The 50th anniversary celebration of the Sonia Rykiel label has been a multidisciplinary affair.
At the Fall ready-to-wear show in March, creative director Julie de Libran enlisted The Go-Go’s for a finale presentation. They still “have the beat.” Then in April, De Libran launched a handbag called Le Pavé Parisien, modeled on the paving stones that the student protesters of 1968 tore up—the Rykiel store opened on Paris’s Left Bank the same summer as those riots. Last Sunday, De Libran presented the label’s first haute couture offering, a salute to the atelier’s savoir faire.
But that’s not all—tucked into a small salon of the École des Beaux-Arts at couture presentation was a collection of “Generous Sweaters”—Rykiel was the “Queen of Knits”—made by De Libran & some of her talented, boldfaced friends. Actresses Kirsten Dunst & Kristin Scott Thomas, & models Liya Kebede & Langley Fox, among others, designed limited-edition sweaters, with a portion of the proceeds going to the charities of their choice. “To mark the anniversary of the house & of a year which changed the social landscape in France, it was important for me to create a platform for expression that was also an opportunity to give something back to society,” De Libran said.
Kebede incorporates fabrics from her made-in-Africa label Lemlem into her design; the rainbow stripes are the work of Fox; & Dunst designed the black sweater the tone of red poppies. Their charities are the Lemlem Foundation; Le Refuge, which provides support to victims of homophobia & transphobia in France; & Planned Parenthood, respectively. The sweaters will be available for sale in October.
Nicole Phelps, vogue.com
I’ve added to the gallery a pic of the sweater Kirsten designed on display at the “Generous Sweaters’ Presentation at École des Beaux-Arts on July 1st.