On Saturday, Sonia Rykiel presented its spring/summer 2019 collection as part of Paris fashion week. The showcase coincided with the inauguration of a street named after the brand’s eponymous founder, who passed away in the year 2016, aged 86.
FILE - In this Nov. 26, 2013 file photo, French fashion designer Sonia Rykiel attends a ceremony in Paris. Rykiel, whose relaxed striped sweaters helped liberate women from their stuffy suits and who went on to run a global fashion empire, has died at 86, according to the French president's office.(Christian Hartmann, Pool via AP, File)
“I absolutely wanted a place in Paris on the Left Bank to bear Sonia’s name,” Sonia Rykiel’s daughter Nathalie Rykiel said in a statement to press. Further adding, “It felt like something important, symbolic, that reflected who she was, and the City Hall was extremely supportive of the idea.”
The street named after the French fashion designer, notorious for her colorful knitwear offerings and red hairdo, is located near Raspail Boulevard, in the Saint-Germain neighborhood where Rykiel once lived and worked. The avenue was inaugurated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, attended by the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo. The ceremony was followed by the Sonia Rykiel spring/summer 2019 Paris fashion week outdoor presentation.
This year marks the 50-year anniversary of the brand founded by Sonia Rykiel. Honoring its 50th anniversary, the fashion house realized a slew of events. This included a one-off Paris haute couture week fashion show, which revisited some of the brand’s most iconic designs since its inception five decades ago.
Rykiel, the eldest of five daughters, was born in a suburb of Paris to a Romanian watchmaker father and a Russian mother. Her death was caused by complications from Parkinson’s decease.
Throughout her career, she was dubbed “Queen of knits”, celebrated for her innovative approach to women’s knitwear. Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn and Sylvie Vartan, were some of the brand’s more prominent supporters in its early coming-of-age years.
Previously an independent fashion house, Hong Kong investment fund First Heritage Brands acquired an 80 percent stake in the Sonia Rykiel family business in the year 2012. In 2016, following Rykiel’s death, the First Heritage Brands investment fund acquired the remaining 20 percent of the French fashion label. First Heritage Brands is an investment arm of the Fung Group, which owns brands such as Clergerie Paris and Delvaux, besides Sonia Rykiel. The group generated revenues of $22.66 billion over the year 2017.
Eric Langon acted as Sonia Rykiel Managing Director from the year 2012 till July 2018. He was succeeded by Dutchman Perry Oosting. Oosting is a former Vertu CEO, and former director at Prada, Gucci and Bulgari.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/declaneytan/2018/09/29/paris-names-street-after-late-fashion-designer-sonia-rykiel/
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