Fashion, we love you: Fashion + Love = Sonia Rykiel

by Maude Bourcier

I know that, as a stylist, I should talk and give you information about young promising fashion designers, but the month of love is still inspiring me and I can’t resist sharing with you my love for Sonia Rykiel. This French designer, “Queen of Knits”, known for her unique sense of style, is my chouchou amongst all the rest. She is not only an avant-garde designer, but also a talented writer who strongly believes in adapting fashion to who you are, not the opposite.

Today, I’m not going to brag about the busy life she leads creating amazing, colorful and original clothes. I’m going to share few excerpts of her last book called “Dilapidated dictionnary” I’ve translated for you. She gives in it her personal definition of multiple words used in the fashion industry, in the process of creation or simply in her daily life, interspersed with her colorful fashion sketches.

It seems relevant in this context to show you how the words “fashion” and “love” inspire her :

Fashion (I) (n.)

Fashion can’t live without art. She draws, she soaked. Even if she invents a new language every season, she plays. Art is the zeitgeist. Op art, pop art, surrealism, hyper-realism, minimalism. Is art touching? It’s the same criteria for fashion. Art, fashion, two fingers.

Fashion (II) (n.)
Harsh discipline that requires incredible energy.
An outfit is tried several times, is worked, […], is calculated, we change the collar, the bottom color, we must remain in front of him, talk to him, wait. And then repeat.

Fashion (III) (n.)
Leave room for error.

Love (n.)
Believe is the nature of love. To grab and live everything. Love is absolute. Love is a drug. Love is powerful. Love is a masterpiece. Love is experienced as a concerto. There are several love affairs. They manage, they organize themselves. In love, there is no doubt. Love could be war. Love is not to leave each other. Love is madness. If you are my lover, save me.

Letter (of love) (n.)
One night we drank this exceptional wine. [...] I told you that it was the color of my dress this wine, you said: “No, it is like you, voluptuous, bizarre, almost suffocating. Enveloping. The more you drink, the more you want to drink. This wine should be worn with gold shoes.“