7 of Sonia Rykiel’s most memorable fashion moments, from statement jumpers to lingerie

‘She was the link in between Vionnet, Schiaparelli, Chanel’

In yet another blow to the fashion industry this year, French luxury fashion label Sonia Rykiel is now set to close after failing to find a buyer.

On Thursday, a Paris commercial court judge rejected the remaining bidder for the company, Lévy – a Paris-based family operating business – months after the company filed for bankruptcy in France and closed stores in New York and London.

Founded in 1968 by the eponymous French designer, the label became internationally known for its knitwear and symbolism of the Parisian protest movements during the 1960s.

At the time Rykiel, ushered in a new wave of casual, tomboy-inspired chic in France and revolutionised the classic French Breton jumper.

Her most famous design – the “poor boy” fitted ribbed jumper – was worn by the likes of actors Audrey Hepburn, Catherine Deneuve and Brigitte Bardot.

Sonia Rykiel poses backstage after the Sonia Rykiel Ready to Wear show as part of the Paris Womenswear Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2011 at Halle Freyssinet on March 7, 2010 in Paris, France (Getty Images)

“She was the link in between Vionnet, Schiaparelli, Chanel and her generation of women designers, with a modern, feminist, optimistic and free approach to fashion, the world and the times,” designer Christian Lacroix told the Los Angeles Times following Rykiel’s death in 2016.

During her career, Rykiel was known for pushing boundaries when it came to fashion, sex, and liberation.

The designer was one of the first to produce a politicised slogan sweater with the word “Sensuous” emblazoned across the front in 1971. The word summed up Rykiel’s attitude about women’s sexual liberation and came the same year that she signed the “Manifeste des 343 Salopes”, a declaration published in 1971, written by Simone de Beauvoir, which protested for the legalisation of abortion.

In 2002, Rykiel launched Rykiel Woman – a lingerie and erotica shop on the Rue de Grenelle – and released a lingerie line for H&M, which evolved into an accessories and knitwear collection a year later.

Click in the gallery above to see Sonia Rykiel’s most memorable fashion moments.