Sonia Rykiel to stage anniversary show during Paris Couture

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
May 30, 2018

Call it the ever-changing Paris haute couture schedule. The latest house invited to join the couture season is Sonia Rykiel, which will stage a special 50th anniversary show on Sunday, July 1st, at 11AM. 

 
“It’s the year of Rykiel, our half century. Our goal is to express the many different facets and richness of our history. Showing off our unique savoir faire; the creativity of our designer Julie de Libran, our atelier and a number of remarkable women,” explained Rykiel CEO Jean-Marc Loubier.
 
Named L’Atelier, it will be a limited-edition collection for Autumn/Winter 2019/2020, unveiled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris’ famed art school. Under de Libran’s direction, Rykiel has often staged shows inside the massive cour vitrée of the Beaux-Arts, though this show will take place in the nearby Cour du Mûrier, or cloisters, in the art college.

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Loubier added that the collection will be presented on professional models, but cautioned that the event would feature a number “of unique women. Though I cannot reveal more.”
 
It has been a busy half-century anniversary year for Rykiel, which opened in 1968. Back in January, the house staged Manifesto, a soiree where it wrapped its St Germain flagship in a massive painting of a bookcase filled with white books, on which guests were invited to write. Besides being the Queen of the Knits, founder Madame Sonia Rykiel was a noted author herself. The house also launched a new bag called Pavé, or cobblestone, referring to the stones that students threw at police in the great convulsions of Paris in 1968. 
 
“We opened at height of 1968 and have always participated in the great movements in society, from the year we were born. Facing reality, but always with a smile,” added Loubier.