most designers, everybody knows about, not many know about Sonia. And still she has managed to be successful for as long as she has.
Impact on Society
For more than 50 years, Sonia has been sketching designs for her label. Sonia see's it as a way to "express herself". When Sonia was 66 though, she was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. She did not tel anyone though, not even her daughter. Sonia finally revealed to everyone she had Parkinson's when she wrote her book; N'oubliez Pas Que Je Joue (Don't Forget That I'm Acting). Sonia sees this predicament as a good thing though. Her daughter is now the president of the board of directors, after the Sonia brand sold to the Fung Brands in Hong Kong, which is what they needed to make Sonia a global brand. The Sonia brand was the first to print words on sweaters and the first to film their fashion shows. And ever since then that's what everybody has done.
Sonia's Style
Compared to other stylist Sonia Rykiel has a very unique style. While she stays to the stuff that she has always done, she always switches stuff up.
She designs her clothes in many different unique patterns. She favors long clinging sweaters or small cropped pullovers, large rolled-back cuffs and long shawls.
Her color palette usually features beige, grey, dark blue and charcoal. Her style is very unique and nobody can really compare to it. She has a creative yet wild side to her beautiful creations. Each style of clothing says something different about Sonia, whether its her bright side or her humorous side, her clothing designs inspire many people all over the world.
Some of her ideas came from creating the iconic, shrunken “poor boy” sweater. “I wanted a maternity dress and I couldn't find anything I liked. Everything was abominable. So I made one. Then I made a pullover. Elle put it on the cover. Then WWD elected me the queen of knitwear.”—Sonia Rykiel Women's Wear Daily
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