Sonia Rykiel
Sonia Rykiel ( born May 25, 1930 in Paris ) is a French fashion designer. It is also called the "Queen of Knitwear ", as it was able to successfully market their high-priced knitwear collections from the 1970s in the Parisian fashion world. Your fashion trademarks include stripes in their knitwear.
The fashion brand Sonia Rykiel Rykiel founded in 1968 exists with women's and girl 's clothing, accessories and perfume and cosmetics in the company Sonia Rykiel CDM SA with headquarters in Paris today and was a privately owned family company until 2012. In February 2012, the Chinese investment firm Fung Brands took over from Hong Kong 80 % of the Company Sonia Rykiel.
Career and business history
Sonia Flis, daughter of a Jewish Russian woman and a Jewish Romanians, initially worked as a window decorator in her father's business in 1953 and married Samuel 'Sam' Rykiel († 1975), the owner of a Parisian fashion boutique named Laura. During her pregnancy with her son, Jean- Philippe ( b. 1961, blind musician and composer ) noted Sonia Rykiel that there is no suitable maternity wear, such as sweaters was for them that were soft and elastic. She designed using the Italian business contacts her husband, from whom she was divorced a few years later, so in 1962 - without formal training - her own knitwear collection, initially for maternity wear, and she sold in the boutique Laura. This collection was so successful that in 1968 her first Paris boutique in the Quartier St. Germain des Pres in the Rue de Grenelle, in which to this day are two Rykiel boutiques opened. The fashion magazine ELLE formed one of their models from the shop windows from the front page and the American Modemaganzin Women 's Wear Daily named her 1972 "Queen of Knits " (Eng.: Queen of Knitwear ).
In the 1970s Rykiel created her business empire. 1974 were at their fashionable designs - a first for the industry - the seams to see from the outside. One of the first prominent Rykiel customers included Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve and Audrey Hepburn. 1977 designed Rykiel confection Prêt -à -Porter for the mail-order 3 Suisses (today: 3 Suisses International). His friend Karl Lagerfeld took in 1979 a Rykiel fashion show on film. In 1978 Rykiel their first fragrance, 7e Sens ( no longer available ), out. Over the years, followed by numerous other fragrance compositions, such as L' Eau de Sonia Rykiel (1998) or Rykiel Homme (1999). 1987 appeared in Japan, the first cosmetics under her name, with which the company is present today in the Asian market.
Personal Rykiels trademarks are her red hair brushed up. Her fashion is, inter alia, since the 1980s known for the use of marigold stripes in bright colors or in black and white, for the use of rhinestones or lace, for the color black and provided with großbuchstabigen messages knitting sweaters made of cashmere wool, which sometimes act as a dress.
Rykiels daughter Nathalie ( born December 4, 1955) was in 1975 working for the company, first as a model, then led the fashion shows and created in 1983 the children's collection of the house. 1982 joined Simon Burstein, heir to the British fashion empire Brown's, as a manager in the company Sonia Rykiel and Nathalie married mid-1980s. In 1995, Nathalie Managing Director and Creative Director. Nathalie divorced in early 2007 by Simon Burstein, who then left the company. Since 2007, Nathalie is the CEO and successor of her mother, who was appointed honorary chairman and continues to be integrated into the design process. Furthermore, Sonia Rykiel has worked as a writer, sets up hotels, sings. Even a rose (Rosa generic pink Sonia Rykiel ) is named after her. She was friends with Andy Warhol, who looked in the 1980s as his muse, a movie turned over and in 1985 a portrait of her anfertigte. A diagnosed Rykiel 1997 mild form of Parkinson 's disease she kept secret for 15 years, beginning even before her family, and took it in 2012 with a book ( N'oubliez pas que je joue, 2012) about to the public.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the house created 30 world-renowned designers - including Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Christian Lacroix, Ralph Lauren, Martin Margiela and Alber Elbaz for Lanvin Jeanne - an homage to Sonia Rykiel Rykiel typical outfits in style. The models were presented as a surprise for Sonia Rykiel at the end of the birthday gala 2008, which was organized by her daughter Nathalie. In December 2009, a low -priced lingerie collection by Rykiel appeared in collaboration with H & M, which was supplemented by a knitwear collection for women and girls in February 2010.
Currently, the house offers Rykiel Sonia Rykiel women's collections (main line, since 1968) and Sonia by Sonia Rykiel (second line, since 1989 until 1999: Inscription Rykiel ) to. In addition, there is a children's collection for girls, Rykiel Enfant, and a shoe and accessories collection. As a license products are offered with Sonia Rykiel Eyewear optical frames and sunglasses as well as Sonia Rykiel Maison for home accessories and interior furnishings. The men's collection Rykiel Homme, which had been founded in 1990 on Burstein's initiative to life, was discontinued after 18 years to the summer collection 2009 on the grounds that they are merely erwirtschafte 5 % of total sales and they wanted to concentrate on the core business, the women's fashion. After the partial withdrawal of Sonia Rykiel as head designer from the mid- 1990s, her daughter Nathalie took over in continuous consultation with her mother and supported by a design team that task. From late 2007 to early 2009, stuffed the Munich designer Gabrielle Greiss, who had worked for Sonia Rykiel since 2002, the post of chief designer. End of 2011, the April 1990 working for Sonia Rykiel Crichton from Scotland was engaged as creative director and appeared in the episode with Nathalie Rykiel at the end of the fashion shows on the catwalk. 2012 was the Canadian Geraldo de Conceicao, a former Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent, committed as chief designer at Rykiel.
The house Rykiel was until the beginning of 2012 to 100 % in private family ownership. In February 2012, founded in 2011, Chinese Fung Brands Group, which also includes the Hardy Amies fashion brands (clothing), Robert Clergerie took over ( shoes) and Delvaux ( leather goods ), are 80 % of the shares in the Company Sonia Rykiel. The remaining 20% remain in the possession of the Rykiel family. The house Rykiel had begun in mid-2011 as part of expansion plans, but also due to declining sales figures, with the search for a financial partner. Fung Brands belongs to the family Fung, who also founded in 1906, Li & Fung Trading Group has, for example, bought the 2011 Cerruti. Nathalie Rykiel will take over the vice - chairmanship of the Board of Directors.
The headquarters and the flagship store of Sonia Rykiel located since 2008 on the Boulevard Saint -Germain in Paris 175. Annual sales 2010 amounted to including the perfume license 90 million euros, more than 10 million euros less than the year before. The company supplies retailers in 30 countries; the share of exports in 2010 amounted to about 45%. 2010, employs approximately 350 employees; the year before it was about 400. 2012 existed in France ( with shop-in - shop) about 20 Sonia Rykiel boutiques, about 15 in the rest of Europe (none in the German-speaking countries ), Russia and the Middle East, one in Boston as well as numerous in Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan.