Sonia Rykiel returning to the Paris season with virtual show on Feb. 28

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Feb 19, 2021

Sonia Rykiel will return to the Paris runway season with virtual show on Sunday Feb. 28, marking an important step in the revival of the famed house as it finally emerges from a financial meltdown.

 
The collection will be exclusively in knitwear, befitting a house founded by Sonia Rykiel, whose nickname was Queen of the Knits. It will be created by an in-house design team, appointed by the maison’s new owners, Eric and Michael Dayan, two French e-entrepreneur brothers.
 
Rykiel confirmed that it will unveil a fall/winter 2021 collection at 6 p.m. Sunday next week, the eve of the next, largely virtual, Paris Fashion Week.

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The house will also invite editors and buyers to private appointments to view the collection in the following week. Though not at its historic headquarters in Saint-Germain, but across the river Seine in a brand new showroom in the eighth arrondissement.
 
The legendary Parisian label went into receivership back in April 2019, after its Chinese backers ceased financing operations. In the previous year, the house suffered net losses of 30 million euros on revenues of 35 million euros.
 
The house was eventually acquired by the Dayan brothers, who are now poised to relaunch the storied marque.
 
When the company was liquidated, it had 131 employees and operated six directly owned stores. None of the founding family remain involved in the house of Sonia Rykiel. The designer passed away in 2016 at the age of 86.