PARIS, Oct 6, 2008 / FW/ — It was THE SHOW of the season, the must-be invited and the scene to be seen, the Sonia Rykiel Spring 2009 show was also a celebration of her 40th year in fashion.
Held at Saint-Cloud, a park just outside Paris, guests that included Emma Watson, who plays Hermione in Harry Potter, burlesque artist Dita Von Teese and fellow designers Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix were ferried in London black cabs to the venue.
It was what fashion dreams are made of as Paris honored one of its own, a stalwart of the French fashion scene. Opening her first store during the turbulent May 1968, the year of the student riots in France, Sonia Rykiel’s ‘poor boy’ sweaters that featured seams sewn on the outside revolutionized fashion.
Already a standard today, that ‘poor boy’ style has been adopted by even the world’s best-known brands like The Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy. So, being invited to fete Sonia Rykiel for her achievements is truly an honor. It is like being there while history is being made.
Still, at 78, Sonia Rykiel proved that she is still the Queen of St. Germain, as she unveiled her Spring 2008 collection that was also a retrospective of sorts. Beautiful as the collection as it was, this was not a night about clothes. This was a night about Sonia Rykiel herself.
So, it was the gifts from designers, all 40 of them that became the main attraction. Karl Lagerfeld, Michael Kors, Rodarte, Jean Paul Gaultier, Olivier Theyskens, Christian Lacroix and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac among others presented their image of Sonia Rykiel to the designer herself.
Crowd favorites included Jean Paul Gaultier’s sweater dress still in the process of being knitted and Martin Margiela’s layered outfit of red hair.
[MARI DAVIS]
Related Post:
Paris Fashion Week Spring 2009
Part I
Part II
No Responses